I received this book for free providing that I blog about it within a month of getting it. So here is my two cents.
The intro to the book starts out with what the book is not. That was a bit refreshing to hear that they were not going to tell us how bad we are as a church and what we need to be doing to fix it.
The first couple chapters deal with the concept of the unchurched and they go on to define what that means. They describe different types of unchurched such as the Younger unchurched as described in four different categories. 1. Always unchurched 2. Dechurched 3. Friendly unchurched 4. Hostile unchurched.
The first section of the book deals with the questions that were asked to the unchurched and dechurched and what their findings were. A lot of stats involved and an explanation of them. I am not a big stats guy so I was a bit bored with it but thankfully they thought ahead and put in a summary page of all the stats at the end of the section.
The second section of the book details four markers of community that the unchurched are looking for. They are community, depth, responsibility and connection.
A few quotes from the book I found interesting from the community section:
“Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has said, ‘We’re in the business of human connection and humanity, creating environments in a third place between home and work.’ In his influential book The Great, Good Place, Ray Oldenburg argues that third places are important for civil society, democracy, civic engagement, and establishing feelings of a sense of place. Oldenburg calls one’s ‘first place’ the home and those with whom one lives. The ‘second place’ is the workplace – where people may actually spend most of their time. ‘Third places,’ then, are ‘anchors’ of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.”
“Rather than behave/believe/belong ministry, we must move toward a belong/believe/become model. What this means is that an unchurched individual is immediately welcomed into the community with other Christians. As previously stated, this doesn’t mean incorporating someone as a new member of your church. Rather, it means creating an environment of acceptance for the unchurched despite their flaws and their unfamiliarity with the things of God and His church.”
I like how they interweave a “Lost and Found” fictional story at the end of each chapter to illustrate what it might be like for a Christian to have friends who were far from God and continue God conversations with them.
The last part of the book actually talks about what churches are doing to reach this younger generation of unchurched. They found the key to reaching the younger generation is through connection and more specifically through small groups.
“Decide that your home is the greatest kingdom asset you own and should be used as a refuge for others.” This is a great quote.
This book is a must read for all pastors and church planters who desire to reach the younger generations. Lots to think about and some very interesting stats. Over all it is an encouraging book and clearly makes the case that we have the greatest opportunity today to potentially see more people come to Christ than any other time in history. Only if we are willing to set aside our predispositions and judgments of those who are not like us. I recommend this book for whatever my recommendation is worth.
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