Beacon2Light

If the title of this review is the lament of your church, then this book is for you and help is on the way. Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote this book based on information received from hundreds of first-time guests who visited Bible-believing churches. He asked why the guests didn’t return after their first visit. Rainer then listed their top ten responses. This book is a wake-up call to churches who feel that they are friendly churches but may not realize that a first-time visitor may draw the opposite conclusion. This book will help churches see things from the viewpoint of a first-time visitor and improve your church’s appeal to those looking for a house of worship to make their spiritual home. Did you know that opting out of a certain method of getting your name out there or doing it poorly may result in your church not even getting a chance at 7 out of 10 potential visitors? In other words, a large majority of visitors may not even consider ...

If you are a pastor or a church leader, chances are that you have been to your share of seminars. Like me, you may have come away either thinking, “This will never work with my congregation” or thinking that it will but the reception and/or the results were less than stellar. Who Moved My Pulpit is different. This is stuff that you can use. Book trailer:  Tom Rainer is president and CEO of Lifeway Christian resources. For a number of years, he has researched the Church and provided the Church with important data and insight. Part of his valuable experience is as a pastor. He is one of us, church leaders; not a know-it-all outsider. In this easy-to-read book, you will find great information. It may help you to avoid common pitfalls in leading change. Motivating, insightful and practical is how I would describe it. I would highly recommend it. Get a sample download here @ThomRainer #WhoMovedMyPulpit Buy it from Lifeway Amazon   Christian Book Dis...

I Will: Nine Traits of the Outwardly Focused Christian  by Thom Rainer is the latest in a series of books by the author to help the church by helping the average church member. An Autopsy of a Deceased Church sought to take a look at common traits that lead to the decline and death of churches and encouraged believers to avoid those pitfalls. I Am a Church Member was an effort by Rainer to address the attitudes of church membership and how to be a better church member. I Will takes that a step further by addressing church members' behaviors.  I think I Will does for the average layperson what What Is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti M. Anyabwile may do for a more intellectual layperson. In fact, that is one of the things that I have loved about Thom Rainer. One doesn’t need an advanced degree to understand what in the world he is talking about. He speaks in a language people understand, giving important data in a relevant way that they can apply in very p...

I guess that this book should be easy for me to review. I am a fan, so to speak, of Mr. Rainer. After having read and reviewed many books, there are only two that I use in pastoral ministry, one of which is his earlier work, I Am a Church Member . I highly recommend that for pastors and leaders who are looking at adding new members to their church. My review of I Am a Church Member can be found here . Let me start by describing the book. Like some volumes that came out about ten years ago, Autopsy of a Deceased Church is a little book with a potentially big impact. It is an inexpensive hardback consisting of 102 pages. The book is an easy read. It is also very practical. I guess my quandary is its audience. Those who need it most probably wouldn’t pick it up. They are the church killers. Their work is amply shown in the pages of this volume. They are territorial, carnal, “it’s my church” kind of people. What is sad is that, in my experience at least, these people wh...

This is the first book by Thom Rainer that I have read.  In what I have discovered about him in general, but as a result of following his blog in particular, I have developed quite a bit of respect for him.  His latest did not disappoint. Published on April 14, 2013,  I Am A Church Member is available in Kindle e-book or hardcover versions and it is just under 100 pages long. I read the book in Kindle form in less than 2 hours.  It is easy to read, digest and sensitively but unashamedly addresses issues like gossip, a "what's in it for me" mindset, worship wars and more. Rainer asks the reader to consider what he believes is a biblical attitude of church membership and how that differs from the culture's definition of membership. Unlike other books of this type, Rainer doesn't ignore Scripture but brings them forth alongside research and experience to offer a compelling description of what a church member is and should be and the difference that would m...

National Day of Prayer -- Thursday, May 2 For those of you like me who are not yet ready, there are downloadable resources at http://nationaldayofprayer.org/shop/ Humankind Water - provides clean drinking water and can be bought at Walmarts in CT, NJ, NY, PA, DE, MD and VA   One Lane Bridge by Don Reid -- Free on Kindle for a limited time!  David C. Cook Publishing Nick Gilbert reports: The eBook edition of Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger is FREE today at several online retail sites. This is a one-day only thing, so get this best-seller at no cost while you can! Barnes & Noble ChristianBook.com iTunes Amazon (99 cents)   Antidote to Poison I was haunted by failure to the edge of suicide—and then came life. Ravi Zacharias' testimony  The book Ravi Zacharias mentions in his testimony that he still has: St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans by W. H. Griffith Thomas ...