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Breakout Church
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Item Description...
In Thom Rainer's latest book, he sets out to discover how churches that were once healthy but had stagnated in growth have broken out to become great churches impacting lives and entire communities.
Buy Breakout Church by Rainer Thom from our Church Supplies store - isbn: 9780310257455 & 031025745X upc: 025986257453
The team at ChristianBookstore.Net welcome you to our Christian Book store! We offer the best selections of Christian Books, Bibles, Christian Music, Inspirational Jewelry and Apparel, Homeschool curriculum, and Church Supplies. We encourage you to purchase your copy of Breakout Church by Rainer Thom today - and if you are for any reason not happy, you have 30 days to return it. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 272
Dimensions: Length: 9.1" Width: 6" Height: 1"
Weight: 1.07 lbs.
Binding Cloth Text
Publisher ZONDERVAN BOOKS #42
ISBN 031025745X
EAN 9780310257455
UPC 025986257453
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Availability 7 units.
Availability accurate as of Sep 03, 2010 07:22.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Johnson City, TN.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | making good churches great Mar 15, 2007 |
| This was a practical book on how to move a church from being good to being great without replacing the senior pastor. This book has some practical insights, useful evaluation tools, and great suggestions for increasing a church's effectiveness. | | | | A Blueprint for ministry. Jan 11, 2007 |
I've read a lot of church growth books over the last twenty years or so. Twenty years from now we will look back at "Breakout Churches" as one of the landmark books in the whole church growth movement.
For those like me who have been impressed with Tom Collins' books "Built to Last" and "Good to Great" and have wondered how to "translate" Collins' findings to churches, this is the book for you. I know that the data and conclusions are not flawless, but time will take care of that as more and more people see the huge benefits of what Rainer has helped to pioneer. Still, small flaws and all, Rainer hits a home run with this book because he gives us a blueprint for church growth. He gives us a map.
For example, I've wondered in my local church if we're doing the right thing. After reading Rainer's accounts of "breakout churches" who have gone through the same thing, I can relax a little by seeing just where we are "on the map." That's helpful because pioneers always find a map helpful. Knowledge is most important. Just yesterday on the History Channel documentary about 18th century pirates it was noted that one of the first things that often happened when a vessel saw that the pirates' siege against them was going to work, the captain would throw the maps overboard so that the pirates wouldn't know where every shoal in an area was.
"Breakout Churches" is a map to help guide you through the unknown areas into greatness for your church. | | | | Principles for God-honoring church growth Nov 18, 2006 |
What does it take for a plodding church to shatter mediocrity and become a great one? In his recently published thirteenth book, Thom Rainer offers fresh research into the elements of change that contributed to the successful reversal of mediocrity at thirteen turnaround churches. Although stressing that his research does not offer a systematic approach to church greatness (p. 198), he addressed this book to those who want to see their church stimulated toward it (p. 17). He provides practical principles for leaders longing to see their church move forward. He gives actual insights that his research team gleaned from leaders in breakout churches. These churches formerly struggled to maintain worship attendance but eventually experienced remarkable growth. This study identified the relevant factors involved in turning them around.
Rainer is president of LifeWay Christian Resources and is a frequent conference speaker. He has served as a pastor in twelve churches. He holds a M.Div. and a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he previously served as Founding Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. His experience and background give him credibility with those who may read this book thinking that it is just another theory-driven church growth book. It is not. It is the result of three years of intensive research.
Rainer's latest book is a church-focused sequel to Jim Collins' business bestseller Good to great: Why some companies make the leap... and others don't (2001, New York: Harper Business). In fact, he "borrowed the research process, the structure and outline of the book, and the architecture of its ideas" from Good to Great (p. 15-16). Rainer's devotion to Collins' work opens the possibility that he may have allowed Collins' findings to influence this study's conclusions. Nevertheless, using Collins' research methodology (p. 15) permitted him to screen over 52,000 churches in the United States to find thirteen breakout churches to examine (p. 13).
Rainer excluded churches that had never plateaued or declined as well as churches that grew after changing pastors. This research design focused on a narrow sample. It allowed the exploration of the uniqueness of a few churches that had moved beyond mediocrity to become great and growing congregations. This sharp focus contributed to high internal validity as distinctive results came from the unique sample. For comparison purposes, Rainer also selected thirty-nine other churches that had not made the leap to greatness. His research team then used both quantitative and qualitative methods as they identified the elements that led to sustained growth. They examined the five-year periods before and after the attendance breakout point for the thirteen turnaround churches (p. 16). This point was a clearly identified time when these churches began to experience lasting and significant growth. Following this point, their worship attendance increased by 71 percent while the comparison churches' attendance declined.
Rainer set the tone for the entire book in chapter 1 by stating, "It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great" (p. 15). In this chapter, he used the example of a caterpillar that is in the process of becoming a butterfly to identify what he called "the Chrysalis Factor" (p. 24). That factor includes six major components [6] involved in a church's transformation from mediocrity to greatness. Rainer devotes at least one chapter to each element.
In chapters 2 and 3, Rainer wrote that breakout churches had [1] "Acts 6/7 Legacy Leaders" (p. 44) at the helm just as Collins' great companies were led by "level 5 leaders." Rainer noted these leaders equipped others for ministry, raised up successors, made decisions benefiting the church, accepted responsibility when things went wrong, and were generous with their praise. These leaders also displayed confident humility, deflected recognition, loved their people unconditionally and were persistent in leading progress (p. 58-60). They focused on others.
