Here’s the synopsis of the book: Stetzer and his co-writers, Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes, undertake to discover the reasons behind the high church dropout rate among 20-somethings, and then to suggest some things that the “younger unchurched” might be looking for in a church, as well as tell the stories of some churches which have had success in reaching this age group.

What bogs the book down in the beginning, from my perspective, is the excessive use of statistics. Now…I acknowledge the need for illustrating points with the data that has been garnered from interviews with young people in this age group; Stetzer and his friends have done us a great service by gathering this information, and by analyzing it for trends; this is certainly the high-water mark of the book, the sheer information gained. But it makes for sometimes tedious reading, at least for this reviewer.

The second part of the book moves to analysis, and this does serve to bring all the data together in a more user-friendly format, identifying major themes that emerged from the data. Four “markers” of this generation of “younger unchurched” emerge as being the key to reaching and retaining them, if their words are to be trusted: community, depth (and content), responsibility, and (surprisingly to me) cross-generational connection. Clue in to these four markers, and a church ostensibly will improve its success among this age group.

The final section surveys some churches that are employing these markers in their outreach to this age group, with each chapter’s title beginning with “How Churches Are…”. This section didn’t deliver as well as promised, though, at least with respect to my expectations; what I’d have liked to have seen, rather than getting different thoughts from different pastors in each section, would be to have read an in-depth analysis of one or two churches in each given category; for instance, under “How Churches are Making a Difference Through Service” (Chapter 9), I’d have preferred to read about one church that had really made serving others a significant priority, rather than read quotes from a dozen pastors and leaders from different churches. Maybe that’s a personal preference thing…

At any rate, this book could be quite useful for those seeking answers to the dropout question, and particularly for those interested in seeing the evangelical church make a significant course correction. My prayer and hope is that that will be the case in years to come!

The book is Lost and Found, by Ed Stetzer and others. Here’s the first part of the review, though–I’m over halfway through with the book, so I can write something. It’s a book about the fact that the 20-somethings are dropping out of church, why this is happening, what 20-somethings are looking for in a church (through a survey that was done asking unchurched and de-churched 20-somethings a lot of questions), and it ends with a study of churches that are effectively reaching 20-somethings. I’m looking forward to this section of the book, because here’s the truth: the book hasn’t “grabbed” me yet. I’ve read some of Stetzer’s work; he’s a good writer, knowledgeable in his field, and this book will be of benefit to me and others, I’m sure. Here’s the rub: he begins with a lot of statistics, analyzing the survey that was done in detail.

Now, I like statistics, at least to a point; I think they tell us some important things, like why Donovan McNabb truly is an overrated quarterback. But to lead with so many stats didn’t work for me, and it’s causing me to have a hard time really getting into the book; I feel like I’m slogging my way through. I fully expect the pace to pick up when I begin reading real-life stories about effective churches, but for now, that’s where I am with it. More later, and I hope the mood will brighten!

And so I dug in. And it wasn’t easy, frankly, because—how do I say this gently—Jim Wallis isn’t a particularly good writer, maybe on the level of Sean Hannity, ability-wise, which isn’t saying a whole lot. The first five-six chapters of the book give one the feeling that he wrote each chapter individually, at times far removed from each other, and then promptly forgot what he’d previously written. He repeats himself over and over again to the point of distraction; how many times does he feel it necessary to explain that he really, really believes that Saddam Hussein had to be removed from power? Does he write to convince us, or to convince himself? It’s hard to tell, and hard to read as well.

Finally, after taking several chapters to repeat his standard evangelical leftie boilerplate, he tackles the war in Iraq. This is probably the best part of his book, because he does make a reasonable case that this war was unnecessary (I concur) and counterproductive in the “war on terror” (again, I concur). I believe that history will not be terribly kind to George W. Bush—and that’s before the president’s ridiculous rush to involve the government in American business to an unconstitutional and unprecedented degree. Though I’m not terribly sure that the solutions that Wallis favors—he’s a big believer in multinational solutions, and puts a lot more faith in the UN than I believe is warranted—will work, it’s nonetheless true, particularly in retrospect, that the Iraq war was a mistake.

The part of the book that interested me most, though, was his take on domestic issues, poverty in particular. Could Wallis provide intellectual justification for big government approaches to solving the problem?

