Lost and Found
by Ed Stetzer, Richie Stanley and Jason
Hayes
Reviewed by Marshall Hughes
Jammed
full of thought-provoking statistics and analysis, Lost and Found is a must for those actively involved in youth ministries. If you
have at least a fairly strong interest in youth ministries, it’s
the kind of book you’ll want to discuss, and argue, with friends.
Within the last few months, the American media has run a number of stories
that should be worrisome to Christians. I’m not referring to the
nonstop “Is Barack the Messiah?” articles, but articles such
as the Christian Science Monitor’s “The Coming Evangelical
Collapse” the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s recent article
on the ban of Florida hospice chaplains using the word “God,” or
Newsweek’s recent “The End of Christian America.”
Many churches across our fruited plains are, following Europe’s
lead, dying out with the passing of older members and a dearth of young
members
to take their places. This hits home for me personally when I periodically
worship at a Japanese church in California where the average age of members
is close to 70 years old - seventy and rising.
With that as background, the 2009 release of Ed Stetzer’s Lost
and Found - The Younger Unchurched and the Churches That Reach Them seems to
have come at a fortuitous time. There are a lot of statistics and tables
to digest and mull over, particularly in the first part of the book, so
don’t think this is an easy read to be done while checking e-mail
or watching TV with one eye.
The first third of the book discusses who the young are today (particularly
the unchurched) and what they believe about God, Christianity and the church.
The middle third is an analysis of what the needs are of the young unchurched,
and the last part of the book focuses on particular churches who are having
success reaching the young, and what they are doing to achieve their success.
Among the more interesting points from the first part of the book regarding
the unchurched are:
*The more education one has, the less likely one is to believe in the God
of the Bible. (Given what passes for education these days, this is hardly
a surprise.)
*The unchurched are not worried about the afterlife. (So talking hellfire
and brimstone might not be the best tact.)
*Some 83% of over-30 unchurched agree with the statement “I think
Christianity today is more about organized religion than about loving God
and loving people.” (Ouch.)
*More than four in five younger unchurched people believe that God or a
higher supreme being exists. (The figure is, however, dropping.)
The authors don’t
just quote statistics, they have some thought-provoking ideas, too. For
example,
the idea that the old model of bringing people
into the faith was behave-believe-belong, whereas the new model is belong-believe-become.
While the last part of the book might be slightly less meaty than the
other parts, there is still some beef to it. One interesting finding
is that inviting someone to serve at a church-sponsored service event
(i.e. feeding the homeless) seems to be, at a minimum, at least as successful
as inviting one to a church service. This is because the young unchurched
a) don’t want to sit through a church service and, b) do want to
be involved in service to the community.
Other topics discussed in the later stages of the book include:
*people seem to like traditional church buildings more than new, gymnasium-style
churches.
*music is very important to some people’s choices of church.
*young people want spiritual mentors
If the last part of the book had to be effectively boiled down to one
thought, the closest one could come would be rule No. 1 of the public relations
world: know your audience.
The one part of the book that really doesn’t work is the curious
insertion of two-and three-page excerpts here and there of what appears
to be parts of a novel. At best, they dumb down the rest of the book.
You probably have to be truly interested in the themes discussed in Lost
and Found to enjoy reading it. It is written for a fairly thin slice
of Christian readers, and if your interest in evangelizing the young
in America is less than hearty, you might give up part way through the
book. Conversely, if you think this book will interest you, you are probably
right.
Marshall Hughes is a former sports writer for the Honolulu
Advertiser. For most
of the past 17 years he has taught English in Japan. He has taught at the university
level in America, Japan and China. Among his hobbies are sports, traveling and
photography. He has been to 40 countries and is always hoping to go somewhere
new. He is an award-winning photographer in both Japan and America. His bi-lines
include The Washington Post, The Pacific Daily News (Guam), The
Contra Costa
Times and several sports publications.
