Stephen Gray at Church Central posted his review of essential church? by Thom and Sam Rainer by taking the book’s “7 deadly sins” and adding 3 more. 

I’m not going to copy the whole article – you need to read it and the Rainers’ book yourself.  But the topic headings are worth mentioning:

1. Doctrinal Drift – watering down the Gospel
2. Evangelism Atrophy – a loss of passion to win the lost
3. Failure To Be Relevant – not contextualizing the content of our message
4. Inwardly Focused – most of the money and effort is on doing stuff in the church, for the church
5. Personal Conflict – power struggles
6. A Priority Of Comfort – this refers to doing the same things over and over, instead of new ventures
7. Biblical Illiteracy – preachers who ignore vast sections of the Bible and parishoners who don’t know the difference.
8. Hording – Gray is talking about dormant savings accounts, but I’d add the lack of openness to use the church building for anything that doesn’t drive the bottom line (see #4)
9. Failure to Follow – not respecting congregational leaders
10. Idolatry – worshipping anything but God, including the building, the schedule, the agenda, or the stuff of our lifestyle.

http://churchcentral.com/blog/Ten-Deadly-Sins-Of-A-Dying-Church

Several months ago, as part of a pastor’s accoutability group, I read Thom Rainer’s book, ‘Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts.’  The book is built around a study that found, according to Rainer, that “more than two-thirds of young churchgoing adults in America drop out of church between the ages of 18 and 22″. I have heard numbers similar to these often over the past several years. This is heart-breaking to me. To think that adults have dropped out of church at a time of major life-changing decisions breaks my heart. I was not surprised by this research. All “professional” church people know that our churches have back doors that we need to close. The inability for churches to keep and connect people who come in the front door only encourages them to slip out the back door. Although I was not surprised by the number or age of churchgoing adults leaving, I was surprised a little by the reason. Rainer wrote, ”Most dropouts are not leaving because they no longer want to identify with organized religion. Dropouts do not all question their faith. Few are angry with or have stopped believing in God. These dropouts don’t completely depart from their faith. They rather part ways with the church.” 

What are we not doing as the church? As a pastor, the idea of people “dropping out” of church disturbs me. The thought of people “dropping out” also resonates with teachers and those in the school systems. I believe it disturbs teachers to see kids “drop out” of school. I have noticed something about the school system however. They tend to be proactive in their efforts to curb the drop out rate. I believe our efforts as a church should be proactive as well. We are guilty of trying to develop a plan or strategy to get them back rather than keep them in the first place. God has called us to minister to people. We can’t do this if they are no longer here. Let’s begin the process of closing the back door and keep the people God has given to us. I don’t have all the answers. I know we can do this together as a church. A quote from a former dropout, in my opinion, sums it up perfectly. ”It should be harder to leave a church than to join a church.” I agree.  

Those of you who have been following my blog know that I have been working through Essential Church? by Thom and Sam Rainer.  I have really enjoyed the Rainers’ book and feel that it has much to offer those who are involved in shaping the ministry of the local church.  Buy this book and give it to your pastor(s).  Make sure he reads it by asking him follow-up questions about it.  The book is too valuable to be ignored.

Now that I have finished reading Essential Church?, I have a few more books sitting here that I am going to be posting reviews on shortly.  Here is what I have in the que:

• A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth Claims to the Worldview Test by Kenneth Richard Samples
• The Apologetics of Jesus: A Caring Approach to Dealing with Doubters by Norman L. Geisler and Patrick Zukeran
• The Shape of Faith to Come: Spiritual Formation and the Future of Discipleship by Brad J. Waggoner

The list above is not in any particular order.  In fact, I would like to know which of the above titles sounds most interesting to you.  If there is a general consensus, I will start there.  Also, if you have read any of these books, I would like to hear what you thought.  Leave your thoughts as a comment to this post.

Sam Rainer, co-author of Essential Church?, has written an article for Outreach.  In the article, Rainer discusses signs that point to a struggling local church.  Here is what he writes:

Over 90% of churches are declining or growing less than the community around them. The national trends are not good. Before church leaders surrender to frustration and church members yield to apathy, our composite research shows there are signs along the way that suggest a church is becoming unhealthy. The following list is not exhaustive, but let’s see some key signals that an individual congregation is beginning to struggle.