Chapter 4 found the author discussing what he called [2] the "ABC moment" (p. 69). He used this term to indicate awareness/belief/crisis. Rainer said that "the vast majority of churches ...are addicted to mediocrity" (p. 71) while "most of the ministry in the church is focused on the membership (p. 74). In contrast, the breakout churches had confronted this brutal reality and experienced their "ABC moment." Facing and understanding this reality allowed these churches to move beyond mediocrity to greatness.
Rainer discussed the third Chrysalis Factor in chapter 5. This was a phenomenon he labeled [3] the "Who/What Simultrack" (p. 92). Breakout churches worked at getting the right people on staff and the right structures in place. They often did not wait for a staff opening before bringing a new person on board (p. 92). Also, if they had the wrong person on staff, they acted quickly to make a change. Similar to Collins' findings, these churches put their best people on their biggest opportunities (p. 99). Underlying all of this was a drive shaped by purpose.
In chapter 6, Rainer discovered that vision did not seem to lead the breakout churches (p. 111). Rather, they commented that vision discovered them (p. 127). The church leaders had found the intersection of their passions, their congregation's spiritual gifts, and their community's needs (p. 114). Rainer called this junction [4] "the VIP factor" which stood for a vision intersection profile (p. 117). He found it allowed the breakout churches to focus on the few things they could do well (p.124).
Rainer noted in chapter 7 that the breakout churches had a [5] culture of excellence. They only did what they could do outstandingly (p. 132). Consequently, they appeared to display excellence in all things (p. 131). Importantly, this commitment was theologically and biblically driven. The leadership wanted to glorify God by doing their VIP factor with excellence (p. 132). Rainer reported a strong correlation between excellence and the VIP factor in these churches (p. 135). In contrast, the comparison churches lacked compelling excellence in their ministries.
Rainer discussed the final Chrysalis Factor in chapter 8. The breakout churches viewed [6] innovation as accelerators of growth and not creators of it (p. 152). In fact, they may have even appeared to be slow or plodding when dealing with innovation (p. 152). In contrast, the comparison churches seemed to chase innovation in a futile attempt to create a vision. The research team saw this approach as "the tail wagging the dog" (p. 156). It does not work.
These six components of the Chrysalis Factor led to what Rainer labeled the "Big Mo" in chapter 9. After persistently applying the chrysalis factors, the breakout churches began to gain momentum. The researchers could not identify any one single thing that caused these churches to breakout. One observer said, "Everything stands out" (p. 166). "Big Mo" just took over. Rainer noted that comparison churches had change-resistant leadership (p. 178 ff) that blocked "Big Mo" and may be the biggest obstacle keeping ordinary churches from moving ahead.
Early in the book, Rainer stated that he thought Collins' concept of confronting the brutal facts would be found to be critical for churches that experienced an attendance breakout (p. 71). The research confirmed that statement. In fact, Rainer wrote that his "main error was underestimating how critical this factor would be" (p. 71). He seems to have discovered an important key for any church desiring a "breakout." This was valuable.
Rainer's study is valuable in helping average churches know what it takes to move ahead. His use of Collins' methodology allowed him to hone in on six key factors involved in moving a church out of mediocrity. His research design showed careful thought while his scan of 52,000 churches added much to the generalizability of the research. It was a very broad population.
Due to his methodology, it was not surprising that Rainer's six Chrysalis Factors matched very closely with Collins' conclusions. That may leave the reader thinking that something else is needed to explain the identification and emergence of breakout churches. For instance, Rainer acknowledged that numerical measures were key in the evaluation of breakout churches (p. 188). Perhaps he could have used other equally valuable measures in his search for these churches. For example, Jesus called churches principally to be faithful (Rev. 2:10, 3:11). Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8 suggest there is potential for greatness in that calling. One must consider whether a breakout church is exclusively one that demonstrates effectiveness through conversion growth. The question is whether other purposes for the church are equally great.
Rainer may have prematurely concluded that a pastor's long tenure is required for a church's turnaround (p. 58). Since this study only included churches that had the same pastor at least ten years, all thirteen churches inevitably had pastors with long tenure. In fact, the data may suggest that long-term pastorates normally do not lead to breakout growth. After all, Rainer only found 13 breakout churches out of a population of over 52,000. The data in this study does not lead to a conclusion about tenure. Other studies need to do that.
Rainer's sample of breakout churches omitted growing churches that had never experienced a period of mediocrity. It also excluded formerly mediocre churches that had recruited a new pastor and then experienced growth. That limits the study's generalizability to Rainer's apparent target audience of mediocre and average churches. Not surprisingly, that may include most churches in America.
I highly recommend this book for any pastor desiring something more than commonplace mediocrity for their church. They will benefit from the sense of optimism and expectancy it generates as well as the proven principles that move churches forward. Even ordinary churches can see remarkable change if their leaders and congregations are seeking it. Rainer's research shows that dreaming of the future means focusing on people currently outside the church. This book provides confirmed principles that can lead a church to greatness.
| | |  | Are You Looking for a Breakout? Nov 9, 2006 |
I had to read this book for a ministry class. As a pastor, I found this volume to be encouraging. In fact, since the reading of this book, I have sort to implement some of the things I have learned.
Once a ministry is of God, I am confident that he will gave a breakout. The local church must be relevant. I recommend this to every pastor who is in a struggling ministry and needs some encouragement. | | | | FANTASTIC Nov 4, 2006 |
| BE CHALLENGED TO EVALUATE YOUR CHURCH. WHERE ARE YOU? THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! | | | Write your own review about Breakout Church
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