This Silver Medallion Book award–winning national interview survey of unchurched people sheds insight on who the unchurched next door are, what objections they raise, and how to connect with them, taking into account their various faith stages based on the Rainer scale with rankings from U5 to U1.

Unchurched Next Door

Religion & Spirituality

Thom S. Rainer

Christian Books & Bibles

Zondervan

Breakout Churches Can Your Church Become One? This is the story of thirteen churches and the leaders who moved them from stagnancy to growth and from mediocrity to greatness. Drawing on one of the most comprehensive studies ever on the church, this book reveals the process of becoming a 'breakout' church and the factors that lead to this spiritual metamorphosis. Eighty percent of the approximately 400,000 churches in the United States are either declining or at a plateau. Is there hope for the American church? Breakout Churches offers a resounding 'yes!' and offers specific examples and principles to help you and your church become more effective.

Breakout Churches: Discover How to Make the Leap

Zondervan Publishing House

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.

Essential Church?: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts

Sam S. Rainer

B&H Books

How Does an Established Church Grow? 
Many church leaders have attempted the "latest" approach to growing a church, only to find the methodology is ineffective and the church members are divided. Sometimes the methodology is wrong. Sometimes the methodology is right but the pace and the timing are wrong. Internationally-recognized authorities Thom Rainer and Chuck Lawless have written Eating the Elephant to show that a church can change and grow if you move at a pace that fits the church's situation, if you eat the elephant one bite at a time. 
"Unfortunately," the authors write, "many 'traditional' churches have been divided and demoralized by attempts to move the church too quickly toward relevancy. Is there a way to implement change without destroying the church in the process? We believe there is." For most of America's church leaders, that's an invitation to tie on your napkin and pull up a chair.

Eating the Elephant : Leading the Established Church to Growth

Pinnacle Pub

How are we doing? The church, that is. And how are we doing it? Congregations have long measured success by "bodies, budget, and buildings"--a certain record of attendance, the offering plate, and square footage. But the scorecard can't stop there. When it does, the deeper emphasis on accountability, discipleship, and spiritual maturity is lost. Ignoring those details, we see fewer lives transformed, Christian influence wane, and churches thin out--a situation that is all too familiar across North America today. It is time to take heart and rework the scorecard. According to Ed Stetzer and Thom S. Rainer, the authors of Transformational Church, "Too often we've highlighted the negative realities of the declining American church but missed the opportunity to magnify the God of hope and transformation." Based on the most comprehensive study of its kind, including a survey of more than 7,000 churches and hundreds of on-site interviews with pastors, Transformational Church takes us to the thriving congregations where truly changing lives is the norm. Stetzer and Rainer clearly confirm the importance of disciple making for all through active biblical engagement and prayerful dependence on God alongside of ever-increasing, intentional participation in mission and ministry activities. As the church engages these issues, the world will see the change: * More people following Christ * More believers growing in their faith * More churches making an impact on their communities The transformation starts now.

Transformational Church: Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations

Ed Stetzer

I Will

LifeWay Christian Resources

Sea una iglesia acogedora (Spanish Edition)

Editorial Patmos

At more than 78 million strong, the Millennials—those born between 1980 and 2000—have surpassed the Boomers as the larger and more influential generation in America. Now, as its members begin to reach adulthood, where the traits of a generation really take shape, best-selling research author Thom Rainer (Simple Church) and his son Art (a Millennial born in 1985) present the first major investigative work on Millennials from a Christian worldview perspective.Sure to interest even the secularists who study this group, The Millennials is based on 1200 interviews with its namesakes that aim to better understand them personally, professionally, and spiritually. Chapters report intriguing how-and-why findings on family matters (they are closer-knit than previous generations), their desire for diversity (consider the wave of mixed race and ethnic adoptions), Millennials and the new workplace, their attitude toward money, the media, the environment, and perhaps most tellingly, religion.The authors close with a thoughtful response to how the church can engage and minister to what is now in fact the largest generation in America’s history. 

The Millennials: Connecting to America's Largest Generation

Politics & Social Sciences

Jess Rainer

Sociology

Hovel Audio

I Am a Church Member: Discovering the Attitude That Makes the Difference

christianaudio

No one wants to see a church die. And yet, far too many churches are dying. For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Thom Rainer has helped churches grow, reverse the trends of decline, and has autopsied those that have died. From this experience, he has discovered twelve consistent themes among those churches that have died. Yet, it’s not gloom and doom because from those twelve themes, lessons on how to keep your church alive have emerged.Whether your church is vibrant or dying, whether you are a pastor or a church member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church will walk you through the radical paths necessary to keep your church alive to the glory of God and advancement of Christ’s Kingdom!

Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive

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Books by Thom S. Rainer