Customer Reviews

Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them

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Finally something unique in the growing mountain of church growth materials! "Surprising Insights" offers a mixture of both old standard "church growth" concepts and some truly "surprising" insights that will both encourage and challenge pastors of conviction, committed to preaching the Word of God and holding the doctrinal line.

The author, Thom Rainer (and his research team) have taken a truly unique approach to church growth: rather than survey the unchurched, they studied the "formerly unchurched," the success stories of outreach. Why did men and women who rarely attended church decide to get involved? Rainer rightly points out that most unchurched people will never become regular attenders so why study them? Why not reach the reachable?

Rainer pulls out of his bag some treasures old and new. Maybe 60%f of the concepts he highlights, such as "pursuing excellence" in facilities and children's programs, or being "purpose driven" are already part of church growth dogma. But the other 40% offers some eye-opening surprises. This landmark study is not just the same old same old.

Amazingly, the formerly unchurched were drawn to churches with doctrinal conviction (remarkably, folks who transferred from church to church were LESS interested in doctrine or solid teaching than the unchurched). The majority of the formerly unchurched wanted in-depth (expository) Bible teaching, not merely pop-psychology topical sermons. The churches that reached the unchurched were usually intentionally evangelistic. They also seemed specialized in attracting women to church (sometimes through good programs for their children); the women were won to Christ and then often their husbands eventually came to faith (if the church was burdened to reach their husbands). The pastors worked hard at leadership and evangelism, but compensated by dropping the ball in counseling, hospital visitation, servant-like menial tasks, and pastoral care in general.

Every pastor needs to struggle with how much of a price he is willing to pay to lead his church toward growth. But even those of us who are unwilling to reduce our levels of pastoral care can adopt many of the philosophies in this book. I found the book both encouraging and challenging.

I have now collected half a dozen books on church growth, surveying your congregation, and methods to lead a faith-based organization and this is the best of the lot. Dr. Thom Rainer has done an excellent job of researching people who recently made a decision for Christ and joined a church as adults. Some of the results are surprising.

People who have something missing in their lives are not looking for pop psychology or watered-down messages - they are looking for truth and a community of faith who are friendly to people they have never met before. (We all think we are friendly, but what would someone who is meeting you for the first time think about your congregation?) High expectations of new members, Excellence and quality of worship, and cleanliness of facilities were some other surprises. The surveys at the end of the book are thought-provoking. The leadership survey (for pastors) and Church Health survey (for the congregation) are scored by The Rainer Group. The Unchurched-Reaching Readiness Inventory is self-scoring. All appear well-designed and comprehensive, with good correlation questions.

There is an excellent chapter on characteristics of pastors of churches who reach the unchurched. They aren't good at maintenance tasks (weddings, funerals, hospital visitation) but are excellent at preaching, communication, vision, and leading the congregation. Hmmm... it seems this is what the Apostles did in Acts. They equipped others to do the daily work of the church and did the teaching and evangelizing.

If you want a church that only tends to its own members, you will not like this book. But if you want to know how to reach the unchurched, how to grow your congregation (not by moving members over from other churches), then this is a book full of insights and hard data that can really help stir ideas and action to move Christians toward fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28.

Thom Rainer is president of Rainer Group Church Consulting as well as founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. As such, we would expect him to have many interesting insights into church growth. He does not disappoint. In Surprising Insights From The Unchurched Rainer presents the results of a fascinating study he performed over two years. He decided that perhaps the best way of learning what principles of church growth work best would be to interview people who had only recently become Christians and begun to attend church on a regular basis. He and his team spent thousands of hours interviewing 353 of these people. And the results, as is obvious from the title of the book, are quite surprising. In the second half of the book, the focus turns to pastors of successful evangelical churches and seeks to understand what they do to bring success to their churches.

The interviews performed by Rainer were focused on members of "effective evangelistic churches." Rainer defines these as churches with at least twenty-six conversions per year and a conversion ratio (membership/annual conversion) of less than 20:1. The average ratio in American churches is approximately 85:1. The two criteria eliminate 96% of churches. This leaves the elite 4% as the focus of the study.

