This book offers a sober, honest, and candid assessment of the changing realities that a "mainline" church denomination has been facing and addressing in the last few decades, and more so, in the last few years, when "mainline decline" resulted in all kinds of reality checks - dwindling church attendance and the concomitant decline in church revenue; an aging congregation and hand-wringing about bringing in younger members; the reality of how "monochromatically" white the church was despite all kinds of efforts to increase "diversity"; clergy retirements and "burn out"; challenges that feeder seminaries were facing; negotiating complex rules of procedure within a large bureaucratic structure of the national church that was reflected at the regional and synodical levels. This book offers a lot to consider for those interested in the sociology of religion and religious institutions since there is a forward thrust that draws from the realities of the past and present in indicating implications for the future while "there is still life.".