Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too. Broadman and Holman Books, 2007.
Referenced in: Research and Case Studies on Effective Churches
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
The authors address the widely recognized truth that many 70-80 percent of American churches are either stagnant or declining. Typical of Stetzer, and in this case his coauthor, Dodson, the book is incredibly well researched. They studied 324 congregations from ten denominations. These churches had to have experienced five years of plateau or decline since 1995, defined as worship growing less than 10% in a five year period. The plateau had to be followed by a 2-5 year growth period, defined as membership to conversion ratio of 35:1 and a minimum 10% increase in attendance. Only about 1% of the churches in participating denominations qualified for the study. Once the churches were identified, they ranked the factors that were influential in their comeback, arriving at an understanding of the factors that were most critical versus those that were less critical.
They begin by laying foundations that should inform all efforts at revitalization. These include six criteria of biblical churches: scriptural authority, biblical leadership, preaching and teaching, ordinances (e.g. Lord’s Supper, baptism), covenant community, and mission. They also suggest every church should be “missional,” not necessarily “traditional” or “contemporary,” and then define “missional” as “acting as a presence of Christ in the community at large, able to relate Christ to the people in culture, and on a mission.” (4) They describe how missional churches are characteristically incarnational, indigenous, and intentional in their contexts, echoing Tim Keller, that churches in our era must “become completely missional ” adapting and reformulating absolutely everything it did in worship, discipleship, community, and service ” so as to be engaged in the non-Christian society around it.” (7) To do so, churches must live in the “Missional Matrix” that represents a healthy interaction between Christology, Missiology, and Ecclesiology that are based on scripture and enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit (these are summarized in another book Stetzer coauthored with David Putnam, Breaking the Missional Code). Within this matrix, missional leaders bring the gospel into their context by asking “What cultural containers ” church, worship style, congregational ministry ” will be most effective in this context?” (9) They also stress that growth in this missional work is essentially spiritual, not mechanistic. Passages such as the letters to the seven churches in Revelation reveal how Jesus’ essential evaluative posture toward the church has to do with spiritual vitality. The authors list 30 barriers to growth that are spiritual at root and cannot be overcome by methodology.
As part of the foundation, they also offer motivation for churches to want to be comeback churches. They describe twelve congregational types that tend to get stuck in plateau or decline, such as institutionalized church, voluntary association church, unintentional church, “us four and no more” church, “time warp” church, “tidy” church, chaplaincy church, etc. This is followed by a statistical look at the ten denominations that took part in the study, and the percentage of churches among them that are in need of renewal. They also mention the growing numbers of unchurched people in America. Motivated by these and other factors, they encourage leaders to involve people in their congregations to evaluate their current condition and decide on a appropriate course of action.
Shaped by this foundation, the authors present separate chapters on the factors that helped these churches experience revitalization. They give a thorough look at the critical factors of leadership, faith practices, worship and preaching, intentional and strategic church evangelism, spiritual formation, ministry mobilization, and small groups. Other chapters offer perspective on the the less critical but important factors such as facilities, marketing, books most often consulted by comeback leaders, church age, and church size. An entire chapter looks at the how comeback leaders and their staffs function as change agents. Two chapters describe the ten biggest areas of change in these comeback churches, as well as the top factors and biggest challenges. This is followed by an excellent summarization of the conclusions based on the complete research project.
The essential value of this book lies in its solid research base, and how the authors convey their deep love for scripture, the church, and the unchurched populations that need to be reached. It is perhaps the best place to start in gaining perspective on what truly is and is not important to the work of congregational renewal.
From the Publisher
“We don’t want our church to die.”
Research shows that over time, most churches plateau and then eventually decline. Typically, they start strong and experience periods of growth, then stagnate and lose members. Since 1991, the North American population has increased by 15 percent while the number of “unchurched” people has increased by 92 percent (source: The Barna Group). Large church houses that were filled in the 1950s and ‘60s now hold a fraction of their capacity. And recent research suggests that the perceived church growth of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s had more to do with a redistribution of believers than reaching the unchurched.
To counter this trend, authors Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson surveyed 300 churches from across ten different denominations that recently achieved healthy evangelistic growth after a significant season of decline. What they have discovered is an exciting method of congregation reinvigoration that is shared in the new book entitled Comeback Churches.
About the Authors
Ed Stetzer has served churches for 20 years, served as a seminary professor, and now is senior director of the Center for Missional Research at the North American Mission Board where he researchers churches and culture for more effective ministry. He holds two masters and two doctoral degrees and has written dozens of articles and books including Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community.
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