Through about 125 pages, Rainer reveals the results of his study. He begins by shattering myths about the unchurched. For example, his study found that the name of the church had almost no influence on the unchurched as they chose a church to attend. The pastor does not need to be a dynamic and charismatic leader for the church to reach the unchurched, and deep and complex Biblical truths do not turn the unchurched away. These insights seem to fly in the face of many principles associated the church growth movement. The factors that led people to choose a church were primarily the pastor and his preaching followed closely by solid, Biblical doctrine. Those two factors rated far ahead of any others. Once again, those would seem to contradict much of the church growth movement. Doctrine is so important that Rainer devotes an entire chapter to it.

The second part of the book is devoted to insights gleaned from approximately 100 ministers who pastor effective evangelistic churches. The insights gained from these pastors are also fascinating. Perhaps the most interesting element of this section of the book is "Fifteen Lessons from the Leaders Whose Churches Reach the Unchurched." In this section, Rainer outlines fifteen lessons he learned in interviewing these men. He speaks of authenticity, the imperative of person evangelism, the need to retain strong doctrine and many other critical points. He also devotes attention to their leadership skills and preaching style.

If ever I feel I have done injustice to a book in a review of it, this is it. Honestly, there are so many important principles in this book that they simply cannot be narrowed down to a few short paragraphs. This book is a treasure trove of information about the ways the most successful churches reach the unchurched. I unreservedly recommend this above any others regarding church growth.

I bought this book thinking it would be like a number of current church growth book that focus on church growth with basic management princibles. What I got was a book that made me think and challenged some of my "sacred cows". Rainer uses scientific survey methods as the foundation of this book. He presents facts about those who came to church for the 1st time or returned after extended absence from the church (the formally un-churched). He asked, "What caused you join the church?" (the churched). He goes further than asking what would make one want to come to church by asking the new converts what brought them to the church. Well worth the read. At this time, I would consider it one of the top ten books to read on church growth and evangelism.
I like the fact it is based on actual research. Read it and use it to start discussions about the issues raised by the book.

With more research and "How To" books than any other time in history the American Church still seems to be on the decline. In this volume Thom Rainer, Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth, takes his best shot at the problem. Is his "best shot" good enough? It's certainly helpful, but probably not a home run.

PROS:

This book reiterates solid leadership principles.

This book insists (thankfully) that traditional conservative churches can grow without becoming "odd".

This book paints a vivid contrast between effective and ineffective pastors.

This book actually goes to those recently converted to Christianity and asks them why they converted.

This book was written by someone who knows what he is talking about.

CONS:

The research sample is too small and biased. Rainer studied 350 new Christians, 350 Christians who transferred to a new church, and 100 pastors - ALL from conservative evangelical churches! This is circular logic. That is, if you asked all of the new people who came to my church why they came to church, they would mostly respond that they liked particular aspects of my church. This only shows that my church has the ability to attract new persons, not that my church has the only way or even the best way. NCD (Natural Church Development) has interviewed more churches of more types on more continents than any other study. Do not overlook NCD material when researching this subject.

This book accepts national statistics that are no longer universally accepted. This book "assumes" that Conservative Evangelical and Fundamentalists Church in American outgrow liberal and mainstream churches. 10 years ago this statement could have been made as a fact. This is no longer the case. Recent studies have shown that conservative churches are also in decline at about the same rate. The reasons are heavily debated, but the results are that church growth is isolated in all Christian movements.

RECOMMENDATION:

This book is a must read, if for no other reason, it reinforces that churches CAN be effective without being out of balance. But this book should not be viewed as the final word on the matter.

