I am a fairly voracious reader (recently). My favorite topics are theology and Missiology (how Christian theology affects your life: turning you into a missionary.)

I’ve recently read four excellent books on the topic of missiology specifically related to the culture we live in, how to understand it and how to speak to it: Breaking The Missional Code, They Like Jesus but Not The Church, Unchristian, and most recently Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them.

Several things strike me about these books.

1. They are all written based on a healthy mixture of good data (research!) and objective, Spirit-led observation of reality around them, through relationship with those that are being written about.

2. They all provide biblically-based principals, rather than faddish methodologies, based on analysis of this research and observation.

3. They all come to approximately the same conclusions.

I feel that we would do well to listen up, especially since these books come from three different organizations from three different “corners of the church” (Barna Research Group, a large church in California, and LifeWay research), and therefore aren’t simply creating an echo chamber of thought.

Perhaps soon I will get around to reviewing all of them, but this post is concerned with the Lost and Found book.

Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and The Churches that Reach Them

Of the four, I found this book to be the easiest to digest, with the most recent data, clearly stated methodologies and goals, with to-the-point analysis at the end of each chapter.

The book is an engaging read. A well structured balance of research based data, personal interview, and an engaging “true story” narrative that glues the concepts together with practical advice.

The book’s introduction speaks well to its purpose:

Much has been written and said about younger adults and their view of church. You don’t need a lot of research to tell you what you already know…

…this is not a prescripbe book with magical answers to the problems plaguing churches devoid of young adults. Each church we profile, like yours, is unique in setting, ministry, and calling…

…in this book [the authors] are asking one simple question: Who are the yong unchruched and how can they be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ? (OK, that’s two questions)…

…We realize you do not need another book of statistics. But what we do need is something to help all of us engage an increasingly lost generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need tools that will help us seek and save those of this generation who are lost. As you read, our prayer is that you will be challenged to take action, so that the lost may be found.

After reading the book, it occurred to me that some churches DO need a book of statistics. It seems that even in our intuitive knowledge of the problem that Christianity is considered hypocritically judgmental, and concerned more with it’s own organization than with people, we do little to help this situation, probably because we don’t fully understand the problem.

We bristle at critiques that call us judgmental and hypocritical, saying that we’re simply pointing out sin. We hide behind verses that tell us that the world is going to hate us.

We fail to realize that for some people that God brings into our sphere of influence, we are called to help heal years of hurt from past religious institutions.

We fail to acknowledge that some people simply aren’t going to come to our church, no matter how cool our music is, how “casual” and “lingo free” we try to be, or how many “bring a friend to church sundays” we organize and exhort our people to.

The fact is that Jesus called us to go out among the lost.

I was shocked at the statistics that showed how little of a difference the “young unchurched” reported the style of music or service made in their decision to check out a church or not.

What matter to them are deep relationships and authentic community where it is safe to ask the hard questions without being told to “just have faith”. Along with people who actually care enough about the community they are in to get involved in it, rather than simply protest it, picket it, bemoan it’s fallenness, or simply huddle up an ignore it.

Read this book.