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Author Smith interweaves satirical humor with the disappointments that can affect churchgoers when their newly hired clergy staff is “mismatched”—not what they expected and not what they want or need in overseeing and promoting their goals. His work comprises a series of vignettes fashioned through the memories he carries of observing, as a musician, the twists and turns that a church may experience when its leader is unsuited to the task.
The opening segment, “Private Agenda,” sets the tone with an amusingly appropriate character name—Rev. Al Waze Wright. Wright ignores the wishes of his new congregants and sets a personal goal of increasing congregation size, resulting in half the regular congregation departing. Smith points out that consultation with co-workers is necessary to build or save any business. Rev. Mien E. Miser takes over a church that is running smoothly, but it quickly flounders as Miser eliminates loyal staff and reduces office hours. Some vignettes feature positive personalities: Rev. Behst Shephard, noting his congregants’ attachment to tele-devices during the Covid era, institutes a Zoom prayer meeting that finds great favor.
Throughout this lively collection, Smith melds the wisdom accumulated from his church music experiences into his vignettes. He deftly draws salient portraits of church organization and mismanagement, identifying what goes wrong when the personality of clergy (male or female) is clearly unsuited to the atmosphere and basic requirements of the work at hand. These are intermingled with sage advice from the realm of upper-level management in commercial and civic endeavors and references to noted church leaders who have created and sustained satisfied, successful bodies of worship. Smith offers to discussion groups and individual readers an enjoyable yet always intellectually sound portrait of the inner life of churches and the multitude of effects that can save or spoil them.