We don’t emphasize Bible study anymore. When God’s Word is not the driving force of a church, people are bound to travel down the wrong road. Churches that do not elevate the proclamation and study of God’s Word veer off course. A lack of deep biblical teaching is one of the most glaring signs of a struggling church.

We cut our outreach budget. When we consult with churches and examine their budgets, a key health indicator is how much the church allocates to outwardly focused ministries. Struggling churches give less toward their mission each year—less money, less prayer and fewer people.

Our church doesn’t change with the community. Struggling churches are led by leaders with little to no understanding of their immediate context. As a result, their congregations either do not know about changes in the community’s demographics or they refuse to change with them. Every church leader must minister with the following question at the forefront: “What are the biggest needs in my community?

We don’t take risks. Unfortunately, many church leaders have been beat up or burned. As a result, they focus more on not getting in trouble with their congregation than turning the world upside down for Jesus. They lead churches to play it safe rather than taking risks to reach more people.

We don’t have a clear discipleship plan. A struggling church does not have an answer to the new believer or member who asks, “Now what?” These churches may have an abundance of programs and ministries, but they do not have an intentional plan to help believers become more like Christ. The absence of a discipleship plan leaves the back door wide open.

Would you agree with these signs?  Is there anything else you would add?

I would add (and mentioned these on Rainer’s blog) that struggling churches become more interested in protecting their traditions than finding new ways to reach out to their neighbors.  And struggling churches see the unsaved in their community as the enemy rather than reaching out to them in love.

By Wanda Parker

If you minister with children and/or youth, if you are a parent, if you are a pastor –  and you haven’t read “Essential Church?” by Thom and Sam Rainer – YOU SHOULD.

The church is in deep trouble.  According to the Rainers’ research 70% of churched kids are walking away from the Lord because the church has never been made essential in their lives. 

I really like what they are saying and I am going to add my penny’s worth of wisdom that I’ve learned over my 40 years of working with children and parents.  As I read the book I will blog in response.

1. In talking about the non-essential church the Rainers say,  ”They have no clear process or structure for making disciples, in obedience to the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20″ pg 6

Does your church have a plan for the individualistic discipleship of children from birth up?  If they  don’t you are going to lose many of your own children.

Years ago I was told of study where they took adult siblings who had grown up in Christian homes and one had walked away from the Lord while the other continued to walk with the Lord.  The question they were asking was “Why?”  I think that when they began they thought they would learn that it was something that happened within the home.

BUT!  What they learned was that the sibling who walked away from the Lord had never felt connected to the local church growing up.

The sibling who continued to walk with the Lord into adulthood had close connections with adults within the local body of Christ other than mom and dad.

In other words he was discipled by members of the church other than mom and dad.  He felt he was ESSENTIAL TO THE CHURCH because of these intentional relationships.

This feeling of being essential to the church must begin in the Nursery. 

KidTrek is passionate about equipping The Church to disciple children who will grow to become Christ-changed, hope-filled, productive adults.  Click here if your church would like to know more about getting equipped to disciple their children. 

” My only concern was quality. Size came as a result…

“Be sure the core of your work is good…
It is never a question of building a bigger Sunday School
but rather of building a better one.”
Henrietta Mears

This is my second post concerning the book Essential Church? by Thom and Sam Rainer.  You can find the first post here if you would like to read it.

The Rainers tell us in the introduction to the book that 70 percent of students from age 16 to 22 will drop out of church.  When we see this statistic, it may lead us to believe that these same students are just waiting until they are old enough to make their own decisions so they can rid themselves of the religion of their parents.

Not true, say the Rainers.  In fact, according to their research, most students in high school do not plan to leave the church (even though 70% will).  80 percent of high school students have no plans to leave their church once they graduate.  This means that only 20 percent are waiting for the right opportunity to leave.  Church dropouts are not angry at the church or walking away from their religion.

What is the problem?  According to the authors of Essential Church?, it is because this age group does not see how church is essential to them because we have failed to show them that they are essential to the church.

