Customer Reviews

Lost in America: How You and Your Church Can Impact the World Next Door

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This is a great book. I have been a Christian for well over 20 years. I have been through discipleship training, read books on evangilism and always wanted to reach people for Christ. Yet, I always felt that I was not doing enough. I had a heart for the lost, but what could I do? Why would they listen to me? What if I fall on my face and the fool? In Lost in America, Tom Clegg and Warren Bird make the evangilism possibilities of our daily lives very real. "I can do that." I kept saying that through the book.

This book makes one feel the need to give our lives to rescue those who otherwise will die. And, it is an urgent need! People are dying today without Christ. What can you do to save one person? Read this book, and you will be motivated and inspired to join the battle in a very real way.

Clegg and Bird make a strong case in this Vanguard book that America has become a mission field. The mind boggling statistics and compelling stories in the book back this claim up. This is not just a theoretical attempt to address the issue, as the authors site churches and people who are engaging pre-Christian people in our post-modern culture with the Gospel.

I found the reality of what the authors are saying to be disturbing. Truly we can't continue doing church or outreach as we have for the past half century or even decade and expect good or different results. Rather than tear the church down, I felt Clegg and Bird were acting as consultants to guide the church through these changing times.

The authors challenge readers to move from program evangelism to relational evangelism, which is the New Testament pattern. They cite examples from their own lives of engaging pre-Christians with the Gospel through relational evangelism. So they are practicing what they are preaching, which is refreshing.

The book is chock full of interesting graphs and relevant statistics. It is plain to see that the church is losing ground in America, with the conversion rate not even keeping up with the birth rate. This book, calls the church to wake up and change!

If you are a church leader wanting to engage people liveing in post-modern culture with the Gospel in a relevant manner and see healthy reproducing churches established as a result, then this book is a must read. I think Clegg and Bird displayed much courage to write a book like this. Certainly not everyone will agree with them, but then again those are probably the people who are resistant to change and want us to go back to doing church like we did in 1970!

Recently I read Tom Glegg's book "Lost in America" and my heart was moved time and time again through this awesome material. I grabbed my pen and highlighter and took the material apart. It's a great book, giving God's people a huge "challenge shot" in the arm! Get out of your Comfort Zone, we matter to God, there is a huge harvest of Souls waiting and God wants to use US to reach them. If any Church or Teacher wants new, fresh material with thoughts and insights into why we are here - THIS BOOK IS IT! This book will soon sweep he country - I hope you will get it now and allow God to use it to change you!

In a country where "In God We Trust" is printed on the currency and where in any given city you can drive by several Christian church buildings within a few minutes, it seems almost absurd to suggest that the U.S.A. is a mission field. But that is exactly what Clegg and Bird not only suggest but effectively prove.

After effectively presenting their case that the U.S. is indeed a mission field, they enthusiastically challenge the Christian reader to prayerfully and thoughtfully engage the unbelieving community around them. They do this by telling compelling personal stories as well as pointing to examples of other churches and individuals who have made a mark in their communities through thoughtful relational evangelism.

The authors have done an excellent job of viewing evangelism in America as a cross-cultural experience. It is clear that they have become effective practitioners of what they are suggesting we do. Yet they do not come across as having arrived. One senses that they are very hungry to continue learning new ways to reach their own neighbors with the love of Christ.

For many readers who are bound in a tradition of expecting quick results from confrontational evangelistic methods, this book may come across as compromising or weak. But the wise reader will understand that we are living in a different age that will require seeing evangelism more as a process more than an event.

As the founding pastor of a brand new church, this book reinforced many of my convictions about what it will take to penetrate an increasingly secularized America. It also refreshed my hope that my community is reachable.

I heartily recommend this book to pastors, church leaders, and Christians who are serious about doing "whatever it takes" to break through with God's love.

Clegg and Bird inspire and equip the reader to care and act as freedom fighters in the battle for the lost. After an introduction that accurately portrays the state of America's relationship (or lack thereof) with Christ they place the responsiblity for the situation on the church instead of the culture. And they show how to present Christ in relevant and attractive ways to a community that thinks it understands what God is all about. I've used this book as the basis for a Bible study that has seen results in increasing our church's level of commitment to an outward focus. It's must reading.

This book is excellent. The authors really get to the heart of whole-congregation evangelism. And, they don't pull any punches either. Tom Clegg, who's voice we hear throughout the book, served as a pastor in the US, a missionary in Africa, and has consulted with many churches regarding church growth and evangelism. He writes this book as a missionary to the United States (i.e., he writes in a way that will engage our culture).

The book is written in three sections - Changes, Choices, & Challenges.

Almost every chapter has the following sections:
The Big Idea - Introduces you to the subject of the chapter.
Up Close & Personal - Gives an example from a church in the U.S.
Rent this Movie - Movie from which discussion of the topic can be addressed.
Connections - Questions for personal application.
Discussion Questions - Personal or small group study.

I plan to use this book in a small group setting in our church. There are a number of people in our congregation who will hear the truth in this book and embrace it. When we embrace the vital necessity of relationship-evangelism we will reach our friends and neighbors in the twenty-first century.

I recommend this book to every Christian. It will open your eyes, even if one or two of the stories herein break your heart in the process. It is in our brokenness that we will be used by God to reach others.

You are not going to want to put this book down. It hammered me as I read, prayed, & thought about the condition of God's church here in America. Get this book. Read it. Then buy it for whoever you know is, or needs to be, passionate about the church. You will not be disappointed.

I was challenged by this new book by Tom Clegg and Warren Bird. The basic premise of the book deals simply with America now becoming one of the largest mission fields. While majority of Evangelicals have spent time focusing on the unevangelized across the world, we quickly losing the home front. The authors inspire us to begin the process of personal evangelism.

One of the most refreshing parts to this book is the style that it is written in. Unlike most books where there is a linear approach, we read this book like an interative seminar. It is creative, fresh and easy to read. I highly recommend this book.

This book has given me a great insight into the challenges facing Christianity in America today. But, better yet, in bringing these things to light, Lost in America also identifies ways that we as Christians can reach out beyond the obstacles to impact our country for Christ.

In my opinion, this book is a MUST for any Bible-believing Christian who wants to impact their neighbors with the Good News of Christ. We often need to examine things in a new light, and this book has been an inspiration for me to be mindful of the need to be on mission, and wise in the steps I take.

My sincere gratitude to Tom Clegg and Warren Bird for writing this book.

I suspect that this is one of those books that some readers will absolutely love, while others will be left disappointed. The book is FULL of illustrations; references to movie clips abound. Church growth "success" stories are frequently described. If you are the type that likes to sprinkle your sermon with statistics (especially with stats that illustrate how we are failing as a church to impact our society), then, this is the book for you! Regretfully, though, I found this book to be lacking in the area of solid content. Upon reading: "Lost in America," there was nothing that I read that I had not read before.