In this book, Thom Rainer presents findings from research among several hundred "recently unchurched" people across the United States - those who had been unchurched for an extended period (typically their whole lives), and then believed on Christ and became regular church attendees. Rather than ask people who are not churched what they think might make them join (as is often done), the underlying premise of the study is that the Church should consider factors that actually did make these people join her - and what among these factors are common among local churches that are effective at evangelizing the unchurched. This study is not about growth by transfer of members from other churches, though periodically it does compare the motivations between the "recently unchurched" and "transfers".

This is an easily readable book. One very helpful feature is that main points are highlighted, so that one can go back over the text afterwards to quickly review them. The content itself can be read fairly quickly, as a fair amount of the paper is covered with graphs rather than text.

The study itself is limited to a sociological scope, rather than being a theological study (although it is clearly written from a solidly evangelical underlying set of premises). I don't believe I saw a single scripture reference; this is refreshing in that it is honest: too many books of this nature incorporate verses taken out of context with a "spin" to make them purport to say what the author wants. This non-theological nature allows the work to cover denominations ranging from Presbyterian (PCA) to Nazarene and United Methodist without dealing with the doctrines we get distracted by, disagreeing among each other.

Rainer's findings are interesting and compelling. He is focused on finding the "spirit" of what has made some churches successfully evangelistic, rather than a program that can be methodologically be applied. His findings include major points that I am very happy to see: e.g., that clear exposition of the Word and excellence are significant as factors that affect whether a church will effectively evangelize the unchurched, but contemporary music style and location are not. Along the same lines, he focuses on core issues such as these rather than coming up with gimmicky publicity stunts.

To maintain balance, however, we must not conclude that because churches that meet Rainer's selection criteria and their leaders tend share a set of behaviours, therefore everyone should try to display those same behaviours, or even that therefore those behaviours are necessarily good. To illustrate my point, for example, one behaviour that pastors in "effective" churches displayed was to work more hours per week than others did; another is that they spent more time in prayer; and another is that they are task-oriented. This study describes the behaviours found, but does not pass judgment on what is good and what is not. By all means let us focus on the right things, work hard, and spend more time in prayer; but let us not mistake increased results from workaholism and "dirigisme" with God's blessing. Let us look at sociological patterns and trends, but let us always react to them under the direction of scripture and the Holy Spirit, rather than "do church-by-public-opinion-poll". It is reassuring to see that much scriptural behaviour does lead to people joining the church; but that what matters most is that we do what scripture mandates. Otherwise we will start (or, sadly, continue) copying some fast growing cults! Rainer would full-heartedly agree with me in this assessment I am sure, but I fear that some will get carried away with this study and methodologically apply its findings, contrary to Rainer's expressed intention.

The related risk of a study like this on evangelistic technique is that it may be taken outside the context of its limited scope. Rainer clearly has an appreciation for the effectiveness of the preaching of the Word, the sovereignty of God, and the working of the Holy Spirit in salvation; but he doesn't explicitly discuss it because the study is rather about attributes of churches and the people that compose them. I appeal to the reader to always consider our own attributes within the context of being pots whom God can use in his work of salvation in people's lives: by all means let us be useful pots, but under the discretion and at the direction of the Potter to use at his freedom, in his power. To establish that greater context, please also do read J I Packer, "Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God" - likewise a readable work, compellingly calling us to evangelism; this book by Rainer, with its logistical approach, is a nice supplement to the foundation and structure in Packer's book.

Finally, as one might expect from the title, this book is concerned specifically with evangelism. It makes a leap that the pattern of the apostles in Acts 6, of concentrating on prayer and ministry of the word, is THE appropriate role for pastors. I grant it is AN appropriate role, a very important role; but I think not the only acceptable role for a pastor. The book finds that a pastor who focuses more on ministries of compassion is a less prolific evangelist that one who focuses on evangelism, which may not be too surprising when you think about it. I object however to its implication that the one is doing the "wrong thing", and the other the "right thing", however. Let us each fulfill our own calling well; but let us not conclude that whoever else isn't doing that same calling is doing the wrong thing. (For a fuller argument supporting this, see Gene Veith, "God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life").

