Books provide an opportunity for in-depth study of a particular topic. Thom Rainer and the Church Answers team have authored over two dozen books.
By Thom S. Rainer
This book is, in effect, your personal church consultant, helping you plan and prepare for the future. In the midst of heartbreak, tragedy, and struggle due to Covid-19, here’s hope, wisdom, encouragement and vision.
By Sam Rainer
In his newest book, Sam Rainer covers why every Christ-follower is meant to be connected to the church. Topics include:
By Thom S. Rainer
Thom Rainer reveals seven findings of revived churches. Through new research, he figuratively dissects hundreds of churches that were on the path toward death. But they turned around. They revived.
By Thom S. Rainer
Thom Rainer has heard church leaders make statements of defeat, hopelessness, and despair hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Church leaders don’t want to feel this way. They want their churches to make a difference. What does a scrappy church look like? Let’s take a look together.
By Thom S. Rainer
Thom Rainer has a game plan for churches to become more hospitable. In a format that is suitable for church members to read individually or study together, Rainer guides readers toward a practical framework for making a difference for those who visit their church.
By Thom S. Rainer
Thom Rainer has created a tool for churches to become more hospitable through a brief, welcoming book that introduces the ministry of the local church to guests. We Want You Here is a clear and instructive message to be given to church guests.
By Thom S. Rainer
Based on conversations with thousands of pastors, combined with on-the-ground research from more than 50,000 churches, best-selling author Thom Rainer shares an eight-stage roadmap to leading change in your church. Not by changing doctrine. Not by changing biblical foundations. But by changing methodologies and approaches for reaching a rapidly changing culture.
By Thom S. Rainer
Every day we are faced with the needs of those around us. Emotional. Physical. Spiritual. What are we to do about it? Are these problems for our pastors to address or is there a way for the church member to make an impact that will last? Thom S. Rainer answers these questions by offering nine simple traits that you can incorporate into your life no matter your background, stage of life, or sense of capability.
By Thom S. Rainer
No one wants to see a church die. And yet, far too many churches are dying. For more than twenty-five years, Thom Rainer has helped churches grow, reverse the trends of decline, and has autopsied those that have died. From this experience, he has discovered twelve consistent themes among those churches that have died. Yet, it’s not gloom and doom because from those twelve themes, lessons on how to keep your church alive have emerged.
By Thom S. Rainer
Best-selling author and ministry leader Thom Rainer drew an exceptional response when he posted a 500-word declaration about church membership to his daily blog. “I Am a Church Member” started a conversation about the attitudes and responsibilities of church members — rather than the functional and theological issues — that previous new member primers all but ignored.
Thoughtfully expanded to book form, I Am a Church Member begins to remedy the outbreak of inactive or barely committed church members, addressing without apology what is expected of those who join a body of believers.
By Thom S. Rainer and Jess W. Rainer
Sure to interest even the secularists who study this group, The Millennials is based on 1200 interviews with its namesakes that aim to better understand them personally, professionally, and spiritually. Chapters report intriguing how-and-why findings on family matters , their desire for diversity, Millennials and the new workplace, their attitude toward money, the media, the environment, and perhaps most tellingly, religion. The authors close with a thoughtful response to how the church can engage and minister to what is now in fact the largest generation in America’s history.
By Ed Stetzer and Thom S. Rainer
Based on the most comprehensive study of its kind, including a survey of more than 7,000 churches and hundreds of on-site interviews with pastors, Transformational Church takes us to the thriving congregations where truly changing lives is the norm. Stetzer and Rainer clearly confirm the importance of disciple making for all through active biblical engagement and prayerful dependence on God alongside of ever-increasing, intentional participation in mission and ministry activities. As the church engages these issues, the world will see the change.
By Thom S. Rainer and Art Rainer
The research and change methods that made Simple Church a multiawarded, #1 ministry best seller are now applied to everyday matters in Simple Life. Authors Thom Rainer and Art Rainer interviewed a cross-section of 1,077 individuals to confirm that most people feel their lives are overly stressful and misguided, not allowing enough time for what really counts. As they share these highly relatable stories, the Rainers chart a simple path from joyless to joyful.
By Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger
Multi-awarded #1 national bestseller Simple Church guides Christians back to the simple gospel-sharing methods of Jesus. No bells or whistles required. With insights based on case studies of 400 American churches, Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger prove the disciple-making process is often too complex. Simple churches thrive by taking four ideas to heart: Clarity. Movement. Alignment. Focus.
By Thom S. Rainer
Breakout Churches – Can your church become one? This is the story of thirteen churches and the leaders who moved them from stagnancy to growth and from mediocrity to greatness. Drawing on one of the most comprehensive studies ever on the church, this book reveals the process of becoming a ‘breakout’ church and the factors that lead to this spiritual metamorphosis. Eighty percent of the approximately 400,000 churches in the United States are either declining or at a plateau. Is there hope for the American church? Breakout Churches offers a resounding ‘yes!’ and offers specific examples and principles to help you and your church become more effective.
By Thom S. Rainer and Sam Rainer III
“Why do so many young adults (18 to 22) leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back?” This important question is examined and duly answered in Essential Church?, a follow-up to Thom S. Rainer’s best-selling Simple Church cowritten this time with his son, research expert Sam Rainer. The book is based on a study of one-thousand so-called “church dropouts” who were interviewed about why they left. Their answers are quite surprising, having less to do with “losing their religion” and more about the desire for a community that isn’t made stale by simply maintaining the status quo. In turn, the Rainers offer churches four concrete solutions toward making their worship community an essential part these young people’s lives again.
By Thom S. Rainer
For over a quarter of a century the problem of losing church members has progressively increased. Today the situation is so bad that less than one-third of the members in some churches attend worship services. Church leaders are crying for help. In an effort to help church leaders, the Billy Graham School of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary conducted a massive research project involving nearly 287 churches. The most revealing aspect of the study was that the higher expectations placed on members, the greater the likelihood that the members would stay and be involved with the church. Using the data gathered from this project, Thom Rainer presents the first-ever comprehensive study about ‘closing the back door.’ Rainer looks at why people are leaving the church and how church leaders can keep the members.
By Thom S. Rainer
A growing church is a living church, but much of the attention in church growth today is focused on making big churches bigger. This encouraging new book shows members of small and medium-sized congregations how to revive and expand their ministries as well. Churches of every size tend to plateau in attendance and never break free of their self-imposed limitations or ‘growth barriers’. This book gives detailed, practical instructions for breaking through those barriers to new levels of impact and service in the community. The EveryChurch Guide to Growth rallies church leaders and members to develop plans for strength and solid growth in the future.
By Thom S. Rainer
The Bridger Generation is the first comprehensive study of the new generation, 72 million strong, born between 1977 and 1994. These are ‘the Bridgers’–the first generation to come of age in the twenty-first century, bridging the gap between two centuries and two millennia. Rainer’s in-depth analysis explores and explains revealing data, facts, and trends about tomorrow’s leaders and how best to present them with the gospel of Jesus. Moving beyond the Baby Boomers, Busters, and Generation X, The Bridger Generation takes a unique first look at the next American demographic phenomenon.
By Thom S. Rainer
Part research project, part detective story, this book presents results from the most comprehensive study of successful churches in history. These 586 churches across America all excel in winning new souls for Christ, and have a remarkable range of things in common. Some stereotypes are shattered, some results are astonishing, and everything is written in a readable, non-technical style.
By Thom S. Rainer
The Church Growth Movement has divided devout Christians. Even though Rainer is an advocate, his aim here is to present an objective view of the movement–its history, the theology associated with it, and the principles which seem to separate churches that grow from those that don’t.
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