Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them

Thom Rainer is president of Rainer Group Church Consulting as well as founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. As such, we would expect him to have many interesting insights into church growth. He does not disappoint. In Surprising Insights From The Unchurched Rainer presents the results of a fascinating study he performed over two years. He decided that perhaps the best way of learning what principles of church growth work best would be to interview people who had only recently become Christians and begun to attend church on a regular basis. He and his team spent thousands of hours interviewing 353 of these people. And the results, as is obvious from the title of the book, are quite surprising. In the second half of the book, the focus turns to pastors of successful evangelical churches and seeks to understand what they do to bring success to their churches.The interviews performed by Rainer were focused on members of "effective evangelistic churches." Rainer defines these as churches with at least twenty-six conversions per year and a conversion ratio (membership/annual conversion) of less than 20:1. The average ratio in American churches is approximately 85:1. The two criteria eliminate 96% of churches. This leaves the elite 4% as the focus of the study.Through about 125 pages, Rainer reveals the results of his study. He begins by shattering myths about the unchurched. For example, his study found that the name of the church had almost no influence on the unchurched as they chose a church to attend. The pastor does not need to be a dynamic and charismatic leader for the church to reach the unchurched, and deep and complex Biblical truths do not turn the unchurched away. These insights seem to fly in the face of many principles associated the church growth movement. The factors that led people to choose a church were primarily the pastor and his preaching followed closely by solid, Biblical doctrine. Those two factors rated far ahead of any others. Once again, those would seem to contradict much of the church growth movement. Doctrine is so important that Rainer devotes an entire chapter to it.The second part of the book is devoted to insights gleaned from approximately 100 ministers who pastor effective evangelistic churches. The insights gained from these pastors are also fascinating. Perhaps the most interesting element of this section of the book is "Fifteen Lessons from the Leaders Whose Churches Reach the Unchurched." In this section, Rainer outlines fifteen lessons he learned in interviewing these men. He speaks of authenticity, the imperative of person evangelism, the need to retain strong doctrine and many other critical points. He also devotes attention to their leadership skills and preaching style.If ever I feel I have done injustice to a book in a review of it, this is it. Honestly, there are so many important principles

If you want to know what you must do to reach the unchurched, read this book. It literally changed the way that I viewed ministry. OK, there are a few of you out there that got this evangelism thing down pat. So, this book is not for you; but for the rest of us it is an invaluable resource. It is Rainers thesis that much of the church growth research on the unchurched population is invalid. He reasons, and rightly so, that most of the unchurched interviewed in countless polls over the last thirty years will never step inside the doors of a church. Instead, Rainer interviewed the recently unchurched, that is, those who have been unchurched for ten or more years and have recently crossed the line into church.What did he find out? That many of the issues that concern us about reaching the unchurched, dont bother the unchurched. For instance, how many pastors have fought to change their church name to make it more appealing to the unchurched? Surprise! The name of the church is not an issue with the unchurched. Another surprise: Remember the advice that the church growth experts gave us? Location, location, location. How many millions, if not billions of dollars have been spent relocating church buildings to make them more accessible to the unchurched? Relocation may help transfer growth, but Rainers research demonstrates that location is NOT a factor in reaching the unchurched. I wont give any more of these surprises away, but Rainer slays one sacred church growth cow after another. Perhaps the most significant finding he found was on the issue of pastoral leadership. His findings on how effective evangelistic pastors spend their time compared to non-effective evangelistic pastors tells it all. I changed my schedule. But prophets are without honor in their own country. Many pastors will read this book, get mad and write bad reviews. This pastor repented and changed his ministry.

I have now collected half a dozen books on church growth, surveying your congregation, and methods to lead a faith-based organization and this is the best of the lot. Dr. Thom Rainer has done an excellent job of researching people who recently made a decision for Christ and joined a church as adults. Some of the results are surprising. People who have something missing in their lives are not looking for pop psychology or watered-down messages - they are looking for truth and a community of faith who are friendly to people they have never met before. (We all think we are friendly, but what would someone who is meeting you for the first time think about your congregation?) High expectations of new members, Excellence and quality of worship, and cleanliness of facilities were some other surprises. The surveys at the end of the book are thought-provoking. The leadership survey (for pastors) and Church Health survey (for the congregation) are scored by The Rainer Group. The Unchurched-Reaching Readiness Inventory is self-scoring. All appear well-designed and comprehensive, with good correlation questions.There is an excellent chapter on characteristics of pastors of churches who reach the unchurched. They aren't good at maintenance tasks (weddings, funerals, hospital visitation) but are excellent at preaching, communication, vision, and leading the congregation. Hmmm... it seems this is what the Apostles did in Acts. They equipped others to do the daily work of the church and did the teaching and evangelizing.If you want a church that only tends to its own members, you will not like this book. But if you want to know how to reach the unchurched, how to grow your congregation (not by moving members over from other churches), then this is a book full of insights and hard data that can really help stir ideas and action to move Christians toward fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28.

I bought this book thinking it would be like a number of current church growth book that focus on church growth with basic management princibles. What I got was a book that made me think and challenged some of my "sacred cows". Rainer uses scientific survey methods as the foundation of this book. He presents facts about those who came to church for the 1st time or returned after extended absence from the church (the formally un-churched). He asked, "What caused you join the church?" (the churched). He goes further than asking what would make one want to come to church by asking the new converts what brought them to the church. Well worth the read. At this time, I would consider it one of the top ten books to read on church growth and evangelism. I like the fact it is based on actual research. Read it and use it to start discussions about the issues raised by the book.

Finally something unique in the growing mountain of church growth materials! "Surprising Insights" offers a mixture of both old standard "church growth" concepts and some truly "surprising" insights that will both encourage and challenge pastors of conviction, committed to preaching the Word of God and holding the doctrinal line.The author, Thom Rainer (and his research team) have taken a truly unique approach to church growth: rather than survey the unchurched, they studied the "formerly unchurched," the success stories of outreach. Why did men and women who rarely attended church decide to get involved? Rainer rightly points out that most unchurched people will never become regular attenders so why study them? Why not reach the reachable?Rainer pulls out of his bag some treasures old and new. Maybe 60%f of the concepts he highlights, such as "pursuing excellence" in facilities and children's programs, or being "purpose driven" are already part of church growth dogma. But the other 40% offers some eye-opening surprises. This landmark study is not just the same old same old.Amazingly, the formerly unchurched were drawn to churches with doctrinal conviction (remarkably, folks who transferred from church to church were LESS interested in doctrine or solid teaching than the unchurched). The majority of the formerly unchurched wanted in-depth (expository) Bible teaching, not merely pop-psychology topical sermons. The churches that reached the unchurched were usually intentionally evangelistic. They also seemed specialized in attracting women to church (sometimes through good programs for their children); the women were won to Christ and then often their husbands eventually came to faith (if the church was burdened to reach their husbands). The pastors worked hard at leadership and evangelism, but compensated by dropping the ball in counseling, hospital visitation, servant-like menial tasks, and pastoral care in general.Every pastor needs to struggle with how much of a price he is willing to pay to lead his church toward growth. But even those of us who are unwilling to reduce our levels of pastoral care can adopt many of the philosophies in this book. I found the book both encouraging and challenging.