At Christ in the Desert Monastery in Abiquiu, New Mexico, when the sun goes down, so do you. With limited electricity and a prayer schedule that begins at 4 a.m., there is no holding back the darkness. Sunset is not to be fought but embraced as a time of quiet reflection and rest.

In the 16^th century, St. John of the Cross meditated upon what he called “the dark night of the soul.” In 2008, Elaine Heath appropriated that image in her book The Mystic Way of Evangelism to describe the state of the church today. Many denominations, including my own United Methodist Church, are seeking to reverse...