Who Stole My Church?: What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the Twenty-First Century

This book is not a typical "how to" book but a "why" book put into a story format. In my opinion it hit's a home run. Too many times churches become stagnant because they don't want to change to the point making a newcomer or an un-churched feel unwelcome or so awkward they will never come back let alone experience the love of Christ. In today's culture where many do not know any Bible stories, why Christ died on the cross, or that God loves them so much that He gave His Son as an atonement for their sin. Oh yea, they also wouldn't know what "atonement" means. Many churches insist on speaking "Christianize", singing hymns that make no sense to an outsider thus the church keep shrinking then gets into financial trouble because there are not enough people to support it. If a church in today's culture is not looking for ways to bring in new believers they are missing the whole point - - to win the lost for Christ and make their congregants into fruit bearing Christians. If your church has become "lukewarm" and not seeking the lost you are not obeying God's commandment and commission. There are many ways to make your church a better church. This book gives some pointers on how a church could do it in a good story format.

My husband and I co-pastor a church in a conservative denomination (you may see a review pop up from my husband when he remembers to do this) anyway... We are in a cycle of change and we must change and change has been going well for the past three years or so. We've successfully become outward focused instead of inward focused, we are intentional about how we set up our worship space, what we call things, how we welcome people and quickly engaging them into the family. Our church is in a low income neighborhood in one of the most expensive cities in America. We attract 95% men, mostly homeless or previously homeless and a great deal of current and former addicts of all kinds. A mostly male church is not a normal thing in America, infact most are heavier on the female folk and place emphasis on women's ministry and outreach. We have some women... I think I can name 10 or so. Most of our men are divorced or never married so few of the women are connected to any of the men in the congregation. Of the folks who come (male and female) most are completely previously unchurched and many others had negative experiences as young people and have been away from the church for a very long time. Enough of that... This book was phenomenal, fiction or not, because it brought to light what the older folks are thinking (we have a few of those) and what the younger people were thinking, how important is the name you call yourself as a church, etc. My husband and I bought one copy of this book when it came out and since we both wanted to read it right away he had to read it to me outloud so we could share it - which actually proved a great opportunity for both of us to share and discuss it (and turn off the television for the few days it took us to read this in the evenings). We have recommended this book to our pastor friends and those we know who are struggling with the church they attend but do not pastor. I have blogged about this book on Facebook, Xanga and Myspace because I believe it can be a great launching pad for the same kind of real discussion and possible rebirth for an older church the way the fictional story lays out. Please read this book!

Outstanding book! It's as simple as this. God is literally using this book to bring healing and hope to our church. It's helping our Senior Adults understand the consequences of their stonewalling behavior towards change and helping our young people empathize with the pain of our Senior Adults. God is using it to change hearts in ways I have tried and failed. We are passing about 20 copies around to our people. Many have come up to me, their pastor, and asked, "Are you sure you didn't write this. This is our church exactly." Thank you Gordon MacDonald for speaking into the arena of church change in a way that people actually listen - a story - instead of facts, logic, and reason. God is bringing renewal to our 93 year old church. Thank God and Thank Gordon.

This book is a flowing narrative of the classic story of conflict in a congregation over change. The author writes a fictional account through personal experiences of being a minister for over forty years. The story resonates with reality. There are power struggles, control issues, dropouts, and healing, forgiveness, and unity. The power dealings with change in a church through the eyes of those who are against it. Most books about change are written by those seeking to change the church, while this book is written compassionately through the eyes of those who are hurt by change. The story ends well, unlike some real life accounts of complete disaster in congregations. Throughout the book the author provides methods and leadership styles that will help bring about unity and purpose within the congregation. This book is not dealing with the divisive methods of change agents, but if anyone who has gone through any type of change would realize, any change is always resisted within a congregational system. It seems the minister's job in a congregation is to change the church for the better, and unfortunately it seems that to some members of a congregation their role is to maintain the status quo even if the congregation is failing in God's desire to be a First century congregation. This is a great book.

For many 'boomers' (myself) and older, we are frustrated and disappointed with the direction OUR churches have taken. We have worship bands instead of choirs, praise and worship songs on the screens up front instead of majestic, rich hymns sung out of a hymnal, sermons with power point presentations and, yes, even movie clips instead of three point sermons, casual dress (I'm referring to the Pastor) instead of a respectful suit or dress and those are just for starters. Is all this change the slippery slope to an apostate church or meaningful change to connect with a very different generation coming into the church? Those are some of the questions Gordon MacDonald addresses in his book, which is really a parable. It is Gordon and his wife, Gail, the real people, interacting with a small to medium sized fictional church in New England somewhere going through a traumatic time for the older generation. It starts with a congregational vote on a proposal for a new high tech sound and multi-media system. The staff and council are shocked when it is voted down. Gordon asks a group of those that he knows voted against it if they would meet with him. They are hesitant, thinking that he is going to try to change their minds and talk them into voting for the new system. To their surprise, he just wants to listen and discover where they are coming from. This first meeting turns into months of meeting and sharing and searching for what happened to THEIR church. As they begin to understand that the church really belongs to JESUS who paid for it with his blood, they begin to see things in a different light. The turning point seems to be when they meet together with the high school worship team that gets to lead the service whenever there is a 'fifth' Sunday in a month. Both sides vent their frustrations and hopes which turns into a remarkable dialogue between two groups generations apart physically and light years apart culturally. In the end, this group discovers what it means to really be 'the church'. No matter how long or little you've been involved in the church, no matter whether you're a lay person or staff, this will be a valuable book in answering the question so many are asking, WHO STOLE MY CHURCH? The future of OUR church just might depend on whether we can satisfactorily answer that question. [...]