Why do so many young adults leave the church, and what will it take to bring them back? This is the basic question of the book, Essential Church. The authors, Thom and Sam Rainer, interviewed over 1,000 so-called church dropouts aged 18-30. They discovered that 70% of young adults dropped out of the church they had spent at least a year regularly attending. This book tells the reader why young adults abandoned church and how to reverse that trend and even grow.  

The top 10 reasons why young adults dropped out, starting with the most common, are these: 1) Wanted a break from church, 2) church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical, 3) moved to college and stopped attending, 4) work responsibilities prevented attending, 5) moved too far away from church to attend, 6) became too busy to attend, 7) didn’t feel connected to people in church, 8) disagreed with church’s stance on political or social issues, 9) chose to spend time with friends outside of church, 10) went to church only to please others (3).  

The solution? Be essential. “Most churches in America are doing little to become essential to the lives of their members.” (5) Thom and Sam have 4 suggestions: 1) Simplify so the church has a clear mission and structure. 2) Deepen in your teaching and doctrine so people know why Jesus matters for their life and eternity. 3) Expect more out of your members so they grow into mature Christians. 4) Multiply so the members learn and live the great commission. Simplify, deepen, expect, and multiply (6).  

Their four-fold solution is not just a simple formula. “There is a danger, however, in offering solutions. One of those dangers is for the solution to be formulaic… Our proposed solutions are neither formulaic nor easy” (157). And this is not an outreach book. “One purpose of this book, stated simply, is to share how churches can retain those who are already attending and to reveal how churches can reach those who left the church” (138). Thom and Sam wrote this book for one purpose: they encourage every church to be essential.  

This book forces the reader to ask themselves hard questions about their current ministry context. For each of the four proposed solutions, I offer a few quotes or ideas and then ask questions that could apply to any church.     

Simplify:  

Churches can have programs and activities that don’t serve the mission of the church. In fact, “A complex structure can impede the church from becoming healthy” (162). Churches should be clear and purposeful about what they do and how they do it (164). “At the risk of redundancy, we repeat that the structure is not the most important part of a church. Doctrine… Clear membership expectations… Evangelism (are) all more important. But each of those more important areas may not come alive in your church without the right structure” (178). A simple and healthy church structure with a clear mission is a foundation block of an essential church.  

Challenging questions:  

– Is the mission of our church clear to me? To my council? To my members? 
– How much do people care about the mission of our church? 
– Does the activity of our church directly lead to our mission?  
– Does my church have any activities that don’t serve any function? 
– Are the positions people hold useful? 
– Are we helping everyone, regardless of age or gender, to serve at our church?  

Deepen:  

“The younger adults of today want deep biblical teachings. They want to hear the whole counsel of God. They want to hear truth, even if it makes them uneasy or uncomfortable” (196). This matters for both dropouts and those who stay. “Young people are more likely to come back to church if they have been grounded in Scripture” (195). In fact, “those who remain active in the church have two overarching reasons for staying: 1) they have a personal commitment to the church, and 2) they see the benefits of remaining in church. All of these relate to the biblical foundation they have” (195). Also, “Our earlier research found that the unchurched were most attracted to churches that held a high view of Scripture and that taught matters of biblical depth (231). The younger generation, churched or unchurched, is seeking something spiritual (33).  It matters when the church teaches the deep truths of Scripture (197-199). Finally, “Young adults leave because they lose a connection to the community of believers. Style of worship plays a small part in the creation of this community” (64). Essential churches don’t worry about surface level issues like worship style. They deepen their teaching.  

Challenging questions: 

– Does our church give the pastor enough time each week to dive deep into a personal devotional life? Into his sermon work? Into his bible study preparation? 
– Does our church equip their pastors and teachers with the necessary resources, tools, and ongoing training and education for preaching and teaching? 
– Does the mission of our church make it a priority to lead people into bible studies? 
– Does our church encourage and equip the members to have a daily devotional life? 
– Does our church make sure we properly teach and engage all age groups: youths, teenagers, college students, etc.? 
– Does our church want very person to grow into mature Christians?  

Expect: 

“The healthiest churches tend to have a healthy balance of reasonable expectations” (206). Look again at the above list of “top 10 reasons why young adults drop out.” You can summarize many reasons as “life happened.” Jennifer, an interviewee, described low expectation churches like this: “Some churches are so nonchalant about membership that they don’t know where two-thirds of their members are” (205). Unfortunately, “this low-expectation environment has been normative for most of the churches in which young adults have attended” (207). Thom and Sam suggest robust new member classes and encouragement to attend both church and bible study. Essential churches expect a lot out of their members.  

Challenging questions: 

– Is it easy to disappear from our church and not be noticed? 
– Is our church regularly encouraging people to attend both church and bible class? 
– What is our church doing to encourage delinquent members to attend? 
– Is our church okay with Christmas and Easter attenders? Should we be okay with that? 
– Are the elders of our church faithfully reaching out to those who have dropped out of worship? Are they helping the pastor encourage people to come to bible study?
– Do our church leaders and elders themselves not attend worship and bible study regularly? Are there some who are perhaps not qualified to be leaders and elders? 

Multiply:  

Thom and Sam share encouraging statistics about outreach: 50% of the re-churched came back simply because family or friends invited them (224). 31% of the unchurched said they were very likely to attend church if a family or friend invited them (226). They also add this: “Life events are key times when people start attending church or when they decide to return to church” (227). This was some of their best outreach advice: “If there is a single word that could best describe essential churches, it would be intentional… When we are asked about the best method of outreach for a church, our typical response is, ‘Don’t just stand there; do something’” (234). God blesses every church with different gifts, contexts, and opportunities. Whatever it might be, do something to invite others to church or tell others about Jesus. Essential churches look outward.  

Challenging questions:  

– Does our church have an intentional outreach strategy? 
– Is our church doing anything to invite or reach the lost? 
– Does our church equip and encourage its members to invite family and friends? 
– Does our ministry mainly look inward and serve ourselves, or outward to outsiders? 
– Does our church act on the preferences and opinions of members, or on a desire to reach the lost? 
– Do personal arguments about inconsequential matters dominate the politics of our church?  
– Based on political bumper stickers or sports team jackets, would a visitor feel like an outsider? 
– How warm and welcoming are we to visitors?  

Essential Church was published in 2008. However, this book still has my recommendation. Sixteen years have not made it obsolete. In fact, the problems and solutions it gives are even more useful. There was plenty of information I didn’t have a chance to discuss, like the importance of community and service projects for young people. I would recommend studying this book privately, as a leadership team, or in bible class, and challenging yourselves with their observations and insight. This book makes you ask hard questions of yourself and your ministry, wherever you may be.