Books about Unchurched from Amazon.com

Based on a major, four-year study of superb evangelism, funded by the Lilly Endowment, Unbinding the Gospel sparkles with life, practicality and spiritual depth. Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism is a book for pastors who want to know the truth about the state of evangelism. Recently selected by The Christian Century as a featured "Take and Read"book (2007 book issue), Unbinding the Gospel is a book for Christians who want a hopeful, powerful, joy-filled way to learn to share their faith. (It's also a book for people who cringe when they hear the "E" word!) This book for congregational use has been enthusiastically endorsed by 8 heads of denominations, Brian McLaren, Todd Hunter, Richard Peace, Becky Garrison, as well as by countless pastors and church leaders.

Unbinding the Gospel is the foundation of the Real Life Evangelism Series, which can, with the two other Series books, lead to a six-week, all-congregation study with individual prayer, small group study and all-church worship and prayer dimensions. See Unbinding Your Heart: 40 Days of Prayer & Faith Sharing and Unbinding Your Church (the Pastor's Guide)..
Price: $11.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

An alarming look at today's church and how it must reverse its failure to reach an unchurched culture. (20040603).
Price: $7.24 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Lee Strobel's book shows Christians and Christian leaders how their churches can become effective in evangelism -- only by understanding the perspectives of the unchurched..
Price: $2.69 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Good pastoral leadership is not a "by the numbers" proposition It is a matter of heart and soul, of devoting the whole self to the vision God gives for the congregation in which one serves. Yet neither is it purely intuitive; it requires hard, careful thinking about the directions and details of the path down which God calls.

When Adam Hamilton became pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, its membership consisted of himself and his family. Ten years later the church averages between five and six thousand worshipers per weekend. Throughout this remarkable period, Hamilton has learned many serious lessons about both the broad visions and the specific details of pastoral leadership. Bringing a depth of analytical skills often lacking in visionary leaders, in this book he goes beyond simply telling the story of Church of the Resurrection. He shares the questions that he learned to ask about the largely unchurched population to which Church of the Resurrection has reached out. Further, he demonstrates what he learned by listening to the answers to these questions, and how doing so has made possible a number of strategically crucial decisions the church has made.

One of those crucial decisions was to make more traditional forms of worship and praise the center of the congregation's life. The result is that the example of Church of the Resurrection offers pastors and church leaders (especially those in the mainline) the realization that they need not completely change their liturgical and theological identity in order to reach out to the unchurched. Drawing on his own experience, as well as the detailed research he undertook during a sabbatical leave on the characteristics of highly successful congregations, Hamilton offers pastors and other church leaders solid, substantive thinking on steps that congregations can take to become centers of vibrant outreach and mission..
Price: $9.94 [Notify me when price goes down.]

George Barna reveals that America has more unchurched people than the entire population of all but 11 of the world's 194 nations! Based on research among several thousand unchurched people, the book discusses their values, attitudes, beliefs, religious practices, demographics, life goals, and spiritual expectations. Using additional research conducted among churches that have had great success in attracting and retaining unchurched people, Barna sets forth new perspectives and effective strategies for churches that wish to reach those who avoid church. By understanding what makes the unchurched tick, we have a better chance of relating to them in meaningful ways..
Price: $5.58 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Hunter discusses the rebirth of the apostolic congregation, Christianity's vision of what people can become, how small groups shape an apostolic people, how lay ministry advances the Christian movement, and how apostolic churches reach secular people.
Price: $6.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Nearly 40% of all Americans have no connection with organized religion. Yet many of these people, even though they might never step inside a house of worship, live profoundly spiritual lives. But what is the nature and value of unchurched spirituality in America? Is it a recent phenomenon, a New Age fad that will soon fade, or a long-standing and essential aspect of the American experience?
In Spiritual But Not Religious, Robert Fuller offers fascinating answers to these questions. He shows that alternative spiritual practices have a long and rich history in America, dating back to the colonial period, when church membership rarely exceeded 17% and interest in astrology, numerology, magic, and witchcraft ran high. Fuller traces such unchurched traditions into the mid-nineteenth century, when Americans responded enthusiastically to new philosophies such as Swedenborgianism, Transcendentalism, and mesmerism, right up to the current interest in meditation, channeling, divination, and a host of other unconventional spiritual practices. Throughout, Fuller argues that far from the flighty and narcissistic dilettantes they are often made out to be, unchurched spiritual seekers embrace a mature and dynamic set of basic beliefs. They focus on inner sources of spirituality and on this world rather than the afterlife; they believe in the accessibility of God and in the mind's untapped powers; they see a fundamental unity between science and religion and an equality between genders and races; and they are more willing to test their beliefs and change them when they prove untenable.
Timely, sweeping in its scope, and informed by a clear historical understanding, Spiritual But Not Religious offers fresh perspective on the growing numbers of Americans who find their spirituality outside the church..
Price: $35.58 [Notify me when price goes down.]