How can this be?  Churches that fail to allow its members (of all ages) to be involved in the ministries of the church, promote a mindset that “you are not needed” here. 

How well does your church do at getting people from all age groups involved?  Is your church essential to you?  Do you think it is essential to those age 16-22?

I have just started to read a new book by Thom and Sam Rainer.  The title of the book is Essential Church? and even after only reading the introduction, I am already convinced this is going to be a book that I will want to think through carefully.

In the introduction to Essential Church?, the authors point out that many of those who attend church in the U.S. drop out between age 18 and 22.  In fact, 70% of those in this age range will drop out.  Here are how some dropout percentages look by age category:

Between 15 and 16:  +1%

Between 16 and 17:  -15%

Between 17 and 18:  -24%

Between 18 and 19:  -29%

Between 19 and 20:  -5%

So, according to the authors, churches typically pick up a few attenders in the 15 to 16 age group, but after age 16 there is a mass exodus.  By the time this group reaches age 21, most of them have already left.

Why are they leaving?  The authors say it is because we have failed to make church an essential part of people’s lives.

How do you know if your church is on a path to becoming non-essential?  Here are seven warning signs:

1. Doctrine Dilution – Watering down Scripture to cater to a younger generation only works for a short time.  They eventually learn what the Bible really says and this approach stings worse in the long run.
2. Loss of Evangelistic Passion – Dying churches stop speaking of Christ to a lost world.
3. Failure to Be Relevant – “Churches that keep their internal culture unchanged for 50 years while the world around them goes through continual periods of metamorphosis typically die with that old culture.”
4. Few Outwardly Focused Ministries- “…,dying churches gorge themselves on closed Bible studies and churchwide fellowship events while neglecting outreach in the community.”
5. Conflict Over Personal Preferences- “When the church focuses on trivial matters, the greater gospel message is left on the sidelines.”
6. The Priority of Comfort – “…’the way we’ve always done it’ will not pass muster if the American church is to thrive.  Churches that flourish get outside comfort zones and reach into areas that are uncharted for them.”
7. Biblical Illiteracy – a neglect of theological teaching.

As I stated, I just started reading this book, but I am already evaluating the ministries of my church.  I have to admit we fail in many of these areas.  How about you?  Is your church essential to your life?  How is it doing in each of the areas listed above?

I will be posting more on this book as I get further into it.

Today has the potential to be “one of those days.” I’m 37 years old and have had a hysterectomy, so I’m not going through puberty. So, that is not why I have a teenage style breakout on my face. I have always had problems with my skin. A few years back I started using a line of products that we can’t really afford, but I used them anyway because I can honestly say it is the only thing that worked. I’ve tried pretty much every product throughout my life that a person can buy for their skin. In drug stores and dept. stores and for some reason my skin doesn’t really respond to any of it. Well, I decided a few months back that even though my skin was at an ok place that just wasn’t good enough. I needed “make-up optional” skin as the commercial boasted. I went to the store and bought the entire line. After four weeks of using it, I not only didn’t have “make-up optional skin” I have “make-up unoptional skin.” I tried something else. That was several weeks ago and my skin is awful right now. I decided this morning I will bite the bullet and go back to was I was using before. I thought “Ok. I’ll focus on my hair and really try to take the attention off my face. I spent an extra long time straightening it and decided to spray it (which I don’t normally do). It felt gross. I decided to brush it out to it wouldn’t feel that way. Guess what?? Now my hair looks as if it’s full of dandruff, when in fact that spray that wasn’t supposed to flake did exactly that.

How dare these companies prey on the vulnerable this way! I trusted them and their products to do what they said. I invested my money. I did my part. They didn’t follow through on their part. This is false advertisement. I feel lied to, because I have been. I wish I’d never fallen for all this.

You know what? People feel this way about Christians. I’m reading a book called Essential Church. It’s basically giving the practical reasons that young adults drop out of church. They feel like they’ve been falsely advertised to. We tell them as children that Jesus loves them so much. But as they reach the age that grace counts more than ever we tell them His love is conditional. We tell them to act one way, as they watch us act another. We smile at church so that everyone will think we have perfect families and get into the car and change clothes spiritually as soon as we’re off the church property. We beg them to come to church, but turn our backs on them when they fall or if they decide to leave. We promise them they can make it with the help of God, but they can’t count on us if they need help.

