Highly recommend. The 1st half is a lot about surveys and slight differences in one group over the other, which is helpful to a point. However, the actionable reading is in the last half of the books.
1. Don’t invite people to church, invite them into your life, your table, your home, and your church.
2. Church is not an event, it’s a family.
3. Clubs can be golf, social, etc. Healthy churches are more than activities. Don’t neglect core Christian doctrine to being people back.
4. Many dechurched, apart from church trauma, still hold core beliefs, just want extra self time.
5. While 4 seems good, other underlying issues, keep the dechurched away from church. Too many to list here.
6. New church plants, something fresh and exciting vs an established church, add more new converts. Mix of good and bad news for established church. If established church is not growing in last breath donate their church to a new growing church plant. A win for the kingdom.
7. We need to live as true believers, shun hypocrisy. Non authentic members drove away dechurched. Col. 4:5-6.
8. Listen. Really listen, take people seriously. The are people not projects, not goal numbers to hit or seats to fill. 9. Large cultural gaps to bridge. Don’t abandon core Christians values, but do try to understand the views held by those you talk to, back to #8.
9. We live in attention economy, AI, TV, phones, socials, ads, etc. getting people’s attention. Doom scrolling. People are burned out attention wise. Help people get better information diets, to promote health minds that aren’t burned out.
10. Your church must be healthy. Vigorously pursue Bible study, learning, seek authentic Jesus, not prosperity Jesus, not American Jesus, etc.
11. Last two chapters, hard to sum up. Many of the points above, but new idea of living as exiles.
Really good. Recommend the book.