In a word, no. Rather than engaging in a discussion of the actual effectiveness of Wallis’ favored big-government solutions, Wallis’ approach is to simply assume that the Democrat/liberal/big government/throw more money at the problem solution is the right one, without much of any attempt at justifying his conclusions. For instance, though he doesn’t mention it a great deal, Wallis treats as a given the fact that the minimum wage is too low in America, and that it needs to be raised to provide a “living wage”. This, of course, is just the problem: it’s rather simple economics to demonstrate that the minimum wage (i.e., artificially tinkering with market) does harm to the very people it purports to help. “Regulation” of the market is a good thing to Jim Wallis, and problems come when the government isn’t providing hawk-like oversight. It either doesn’t occur to Wallis that part of “God’s politics” ought to include intellectual justification for his positions, or Wallis has his blinders on to such a degree that he’s not even willing to consider any alternative to what he’s been immersed in all his life.

Basically, what this book seems to do is to suggest that Democrat policies are on target except on pro-life issues (and there, he still comes off as though the issue isn’t as big a deal as I believe it to be), and that they just need to moderate their tone on some things, to be more genial, etc. Wallis demonstrates a woeful ignorance of fundamental economics—something that seems to be to be endemic to most all liberal-types—and throws around the standard liberal buzzwords (“social justice”, to name one particularly vacuous one) and such rather than engage in vigorous examination of the issues at hand. I can’t say I’m surprised. This is what I find to be true on a large scale for liberal apologists: there are code words and buzz words and mantras ad nauseum; there is plenty of emotion and lots of feeling; there are red herrings galore, question-begging a-plenty, guilt-by-association and logical leaps by the bucketload. But substantive debate? Arguments that stand up to the light of reason and reality? Proven solutions rather than surface-level, emotion-driven plays upon our passions? Nah, I don’t find much of that, and God’s Politics is just another book in this long line.

Jim Wallis is a guy with a big heart, and one can appreciate his passion for a better world. I admire that greatly, and find myself challenged by his example. Nonetheless, God’s Politics isn’t a particularly impressive book, and I find myself continuing to wonder of the “evangelical left”, “is there one among you who can develop an intellectually-satisfying defense of your positions?” Guess I’ll have to keep looking…

The music is fairly middle-of-the-road; no head-bangin’ here, but with that “safe” sort of semi-homogenized evangelical sing-along sound. That sounds too critical, and I don’t mean it to be; again, it does what it’s designed to do, which is not to offend either by edginess or blandness, but to assist in worship leading. Frankly, I can see myself using this CD in the future for just this purpose; in a small group setting, if no one has the talent to play a guitar or keyboard, this CD would be a certain asset.

There’s a link on the sidebar to the publisher of the CD, Coolsprings Records; I’d encourage you to check them out for this and other good stuff!

Out of a possible five UVa helmets, I’ll give this recording a three.

I received this CD free of charge from Stacy over at Active Christian Media, who does a great job of hooking up bloggers with good books and now, great music (and even a video or two!). You should check it out!

Ray Pritchard, a graduate of my alma mater, has undertaken to work his way through the Apostles’ Creed in his new work, entitled Credo: Believing in Something to Die For. Ignoring the dangling preposition at the end of his subtitle (you know, a preposition is really a lousy word to end a sentence with! Some of you will get that eventually…), Pritchard has written a nice little book that very ably, if not deeply, calls evangelical Christians back to the roots of their beliefs. At the end of the book, Pritchard sums things up this way: “This is the irreducible minimum Christians have always believed. The Creed reminds us that Christianity has a doctrinal basis. Although we talk a lot about a personal relationship with Jesus, that’s more than a feeling or a personal experience. It’s a relationship based on the truth revealed in the Bible.”

That’s a message that too many have forgotten in our individualistic, truth-challenged age, and Ray Pritchard deftly handles each clause of the Creed, explaining its meaning and then challenging readers to come to grips, not only intellectually but practically as well, with its implications for our lives. He brings the Creed to life, patiently illustrating the pertinence of our beliefs about such things as the Virgin Birth, the Ascension, and God’s judgment of all people. He made me think about some things, and I think that this book will serve as a nice resource, again, not because of particularly deep thinking, but because of its practical importance.

This is the kind of book that I’d encourage young believers, particularly, to pick up and read, in order to acquaint themselves with historic Christian faith. No, the Creed doesn’t cover every doctrine that I personally find critical; inerrancy isn’t mentioned in the Creed, and thus Pritchard doesn’t touch on it. We might say that the Creed wouldn’t necessarily serve particularly well as a full summation of our critical beliefs today, but as far as it goes, it goes well—and the same can be said for Pritchard’s elucidation of it.

Out of a possible five UVa helmets, I’ll give Credo a solid four.

I received this book free of charge from Stacy over at Active Christian Media, who does a great job of hooking up bloggers with good books. You should check it out!