It’s false advertisement. The problem? The advertisement represents who they believe Christ is. No wonder so many young people find comfort in bars and parties and gossip and gods.

What’s the purpose of light?? To give a means to see something. If a mechanic is under the car holding a flashlight so he can the motor of the car to be fixed, does the flashlight suddenly become responsible for fixing the car? No. It just provides the light.

We are supposed to be the light of Christ. To cause a person to see what they need to see.
I am to shine so people can see Jesus. So he through the Holy Spirit can do his thing. But with every false advertisement, I truly believe our lights dim, because God won’t be mocked. His light isn’t going out, but I believe our lights get dimmer and dimmer to allow people to see him. I love it when Joyce Myer says that we are not “Holy Ghost Jr.” I love that. I can be me. I can be real. God is the one who does the changing. I’m the light, I’m the tool. He is the One in charge. Whew. Thank goodness.

John 9
Spiritual Blindness
35Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36″Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

Just finished Thom & Sam Rainer’s book Essential Church? Fascinating study.

It is based on a lot of research that their firm has done about 18 – 22 year old’s concerning the topics of faith and church.

It covers how our churches are doing when it comes to attendance among this age group. As most other research has pointed out, the church is not doing well with this age group. 70% of churchgoing young adults drop out of church between the ages of 18 – 22, which is actually lower than what I expected, but by no means good.

Most dropouts leave the church between the ages of seventeen and nineteen.

One of the most crucial times of anybody’s life. Think about the decisions that are made in this time frame. Decisions that will shape the rest of their life.

Now that is the weight of this book.

The title of the book comes from many of the interviews where they just said, “Church was not essential to my life.” This is different than relevant. Essentially saying, “I no longer needed church to survive.”

One of the things that struck me in the book was the emphasis that those who left and those who stayed put on the lead pastor and their connection to him/her. Whether personally or through their sermons. The authors point out, “The leadership of the church, particularly the lead pastor, is the linchpin for the catalyst of cross-generational discipleship.”

One of the things that was interesting was in the area of expectations:  The expectations of civic organizations are typically higher than those of the church. In many churches, membership means filling out a card, walking an aisle, or, in some tough cases, attending a membership class. Then you can go incognito. You can fall through the cracks and not be noticed. Right now at Revolution, we’re working through what this looks like for us. We are going to call them partners, to bring out the idea of partnering with each other and us as individuals partnering with the church as a whole. Partners need each other, partners have expectations of each other.

What is important in any church is to have a clear goal in mind that you are working towards, what do you want people to do, to become? Unfortunately most churches in America look like a web of somewhat related activities that have no clear goal in mind.

Here are some other thoughts from the book:

• “It’s all about me!” is the anthem of the dying church.
• Members of essential churches do not have an easy way out. The church becomes such a vital part of their lives that neglecting the fellowship of believers is not a painless option.
• The youngest generation doesn’t necessarily leave their faith; rather they leave their church.
• For those in the thirteen to twenty-four age range, a high correlation exists between spirituality and happiness.
• Essential churches show the younger generation why participating in a local church body is critical to the spiritual walk of an individual.
• People stick with churches where they have healthy interpersonal relationships, and those relationships often form in the context of small groups.
• Essential churches strive to connect newer members with others in the church. Nonessential churches assume “it will just happen.”
• Many of our churches are producing a lot of soft and self-centered Christians. And the young people in our churches are getting the message. Through the actions of many of our church leaders, they are hearing that the church is all about them, that the church is there to serve them, and that the church is the place for all their needs and desires to be met.

One of the things I found fascinating and encouraging was the amount of church dropouts who said they left because of the preaching. This isn’t fascinating that they left, but why. In a world where preaching is being downplayed and sermons are getting shorter and more fluff, a majority of the church dropouts said that preaching matters. They want to know what the Bible says and why it says that. They want to hit hard topics, they don’t want to breeze through and skip over tough discussions. They want the Bible to be an active part of their church and their lives.

This by no means is a book just for student and college pastors, this is a book that needs to be digested by all church leaders. Because this will affect how we lead.

