Customer Reviews

Why Churches Die: Diagnosing Lethal Poisons in the Body of Christ

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The authors are well experienced to write about this subject with 25 years of small and large church Pastoring behind them.
Easily read, entertaining but pointed.
Perhaps best for Church members concerned about the impotence of Christianity today - the Pastors of these Churches are either well aware of their problems, or are blind to them - one of the major reasons why Christianity has little strength.

We created a study from this book for my church, we titled it different so as to not make the church feel like they were dying-- we called the series: "First Aid for Todays Church" In the midst of our discussions during the study I think our church was able to take a good long hard look at some of the self-destructive behavior that had been going on.

I thought this book was excellent! On a scale of 1 - 10, I gave this book a 12. I experienced a wide range of emotions while reading this book. I laughted out loud and also cried. The authors have captured the true essence of the diseases that can invade our hearts and minds. This book is an asset to those in church leadership as well as those in the pews. If you obtain a real understanding of the information presented in these pages, you will become a better person.

Problems can be specifically identified and specific responses can be applied to solve the problem. The book illustrated that when churches are made up of people who are in poor spiritual health, it affects the whole body. Working to be aware that these spiritual maladies may exist in the church, diagnosing which malady is present, and working on a cure for the specific malady is essential for church health.

Just about every immature behavior at some point has been in churches, even in the leadership of churches. The illustrations from the book if they are true illustrate that we should not be surprised to find any kind of immature or sinful behavior in the church. In many cases, the leadership and other members of the congregation tolerate the behavior.

If we are not careful, one immature, but influential person can cause a whole church to be unhealthy. It is remarkable how at times a church member with the least spiritual maturity can be one of the most powerful and influential members of the church. Churches and their leaders need to be aware of this malady.
In the end, each of these maladies is a spiritual problem. Church members need to continue to cling to Christ and walk with him daily in community in order to avoid the enemy who prowls around and devour believers and even whole churches with spiritual diseases.

One disagreement was in the way scripture was used to illustrate points. We should assume that any passage of scripture had intention from the original author and meaning for the original audience. In Why Churches Die, the authors found meaning in passages that was not intended by the author and understood by the audience. For example, it was not proven that the purpose of the story of Caleb was to cure spiritual apathy or that Miriam got leprosy because she was a gossip or that Samson had spiritual astigmatism. The authors used the scripture as a book of stories that they infused meaning into for the purpose of illustrating a point. This is a dangerous and unhelpful method of using the scriptures.

The second disagreement was in the amount of effort given for the solutions to the problems. In general, the descriptions of the problems took the vast majority of the space of the book and the solutions were often weak, incomplete, and lacking of biblical insight.

This book is book is helpful at giving an overview of typical problems in some churches. If you are looking for a book that offers advice on solving the problems, keep looking.

Amazing look at some symptoms of declining churches. The book uses case studies at the beginning of each chapter, most of which are disaster scenarios for any that loves Christ's church. Each chapter then breaks down the "medical" illness of the church in relation to the scenario and also a biblical instance of that illness. This book has given me many sermon and devotional ideas. Caner and Brunson do an excellent job of putting this together in a way that feels like the new show "Doctors." If everybody, churchgoers and nonchurchgoers, read this book, I feel like His church would be a better place.

Very reliable - item was honestly represented - shipped fast