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Essential Church?: Reclaiming A Generation Of Dropouts (2008)

by Thom S. Rainer(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0805443924 (ISBN13: 9780805443929)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

B&H Books

review 1: Confession: I am incredibly fed up with reading books that are simply written to let Christian leaders know that we're all failing miserably and if we don't fix it all real quickly we're going to have no American church in like…20 years!Fortunately, having read the author's previous book, "Simple Church," I knew that this was likely not going to be like that. Yes, it does talk about the exodus of young adults in many modern churches. And yes, it did bother me when they claimed at the end that the American church was dying - I wish they could find better verbiage for what's occurring. But the loss of 2/3 of young adults from our churches isn't a new statistic, nor is it one that we've done well at changing over the last few decades. So it's wise to listen up to this book ... moreto see what marks churches that 18-22 year-olds leave (so you don't model that), what marks churches that retain that age group (so you can see that it's possible and how to do it), and what marks churches that engage the dechurched so that they become rechurched (because someone needs to care for the many ex-church brats out there!).The Rainers present some great statistics and research on what is really behind the loss of students after they graduate high school. Frankly, some of it is likely to surprise you because it's not always what you think! And some of what you may think would certainly be the keys to keeping that age group are negligible aspects in their findings of what actually worked. So I'd say it's definitely worth the read for church leaders who would like help on closing the back door and keeping this critical age group involved. I wish they would have shortened the book and been a lot less repetitive, though. And I wish they would've paid a bit more attention to their introductions, conclusions and summations. They often felt underdeveloped or just not there.Other than that, it's a good read! And as far as books about the dying church and what to do about it, this is one of the better ones!
review 2: Church has become a collection of issues and opinions. Disagreements alienate so many people in the church. And it seems like the younger generations are being alienated at astounding rates. I found this book to be dead on in the assessment of the problems facing the church.The book is based on a study of one-thousand so-called "church dropouts" who were interviewed about why they left. Their answers are quite surprising, having less to do with "losing their religion" and more about the desire for a community that isn’t made stale by simply maintaining the status quo.In turn, the Rainers offer churches four concrete solutions toward making their worship community an essential part these young people’s lives again:Simplify - develop a clear structure and process for making disciples.Deepen - provide strong biblical teaching and preaching.Expect - let members know the need for commitment to the congregation.Multiply - make room for new people to experience the new paradigm. less

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