I just finished reading Essential Church by Thom Rainer and Sam Rainer.  In this book Thom and Sam confront pastors, church leaders, and churches with the growing problem of people who have become “dechurched”.  Dechurched meaning those who were once in church, but now are not a part of any church.  The author’s premise for the book is that, “Young adults are likely to stay in the church if they see church as essential to their lives.”  

In the first section of the book the authors look at the current situation of dropouts, specifically focusing on those between eighteen and twenty-two.  Then, in the second section, they move on to churches that have been successful in keeping this age group and why they were successful in keeping them.  The authors show that essential churches have four major components that help them keep people plugged in.  These components are:  1) The church has learned to simplify. 2) The church moves its members to deepen their knowledge of God’s truths. 3) The church has high expectations of its members. 4) The church is committed to helping its members multiply spiritually.

I found this book very encouraging and challenging to me as a pastor on staff at a church.  It encouraged me because I know that their are things that I can do to help students understand that church is essential to their everyday lives.  It challenged me because I know that we have a long way to go in some areas.  I thought this book was a great follow up to Simple Church, and I would recommend it to all pastors and church leaders that would like to see the back door closed and members who understand that church IS ESSENTIAL.

This past Saturday was part 5 of our Becoming… series and we talked about our desire at Revolution to be a simple church. This doesn’t mean a simplicity church or a church that makes things easy, but not a complex church. Whenever this idea comes up, immediately the focus is put on what we aren’t going to do, which I think is backwards.

I laid out on Saturday that we will only do a few things at Revolution:  Weekend service, community/discipleship, serving (in and outside of the church), kids ministry and someday student ministries. You might look at that list and see some things missing and you would be correct.

The question that this came down to for us is whether or not we want to build Revolution or the kingdom of God? If our goal is to build Revolution, then we want to do as much as possible and get as many people as possible involved in the things we do, but if our goal is to build the kingdom of God, then it doesn’t necessarily matter if they come to Revolution or go somewhere else. It is a different mentality.

To read more about our journey around this topic, go here, here, here, here.

If you are kind of intrigued by this conversation check out the books Simple Church, It and Essential Church?

I planned to make this a longer post, but I ran out of steam, so just listen to my talk from Saturday.

What are your thoughts in the simple idea?

I love to read and in one of the books that I am currently reading has come some great statistics about the great Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.  I have to be honest I got excited about this because I love Bear Bryant.  I remember as a young man and a lover of the sport of football I did a report on Bear Bryant.  I even had a hat that I kept from my Grandpa Jake that looked like a Bear Bryant hat that he used to wear.  I remember watching the man himself pace the sidelines as he coached his team. But take a look at the following information:

“The Bear coached at Alabama for twenty-five years, winning six national titles (1961, 1964,1965,1973,1978,1979) and thirteen Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championships.  In other words on average he won a national championship every four years at Alabama, and he won a SEC title every other year. 

This remarkable coaching career includes another fascinating tidbit.  No football player at Alabama ever has ever won the Heisman Trophy, college football’s equivalent of the most valuable player.  The Bear had a coaching philosophy that focused on the team rather than the individual.  Even though he had the best teams many years while he was the coach at Alabama, he resisted allowing one player to be too important.  That would diminish the power of the team.  That would be detrimental to the team.” Page 171, “The Essential Church”, by Thom S. Rainer and Sam s. Rainer III

As I read through this I was bombarded with some questions.  Would the great Paul “Bear” Bryant be able to coach the same way as he did back then today?  Would the people on his teams respond to the idea of team?  It is hard to think this way with the way players beat their chest today about their play.  Where they do flips into the end zone with the risk of costing their team.  I have to even think would the team that is number one in the nation “The Crimson Tide” be able to win under his leadership today?  All this thinking makes me wonder how would Jesus respond to the church that today.

John 17:22-23 (NLT) “I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are— [23] I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me.

Are we the unified team that He was talking about? Or are we the group of Heisman Trophy winners?  What can we do to be the team that Jesus was talking about?

