High Expectations: The Remarkable Secret of Keeping People in Your Church

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Summary: Effective churches reach and keep new members.
Review: High Expectations is a great resource for those seeking to understand the dynamics of evangelistic growth and effective discipleship. The many graphs and charts provide a visual checklist of the characteristics of high assimilation congregations. The book is more of a companion to "Effective Evangelistic Churches" rather than a stand-alone resource. At times Rainer jumps to conclusions that are out of character, such as "Mission Statements are more important than vision statements"... which is based upon research showing high assimilation churches tend to have mission statements (64.3%) rather than vision statements (42.9%).

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Summary: A Must Read for Church Leadership
Review: If you're involved in church leadership, either on staff or on a board, you owe it to yourself to read this book. There are many books out there based on opinion or the experience of one church--often a mega-church--and that's fine. But the detail and research behind this book make it unique and remarkable because it applies to every church of any size anywhere in the world. It's not the only book you'll use to develop a leadership strategy, but it may save you ten years of trial and error and hundreds of hours of meetings. Buy it for yourself, read it, and then get copies for everyone in leadership. I did.

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Summary: A good survey of a survey of Southern Baptist churches
Review: This book is basically an explanation of a survey done on 287 southern Baptist churches. The main secret to keeping people in your church is to assimilate them into the Sunday School program. The author spares no words to describe the importance of having an evangelistic Sunday School program. He points out that churches have often seen Sunday school as a discipleship or educational program, but that we need to learn from these SBC churches that long term health and growth are best secured by giving the Sunday school department a revamped, evangelistic thrust. The survey results also suggest that if you communicate that Sunday school attendance is expected of all new members, then you will have a greater chance of keeping them active once they are assimilated into a class.

But it should be kept in mind that every church culture is different. Pastoring a church where Sunday school is an available option is nice. But to make it an expectation of all members can risk the ire of some of the long standing members of the congregation. In short, some of the suggestions the author makes will be easier to assimilate into your church than others. You have to know your people and have a sense of what the Holy Spirit is saying, and a sense of what will and will not fly in your parish.