How to Reach Secular People (Paperback)

by George G. Hunter (Author) "Geoffrey lived five hundred years ago, in the market town of Beverly, in the Yorkshire region of northeast England..." (more)
Key Phrases: secular unchurched people, reaching secular people, undiscipled people, Willow Creek, Rick Warren, Jesus Christ (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"Should be required reading for everyone who wants to communicate the gospel effectively to unchurched persons". --Robert H. Schuller, Founder, the Crystal Cathedral.

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Abingdon Press; 1st edition (January 23, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0687179300
• ISBN-13: 978-0687179305
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #384,993 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Valuable - but don't use it as a prescription!, May 10, 2001

By	"shabhalishu" (Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews

George G. Hunter III is Dean of the School of Evangelism and World Mission at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky and has written such books as "The contagious congregation" and "Leading and managing a growing church". Hunter's stated aim in this book is "to draw together and systematize what is known about effective apostolic ministry to secular people in the West" (p. 18). He combines his own field research with the findings of other "reflective practitioners", a select group of individuals who have both worked at the apostolic task amongst secular people in Western societies and reflected on the process and outcomes in an organised way. Hunter confidently claims that there is sufficient insight contained in his book to help 99 percent of churches to triple the number of people they bring into the Christian faith.

After an introduction in which he outlines the process of secularisation in the West, Hunter goes on to compile a profile of secular people in chapter 1 followed by chapters on themes and strategies for reaching secular people and communication principles and models. The final two chapters outline the kind of Christians and churches respectively that help secular people come to faith. Given that the book is more a compilation of information than a developed argument, the chapter divisions and the extensive use of point form help to organise the data into a somewhat logical and accessible format.

The result is a mine of information, analyses and practical insights, many of which are new and groundbreaking, some of which are not. Almost inevitably though, Hunter is caught between the general and the particular, between limitations of scope and cohesive presentation of data. That his sources are all white, English-speaking males is a limitation Hunter readily acknowledges (p. 17). On the other hand, this cast is sufficiently diverse in time and place to make the attempt to conflate the data into a cohesive portrait appear artificial at times. After all, it is a long way from Soper's soapbox to Schuller's Crystal's Cathedral, from Alan Walker and urban mission to Bill Hybels and seeker services. Approaches which unleash the truly prophetic role of the church sometimes stand alongside those which surrender to the secular world's agenda and values. Many readers will tend to warm to certain "reflective practitioners" and their insights, while downplaying the contributions of others. Moreover, Hunter himself at times presents his Wesleyan theology almost as if it was a common factor.

As is the fate of all such books, "How to reach secular people" has an air of datedness about it. It was published nearly a decade ago and Hunter's sources are often considerably older. More reflection will have to be done on the impact of postmodernism and the New Age in Western society. This book is intensely practical and virtually prescriptive in format but will probably not be entirely successful if applied in a formulaic way. Rather, if it is used to help churches understand the people around them better, to infect Christians with the genuine heart for reaching secular people that Hunter clearly has, and to inspire and motivate congregations to become reflective practitioners themselves and try different things in outreach without reducing the "apostolic task" to technique and management, it will be a successful and valuable book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Profiles secular people very well, July 23, 1999

By	Ian Rutherford "EazyIanish" (CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hunter effectively pinpoints and labels the different personality catorgories that "secular people" typically fall into. He then explains where their concerns with the Christian church originated. I was ultimately unsatisfied with his sections that profiled successful churchs. Those sections for the most part seemed to be common sense and lacking in any new important insights. Though something could be said for putting it down on paper. Worthwhile for anyone in ministry.

1.0 out of 5 stars Lacking in Logic, October 26, 2008

By	Alexander Froom "dwellsbodily" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In his book entitled How to Reach Secular People, George Hunter profiles the different groups of people and the different church related activities that are involved in evangelism to the post-enlightenment, western world. He begins by suggesting an explanation for how Christianity's influence over people in the West is no longer as prominent and effective as it was before the Enlightenment. He understands secularization to mean "the withdrawal of whole areas of life, thought, and activity from the influence of the Church" (26). With the rise of humanism, nationalism, and urbanization, the breakup of Christendom resulting from the Protestant Reformation, and the increasing impact of science and human reason, the momentum of secularization stripped the Church of its influence and impact on the world. Because the West was lost to secularization, Hunter thinks that "Christianity must now compete on its merits if it is to rewin the West" (32).

Hunter then spends three chapters describing the characteristics of what he calls "secular people," and describing strategies for reaching out to and communicating with these types of people. Among other things, he suggests that secular people are ignorant of basic Christianity; they seek life before they seek death, and they have a negative image of the church (52). He describes strategies for reaching secular people ranging from meeting people's basic needs to empowering people by giving them meaning and self-worth. Hunter then shifts the focus of his book to the characteristics of Christians who are good at reaching secular people. These kinds of Christians are effective communicators who are honest and credible and they understand the power of secularization on the secular mind. They have a set of core convictions that drive their reasoning and they realize that secular people have doubts. Apostolic churches should be concerned with the lost and not with self-maintenance. They should have congregations that are accepting of people unfamiliar with church culture and should use "music that secular people understand" (151).

I find Hunter's book to be confusing, lacking in logic, and unchristian on many fronts. . I get the idea that Hunter believes that before the Renaissance Christianity was doing really well because it had such dominance over public life, cultures, traditions, and thought. Hunter's purpose for writing this book is to help Christianity win back influence over these public structures because Christianity has become "private, problematic, marginal and. . . eccentric" (31). Does he want Christianity to be public, unproblematic, at the center of the world stage, and normal? The logical groundwork for his argument collapses when he advocates for a Christian society, in which everyone is influenced by Christian forces of culture and thought, and then supports Kierkegaard in his Attack Upon Christendom in which Kierkegaard writes "when everybody is a Christian, nobody is a Christian" (33). He makes odd, sweeping generalizations suggesting that religions other than Christianity have truth claims that are negotiable (33), that Buddhism and Communism are atheistic (37). In the introduction, he is unchristian in his suggestion that Christianity should exercise control over people, so as to shape their minds and lives without allowing them to have a choice in the matter (21-39). I find his association of Christianity with democracy to be dangerous (30), and problematic and illogical when he later condemns the deification of political ideologies such as Communism (42). He condemns secular people's concern for life before death (45) and yet calls the church to cater to such a position by bringing meaning to people's lives (57), thereby implying that Christians do not need meaning in their lives because they are not concerned with the present life. Hunter ignores the negative aspects of pre-enlightenment Christianity and does not discuss the impacts of secularization on Christianity. Hunter's book would be more helpful if he displayed an awareness of the complexities of defining the secular person and offered a critique of current Christian witness.