Essential Church? – Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts by Thom Rainer and Sam Rainer || B&H Leadership

Why do so many young adults (18 to 22) leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back? This important question is examined and duly answered in Essential Church?, a follow-up to Thom S. Rainer’s best-selling Simple Church cowritten this time with his son, research expert Sam Rainer.The book is based on a study of one-thousand so-called “church dropouts” who were interviewed about why they left. Their answers are quite surprising, having less to do with “losing their religion” and more about the desire for a community that isn’t made stale by simply maintaining the status quo.

In turn, the Rainers offer churches four concrete solutions toward making their worship community an essential part these young people’s lives again:

Simplify – develop a clear structure and process for making disciples.

Deepen – provide strong biblical teaching and preaching.

Expect – let members know the need for commitment to the congregation.

Multiply – emphasize evangelism, outward focus, and starting new churches.

There’s a good interview of the authors of Essential Church?: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts over at Ed Stetzer’s blog. Click here for the blog post; you can find the book here.

The best part is that in the Comments below the post, the authors answer real-life questions from real-life people, several of which connect to Collegiate and Young Adult Ministry.

If you’re unfamiliar with Essential Church?, it basically addresses what churches can do to slow the dropout rate we’ve seen among young adults, and particulary with those 18 to 22. So… awfully relevant for us.

If you’re counting, that means we have another book related to college ministry. We may not have many, but the number is increasing!

(A sample of Essential Church? can be downloaded here.)

Essential Church? is called the follow-up book to Simple Church by many. This book does pick up where Simple Church left of in many ways. It answers some of the “how to” questions from the book but more importantly I believe it answers the why questions. Thom Rainer has done an excellent job gathering and laying out the facts for us on the current state of the church and well as where we are heading. The picture does not look good. As Obama would say (and seems to be all he says) “we need a change”. I agree (with Thom not Obama).

Lessons Learned: You have to know your people before you can know what the problems are and how to fix them (duh). Thom lays this out well in his book based upon the facts and data he had gathered. But what about my church? What about our people?

Frustration Grows: In trying to gather data on our church members, I realize that so much info is missiing and/or is wrong. So how can I track any information on anyone to see how well or poor we are doing as a church? Are we helping people become disciples who worship, grow and serve? Some might say yes. Others might say no. But based on what? We have no clear data. The truth is we don’t know and at this moment we can’t know.  So I aim to fix this problem.

I give Essential Church? two thumbs up.

At Catalyst, we got to hear Ed Stetzer speak briefly from his new book. See if this title seems like it might connect with what we do:

Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them

(It’s co-written with Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes.)

Stetzer has kindly summarized his presentation stats – and uploaded his Powerpoint – at his blog.

It looks like Lost and Found is going to be released in early 2009, but all the Catalyst attendees did get some free excerpts in our packs.

#2: Stetzer’s boss at Lifeway Christian Resources, Thom Rainer, just released his book with a similarly provocative title:

Essential Church: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts

(This one is co-written with his son, Sam.)

I have this one, and I’ll try to report on it when I can get it read.

Written at Mississippi State University

I’ve been reading Essential Church by Thom Rainer and Sam Rainer this past week.  The book is based on a study of one-thousand so-called “church dropouts” who were interviewed about why they left.  Most of the “dropouts” were between the ages of 17-22.  

So…

If you did stop going to church (even if for a short time) why did you stop?

Get a FREE “Essential Church” ebook download here.

Who wants a free book? I love free stuff, and I bet you do too.

Go here to download a free e-book of essential church by Thom S. Rainer.

According to new research, 70 percent of 18 to 22 year-old Americans are leaving the church. A new book coauthored by Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, explains why they leave and how to bring them back.

“I did not see church as essential to my life,” says one young man interviewed for Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts.

Surprisingly, their reasons for leaving have less to do with “losing religion” and more about desiring authentic spiritual community that goes beyond maintaining the status quo. Among the top ten were:

* Church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical.

* Didn’t feel connected to the people in my church.

* Became too busy though still wanted to attend.

“We truly believe it is possible to reduce this outflow of young adults from our churches,” write Rainer and his son, Sam Rainer III, a research expert and pastor who also contributed to Essential Church? “Two-thirds of the people in this age group are leaving. But the good news is that most of them would like to find a church that is healthy (and) wants more than business as usual.”

