U.S. Lifestyles and Mainline Churches: A Key to Reaching People in the 90's [Paperback]

Tex Sample (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1990

In this book, Tex Sample provides the church with the information it needs to attract and keep members. Sample disucsses common lifestyles, including what he calls the cultural middle, cultural right, and cultural left. Sample explores the characteristics of people in each of these groups-- their worldview and their needs as church members. His goal is to help mainline churches learn about and respond to the diverse groups that make up our society.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is an excellent, comprehensive study of change and diversity in American lifestyles, their major groupings (left, right, middle), how the mainline churches can minister to each group, and the predominant theological style appealing to each. Sample maintains the firm conviction that Christ is already in all these cultures, transforming them, yet he also delineates practical strategies for churches and their ministers. Much of this book could be of use to Roman Catholics as well.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Tex Sample is Robert B. and Kathleen Rogers Professor Emeritus of Church and Society at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. He is the author of Ministry in an Oral Culture: Living with Will Rogers, Uncle Remus, and Minnie Pearl (WJK).

Product Details

• Paperback: 171 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press; 1st edition (May 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0664250998
• ISBN-13: 978-0664250997
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,683,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sample is so great I'm buying a copy after having read it., November 30, 1998

By 

[e-mail] Rev. Jane Wenninger (Spencer Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: U.S. Lifestyles and Mainline Churches: A Key to Reaching People in the 90's (Paperback)

Tex Sample's U.S. Lifestyles and Mainline Churches is packed, page for page, with more information than I've ever read between two covers. I just read the copy I borrowed from a church library and found it so important that I'm buying another copy to keep for myself. In a world of churches where pastors are torn between alienating the stable parishioners who have built their parishes and drawing in newer people who don't like many of the old ways, Sample injects information we can use: ways to understand different groups and their needs, how to see the common ground between the cultural left, the middle, the right, how to appreciate the values cultivated by differing human needs, and, especially, ways to speak the truths we need to convey in a language that worshippers can hear. I loved the book, and when I get my own copy, I will highlight it until it's soggy with yellow ink!