I could have been a contender…
I’ve never seen that movie, but I love that line. Sometimes we willfully throw away an opportunity to make a mark on the world. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’ve missed it. Sometimes still we have been great and let it all slide away while we think about that past glory.
Comeback Churches is a book for pastors who front up a church each Sunday and see a little less each week. Less people. Less enthusiasm. Less life and vitality.
Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson provide a vital analysis of 324 American churches who have had pastors in the pulpit that have said “Enough!” it’s time to turn this around, it’s time not keep glorifying the past, it’s time to glorify God with his church. These 324 churches have turned from steady decline (often over decades) into steady growth of healthy churches.
The book isn’t prescriptive. I picked it up looking for some pointers on how to address a specific church in decline (they are reaching out to me to take a pastoral role) but it’s not an ABC of turning your church around in 30 days kind of book.
What you will get out of it is a little carrot and stick. The carrot is the success stories and a great deal of motivation to be a better, more tuned in pastor. The stick is giving you a big whack to stand up and be the leader of the church God has called you to be.
There is practical advice from the ho-hum of moving from “traditional” to contemorary and blended worship, to how to journey people into recognizing that they need to change and setting the vision for a comeback.
Complaints? There is way too much prefacing to anything the authors might think is slightly controversial. I know why they do it but I wish they wouldn’t. It’s just annoying. Apart from that, it would have been good if they published the raw data in an appendix. Some of us are nerds and like to dig into the numbers even if it isn’t really all that important.
Density
I worked through it in about a week of train travel to work. The writing is relate-able. The only thing that slows you down is the constant reflection on what your reading and the excitement you get over a new concept or idea that you know will boost your ministry.
Who should read it?
Anyone in church leadership that is experiencing decline. No, make that everyone not anyone. Although not all of it is relevant to non-pastors, it will kick you in the pants to do the work of Jesus in your community.
What impact did it have on me?
No other book has energized my thinking so much in the last 3 years. I kept reading it, getting excited, and texting my ministry team about an exciting idea that will help us love people better and slow the amount of people who might slip through the cracks.
Buy it 