Equipped with clear data on church dropouts and compelling case studies of churches that are engaging this audience, the Rainers unpack four components for the church that will make group worship an essential part of these young people’s lives again:

* Simplify (Get the Structure Right).

* Deepen (Get the Content Right).

* Expect (Get the Attitude Right).

* Multiply (Get the Action Right).

For a limited time, you can download Essential Church? absolutely FREE at:

www.ChurchLeadershipBooks.com/EssentialChurch

Thom Rainer also coauthored the #1 bestseller Simple Church, winner of a Christianity Today Book Award and Outreach magazine’s Best Outreach Leadership Training Resource of 2007.

 ###

B&H Publishing Group is best known for books by Beth Moore (Praying God’s Word) and Henry Blackaby (Experiencing God) and for developing the Holman Christian Standard Bible® translation and its related products including The Apologetics Study Bible. The company has also recently published The Love Dare (as featured in the new motion picture Fireproof) and Oliver North’s New York Times bestseller, American Heroes, and is a leading producer of church supplies and Spanish Bibles.

“Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel. And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.

The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz repaired. And next to them Meshullam the son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabel repaired. And next to them Zadok the son of Baana repaired. And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord. . . . ” -Nehemiah 3

When reading the book of Nehemiah one can’t help but notice the numerous insanely long lists of Jewish names. The first occurrence of this is in chapter 3 as Nehemiah runs off the various people who worked to rebuild the walls and where they positioned themselves at to do this work. It would be easy to just pass this off in the same way we may pass off other lists of names or genealogies that abound in the Old Testament, but instead I think that there is a point in it that we can find, namely that being the point that in order to rebuild the walls of the city it requires the participation of the whole congregation, each taking and constructing their own little piece.

Look at the language used in verse 5 of chapter 3: “And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.” The people weren’t just embarking on a public work, they were performing an act of service to the Lord. In the same way we need to accentuate to our people how their involvement in the task of the church is a vital part of service to the Lord and a crucial piece of the wall that is being rebuilt.

I just recently finished reading Thom and Sam Rainer’s new book Essential Church? and the main point of the whole text is that in order for our church to put an end to the exceedingly high number of dropouts occurring when our members are 18- to 22-years old, it is important for us to make them see how church is essential to their life. And one of the ways in which they recommended making this stick is by giving these young people roles in the church. What could be better than putting the next generation of the church, the next generation of inhabitants of the city, in roles where they are working to rebuild the walls?

Another point we need to see is in verses 17 and 23: “After him the Levites repaired: Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him Hashabiah, ruler of half the district of Keilah, repaired for his district. . . . After them Benjamin and Hasshub repaired opposite their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah repaired beside his own house.” So many people are discouraged from serving in the church because they see it as the role of someone else to do. This is mainly because a lot of those people see service in the church as being service in a teaching capacity to which they do not feel called. Yet we need to show people how they can serve the church and work to rebuild the city walls by taking care of the area around them, that is, by putting to use whatever talents it is that the Lord has given them.

This may seem simplistic, but some of the most vital ministries which the church performs are ones that seem so benign, such as providing meals for young couples who just had a child or mentoring church members a stage of life behind you. All forms of hospitality and guidance should always be encouraged in our churches as they help to birth the genuine community which is so crucial for the church to actually perform its mission in the world.

At the same time, behind the scenes ministries such as technology assistance and facilities preparation are backbone operations which must be done to keep the church running smoothly and yet are often unnoticed by the average Christian searching for ways to serve. By illuminating these opportunities we can plug dozens more people into the service of the Lord and help shore up our abilities to rebuild the wall quickly and efficiently.

If we are truly going to rebuild the church it is going to take the participation of more than just a select, motivated, talented few. It will take the collective effort of all of God’s people serving in their own areas, putting in time to make sure that every corner and crevice of the wall is as strong as possible.

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” -1 Timothy 4.12

I am a Southern Baptist. I am also a young adult (23 to be exact). These two things alone put me in a declining population segment in American Christianity. Following this past years Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis the cat was officially out of the bag: the SBC is getting older (for discussion of this click here). Simply put, more and more young people are leaving Southern Baptist churches (as well as most other denominations in America) and the end result is that our congregations are getting overloaded with the grey-haired guys in three piece suits who sit in the front row and still use a King James Version of the Bible. Needless to say this is not a good trend.

