Who Stole My Church?: What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21st Century (Hardcover)

~ Gordon MacDonald (Author)
Key Phrases: generative group, toxic group, worship team, Mary Ann, Isaac Watts, New England (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. MacDonald (Ordering Your Private World) charts new territory in church growth books by turning what could have been a long list of dos and don'ts into a highly readable, even novelistic, approach to the subject. With himself as narrator, MacDonald creates a cast of church members in their 50s, 60s and 70s who meet each week to discuss where their church has been, is now and should go in the future. All I know is that someone stole my church and I'd like to get it back, says one. MacDonald delves into the feelings of the older generation as they watch new leadership take over, see changes in music and use of technology, and begin to wonder how they will fit in. He challenges their understanding of what the church is, then looks at the early church and the modern church and the many cultural influences that transform Christian spirituality. MacDonald is especially strong when he includes young people's perspectives or brings research to bear on how people view and act on change. This is a challenging, innovative approach to a delicate subject. It's sure to benefit church leaders and members of all ages who dream of a reinvented church. (Jan.)
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Product Description

Has your Church been Hijacked?

Millions of people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies feel their churches have been hijacked by church-growth movements characterized by loud praise bands, constant PowerPoint presentations, and cavernous megachurches devoid of any personal touch. They are bewildered by the changes, and are dropping out after thirty, forty, or fifty years in a congregation. It's a crisis!

In this fictional story, pastor and author Gordon MacDonald uses topical examples and all-too-familiar characters to reassure readers that it is possible to embrace change, and to demonstrate how that change can actually be a positive influence in their church. The church, he says, has always been in a state of change; it has been changing for the last two thousand years. It is time to embrace that change and use it further the Kingdom of God

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; First Edition edition (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078522601X
• ISBN-13: 978-0785226017
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #138,325 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful for anyone in a church that's struggling with change, March 5, 2008

By	Darryl Dash "DashHouse" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Who Stole My Church? is a book that's both the same as, and different from, other books on transitioning churches.

That's not particularly helpful, so let me explain. It's the same as other books because it covers some of the same ground: changes in culture, life cycles of organizations, the history of musical innovation within the church, and the bell curve that divides people into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. This is helpful information, but it's ubiquitous. But that's not the unique contribution of this book.

Who Stole My Church? is different from any other book I've read on transitioning churches because it's a story, or parable, of real people who resist change in dialogue with an older pastor who leads them in processing what's happening. I said that they're real people, but I need to make it clear that this is a fictional book. But they're real in the sense that I've met every single one of them. In fact, sometimes I had to put this book down and shake my head. Was MacDonald spying on the church I pastor a few years ago? MacDonald writes as someone who knows how people struggle with change within a church. He's been there. I wish this book had been written ten years ago. As a work of fiction, it's very true to life.

This book may help the late majority and laggards to understand why churches must contextualize, even though this is a painful process. I especially like it because it's written by someone in their peer group. Those who are struggling with change will recognize themselves in the book, and will also probably feel that they have been sympathetically portrayed.

This book will also help pastors understand what's really happening as people react to change, and it may provide a model for both groups to come together and process what's happening.

I really hope that pastors who are thinking of going into an established church to lead change read this book. It will give them an idea of what they're in for.

Who Stole My Church? doesn't do everything. It doesn't help sort out what shouldn't change, and how much change is too much. It doesn't provide all the answers to what's faddish change versus significant change. It doesn't present a deep theology of the church, and it doesn't unpack all the resources of the gospel that will help us in the process. But it succeeds in what it sets out to do. It tells a story of a church that's struggling with change, helps both sides understand what's going on, and provides an example of how the resulting conflict could lead to greater health rather than disintegration. If you're in a church struggling with change, or thinking of pastoring one, you'll find this book helpful.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Stole MY Church???, January 18, 2008

By	Loves To Read "Lu" (Twin Cities, MN USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

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For many 'boomers' (myself) and older, we are frustrated and disappointed with the direction OUR churches have taken. We have worship bands instead of choirs, praise and worship songs on the screens up front instead of majestic, rich hymns sung out of a hymnal, sermons with power point presentations and, yes, even movie clips instead of three point sermons, casual dress (I'm referring to the Pastor) instead of a respectful suit or dress and those are just for starters. Is all this change the slippery slope to an apostate church or meaningful change to connect with a very different generation coming into the church? Those are some of the questions Gordon MacDonald addresses in his book, which is really a parable. It is Gordon and his wife, Gail, the real people, interacting with a small to medium sized fictional church in New England somewhere going through a traumatic time for the older generation. It starts with a congregational vote on a proposal for a new high tech sound and multi-media system. The staff and council are shocked when it is voted down. Gordon asks a group of those that he knows voted against it if they would meet with him. They are hesitant, thinking that he is going to try to change their minds and talk them into voting for the new system. To their surprise, he just wants to listen and discover where they are coming from. This first meeting turns into months of meeting and sharing and searching for what happened to THEIR church. As they begin to understand that the church really belongs to JESUS who paid for it with his blood, they begin to see things in a different light. The turning point seems to be when they meet together with the high school worship team that gets to lead the service whenever there is a 'fifth' Sunday in a month. Both sides vent their frustrations and hopes which turns into a remarkable dialogue between two groups generations apart physically and light years apart culturally. In the end, this group discovers what it means to really be 'the church'. No matter how long or little you've been involved in the church, no matter whether you're a lay person or staff, this will be a valuable book in answering the question so many are asking, WHO STOLE MY CHURCH? The future of OUR church just might depend on whether we can satisfactorily answer that question. [...]

52 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Change is not the problem, July 27, 2008

By	Glynn Young - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having come from a church wrecked by precisely the kind of change Gordon MacDonald describes in "Who Stole My Church?", what I found most insightful was the author's mindset, and in three ways. There's a fourth way -- how MacDonald unfairly frames the people opposed to change -- that other reviewers have cited. (And it's not just aging Baby Boomers who are concerned about what's happening in churches or who are adverse to forced change -- let's not forget the massive amount of change the Boomers brought to American society in the first place.)

First, the pastor discovers in his weekly meetings that he doesn't really know the people of his congregation, and while he doesn't explicitly make the point, what he learns is that people don't resist change. That's something only consultants, and unfortunately a lot of church consultants, believe and teach to unsuspecting pastors and elder boards.

What people resist is change being forced upon them, with no explanation, no communication, no understanding, and no opportunity to discuss, influence and pray about. "Don't tell the congregation what you're up to" was a church consulting tenet exposed in, all of places, the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. It was also a tenet that was steadfastly followed at my own church, with ultimately disatrous consequences.

A second aspect of the author's thinking that bears consideration is church leaders embracing group-think: "We get it; the congregation doesn't." Convinced they're right ("We're the new Willow Creek for our city"), any question or concern is quashed. Group-think by leadership, particularly when it's accompanied by no communication, is what creates the conflict.

The third aspect MacDonald accidentally reveals is the influence corporate restructuring and the vast secular literature about business change has had on the church. Quoting Peter Drucker is only a tiny indication. Citing S-curves is straight out the business consultants' handbooks. No one asks whether the philosophy and practices of business is appropriate for the church, because so many church leaders occupy influential positions in business.

I'm glad I read "Who Stole My Church?". It helps me understand what is often going on the minds of many local church leaders when this kind of change is undertaken.