Thom Rainer of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has done the church at large a great service in "Surprising Insights from the Unchurched." In what is basically the results and analysis (along with anecdotal evidence) of a survey, Rainer succeeds in identifying the major factors that influence the degree to which a church is likely to grow.

His methodology is both unique and extremely relevent as he surveys over 350 people who have not gone to church regularly for over ten years, then became regular attenders/involved in the ministry of a particular church within the recent past. He later interviews over 100 pastors of rapidly-growing churches. To this reader, an analysis of cold-hard facts based on statistical data and interviews is much preferable to some other books on church growth I've read--many of which offer Biblically-based theory or specific techniques. Rainer's book successfully blends these two.

While Rainer's righting style is machine gun-esque, rapidly firing fact after fact and statistic after statistic at the reader, the anectodal evidence does tend to soften the book, making it readable. However, even if the book read like a dictionary, the information and insights would be well worth the effort. By reading the book, I can readily identify a dozen short-term, long-term, and systematic changes/improvements that can be done to help in attracting more members.

Finally, it should be noted that while reading this book, one can tend to think in terms of "quid pro quo"--if I implement these ideas, then my church WILL grow. Rainer does contend (and I agree) that the ultimate cause of church growth is the Lord. He's the one guiding the process, the effectiveness, and the results. He uses different means and different people, each having different gifts. This book can be read either as a "how to" book or as a description of a series of churches/pastors who have an accurate and accepted knowledge of themselves, their church, and their mission (ie worship and evangelize). Recommended for church leaders and professionals.

Thom Rainer has done an excellent job in bringing us insights about the unchurched. No more seminars to attend. No need to squabble about this idea or this trend. No trying to change everything every week to please the folks who responded to the latest trends survey. People want warmth, friendliness, biblical preaching, and commitment. Rainer has the facts and stories to back it up. Wow! Rainer's book is worth reading if you're a pastor or church leader. He does repeat himself a little bit here and there, but he sheds a lot of light on the modern church.

Paul Heier, author of Leading Out of Love

If you want to know what you must do to reach the unchurched, read this book. It literally changed the way that I viewed ministry. OK, there are a few of you out there that got this evangelism thing down pat. So, this book is not for you; but for the rest of us it is an invaluable resource. It is Rainers thesis that much of the church growth research on the unchurched population is invalid. He reasons, and rightly so, that most of the unchurched interviewed in countless polls over the last thirty years will never step inside the doors of a church. Instead, Rainer interviewed the recently unchurched, that is, those who have been unchurched for ten or more years and have recently crossed the line into church.

What did he find out? That many of the issues that concern us about reaching the unchurched, dont bother the unchurched. For instance, how many pastors have fought to change their church name to make it more appealing to the unchurched? Surprise! The name of the church is not an issue with the unchurched. Another surprise: Remember the advice that the church growth experts gave us? Location, location, location. How many millions, if not billions of dollars have been spent relocating church buildings to make them more accessible to the unchurched? Relocation may help transfer growth, but Rainers research demonstrates that location is NOT a factor in reaching the unchurched. I wont give any more of these surprises away, but Rainer slays one sacred church growth cow after another. Perhaps the most significant finding he found was on the issue of pastoral leadership. His findings on how effective evangelistic pastors spend their time compared to non-effective evangelistic pastors tells it all. I changed my schedule.

But prophets are without honor in their own country. Many pastors will read this book, get mad and write bad reviews. This pastor repented and changed his ministry.

As pivotal for me as Natural Church Development. Ranier is asking the people we really need to be asking: the formerly unchurched. He brings clear insights -- some expected, some surprising. You may be challenged to give up some of your traditions. You may be relieved that you don't have to give up some of your traditions to reach the unchurched.

This book is very readable and full of anecdotes to accompany the data. Everyone in church leadership should read this. It does not advocate any sort of doctrinal compromise (actually, quite the opposite). Read this book to find out what factors were really influential in people coming to know the Lord.