Just today there is a book coming out by Lifeway Research director Thom Rainer entitled Essential Church? which focuses on dealing with the question, Why do so many young adults (18 to 22) leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back? I have a copy already sitting in front of me, though as yet I have not begun to read it. I do, however, have my own opinion on something that can be done to alleviate this problem.

Now, being 23 and not 53 I am not going to sit here and tell the middle-aged bulk of the congregation in our SBC churches what to do (though I think I may have insight, I don’t feel it appropriate to just throw them under the bus). Instead, the people I want to address are the target age group (18-22 year olds) as well as my population of young adults (23-35 years, roughly).

What is the cry that we hear coming up from the 18-35 year old “emerging” generations? Paint it any number of ways, what it basically boils down to is “I don’t like the way my church does things.” So, what are we doing about it? We’re dropping out of those churches and either roaming around on our own vague spiritual journey or starting new “avant-garde” churches which stick a thumb in the eye of our more traditional, orthodox roots.

Yet, why did we leave our original church in the first place? Did they teach a theology we disagreed with? Was the music boring? Did their modernist ecclesiology offend our superior post-modern sensibilities? The first question I think we need to ask is, What is a sufficient reason for leaving a fellowship? From where I stand there seems to be a lot of juvenile arrogance which comes into play when we assert our psuedo-justified reasons for dropping out of the congregation we grew up in.

But what is it that makes this arrogant? It is because we are in effect saying “I know a better way to do it.” That’s the rub. We are unhappy with our churches because they are unappealing to us and because we think we could do it better. This then leads to a youth exodus from traditional churches and a massive influx of new emerging congregations. Yet what do these look like? The emerging churches are composed of young (typically white, but that’s another post) believers who are experimenting with doing church their own way. And the traditional churches they left? They continue doing business as usual only without as many youth and young adult members as they had before.

So, we are left with this general picture: an emerging church with all youth and no experienced senior leadership and a traditional church with no vibrant, idea-filled young underbelly. The end result from this is that our traditional churches get stuck in their ways, moving further and further into legalism and ritual instead of authentic worship, and the emerging churches spin-off with all types of liberal theologies which are more of reactions to felt injustices and less of seasoned observations from a lifelong pursuit of the Truth in God’s Word. This is not good on either end.

Then what is the solution I propose? Simply this. Young adults, if you don’t like the way your church is being run and you have a biblical conviction to this extent, do something about it in your church! (This goes particularly for SBC members who have a congregational polity). What does this something look like? It looks like going to church meetings, working to rise up in leadership and making your voice heard.

But, you object, the old people won’t listen to me? Well of course they won’t. Look at Timothy in Ephesus. He was put in leadership by Paul as a young man and all of the older church members looked down on him, saying he was too young and disavowing the things he said because they thought he was rash and immature. But what does Paul tell him? He says, strap it up, live the way you know to live from Scripture, and go out there and show them what it really looks like to serve Christ (1 Timothy 4.12). Now of course, this doesn’t mean to disrespect people (1 Timothy 5.1-2), but what it does mean is to show them that when it comes to making a difference in the kingdom of God, there is no age requirement, only a passion and righteousness of life lived.

If as young adults we are dissatisfied with our church we have to step up and step into leadership in the congregation. And if the old guys on the deacon board refuse to pass the baton of leadership to you, you have to wrestle it from their hands. It is up to those generations to fix any flaws they may have in their service of the Lord in the local church, but what we need to do is not sit back and blast their failings, but instead aggressively pursue change. The church is meant to contain a spectrum of ages. Older men and women have as much to give to the younger people as the younger ones have to give to them. If either population is missing in a church then it will not be able to function completely as God intended it to.

I know this is hard. I understand that it is easier to just go off and start your own church instead of going through the frustrations of struggling for a leadership voice. But at the end of the day, God desires for us to take that torch from the older generations, using it to light the church for many more years to come, and not just letting it die out with them. To steal from a couple of youths who are vocal about this cause as well, we must buckle down and realize that God will be most glorified when we “do hard things.”