EVANGELISM RESEARCH ESSAY: COMEBACK CHURCHES, BREAKING

THE MISSIONAL CODE & THE CONVERGENT CHURCH

A Term Paper

Presented to

Dr. Alvin Reid

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Personal Evangelism EVA 5100

John Marks Sanders

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

October 28, 2009

 Today’s church is in much need of inspection and overhaul. The church must strive to stay

true to the timeless message of the gospel, but it must also seek to impact the culture that God

destined the church to influence. Fortunately, great resources are available to aid the church in

accomplishing its mission today. Such resources include Comeback Churches by Ed Stetzer and

Mike Dodson, Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putman, and The

Convergent Church by Mark Liederbach and Alvin Reid. This paper will serve the purpose of

briefly reviewing these literary works, offering strengths & weaknesses of each, analyzing and

forming a systhesis of them, and giving their contributions to the church, personal witness, and

evangelism.

Comeback Churches by Stetzer and Dodson sought to write a book that would help the

church in its current condition. These men sought to attack the problem of stagnant and

irrelevant churches by providing empirical data of what a number of churches have done to

arrive at the status of a “comeback church.” Three hundred twenty-four churches were chosen

that fit required criteria that proved their previous state of plateau and or decline. After

confirming their trend, certain key principles were observed. These churches were revived after

they were once again doing the work of the gospel. Comeback Churches recorded the results

and produced the principles for all the read and use. The authors are very particular in stating

that they did not write a magic list of formulas and how-to’s but rather a playbook strategy of

principles that should be custom fitted to one’s ministry, culture, and demographic. These

comeback churches give great hope to those in the ministry. These churches are found in various

regions, demographics, resources, and even denominations. The data speaks for itself. With

1
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hard work and determination to do whatever it takes, churches can be changed and they can once

again be used by God to fulfill its mission.

Comeback Churches did a great service to all lay leaders and pastors. The work was

well rounded and included many aspects of ministry. However, some aspects were stronger than

others. The major strengths of the work must include its objective presentation of statistics and

its method to impact the entire church. The statistics used in Comeback Churches gave the book

a sense of reality. It is one thing to have a book that includes tips and principles that in theory

sound great and should make drastic headway in the way a church operates, but it is of greater

credibility to present real numbers. Making this experiment real brings motivation and

excitement for the church instead of false hope and disappointment. Another great strength is

Stetzer and Dodson’s method of showing the entire church making a comeback. The book does

not solely rest on leadership, ministry, or worship, but rather ties every aspect of every ministry

together for the common goal of becoming missional and reaching the lost for Christ.

Comeback Churches also had weaknesses. What the book offers in practicality and

application, it lacks in doctrine and reason. Comeback Churches is great for the one who is

looking for ideas of things that can be changed in order to have a quick fix but reason behind the

changes discussed were left out. Because Comeback Churches was a book that gathered together

results of actions made, the reason for making such changes was not included and often times the

reason is important. The doctrines behind certain church practices were not revealed in the work

which gives the impression that all one needs to do is change and not worry about the doctrine or

reason behind them. What is described as preferences in the church are sometimes key elements

to church heritage and changing them would distort key practices. Comeback Churches puts

great emphasis on changing facilities and worship style, but such a shallow solution is not and
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should not always be considered. The purposes behind practices in the church should be studied

and analyzed. Stetzer and Dodson make this clear, but at times the book simply notes that the

changes were made and a positive result came from it. One should be careful before making

such decisions when the reason behind such decisions is not explained.

Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putman sets the bar high for the

church in America. Rather than saying something happened to American society, these authors

say something didn’t happen. The church forgot its mission, got comfortable in its heyday and

has now allowed “the number of adults who do not attend church to nearly double, rising from

39 million to 75 million—a 92% increase”1 in a matter of 13 years. Stetzer and Putman declare

that something must change, America needs a new model to reach its inhabitants; churches must

break the code. Breaking the Missional Code speaks to the church saying its current trend will

not work. The church must take up the strategies of missionaries and apply them to the

American culture. This means that church must “seek to understand the cultural situation and its

people and seek to reach them with the gospel.”2 The gospel is the precious news that Christ

died on the cross for the sins of man. If cultural barriers cannot be crossed to allow this

information to flow from found to lost, the church ceases to adhere to its calling to the Great

Commission. Breaking the Missional Code speaks of the process required for a church to be sent

out instead staying in.

Strengths that add to the effectiveness of Breaking the Missional Code and set this book

apart are found in the details. Several elements make the book easy to read, follow, and apply.

At the end of every chapter are thought-provoking questions. The chapters in Breaking the

1
Ed Stetzer and David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can
Become a Missionary in Your Community (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006), 8.
2
Ibid., 3.
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Missional Code are intended to be meditated upon and then put into practice. If the church is to

send out missionaries by implementing custom plans into their given culture then help is needed.

Guidance is provided by the authors to help cultivate these custom thoughts required in order for

a church to become missional in their own community, thus the importance of the questions. For

each leader that reads Breaking the Missional Code, a different response or idea will come that

will be unique to that leader’s church or community in which that church must reach. The

questions allow the chapter to be summed up and then directly applied to the reader’s situation.

Also, the structure of the book using the subheadings provides strength for Break the Missional

Code. Leaning towards the side of practical and user friendly, Breaking the Missional Code has

the ability to be used and implemented by anyone who reads it. Each chapter flows and builds

upon the previous which results in a logical progression that is easy to follow and understand.

One weakness that may be found in Breaking the Missional Code is in the lack of

Scripture references. While it is easy to see that the authors are writing and talking about biblical

principles and means of sharing the gospel, not many references from Scripture were found. In

certain parts of the book, key verses such as those for the Great Commission were used and

developed thoroughly. However, this was limited to only a few select parts. A book that speaks

of spreading the good news of Christ should have an appropriate amount of Scripture within its

pages.

As the modern church came to realize that the American culture is changing at a rapid

pace, many churches decided to bunker down while others decided to change with the times.

Some churches decided to not change, kept their traditions and preferences while the others

sought to seek out the lost culture surrounding the church. It was seen as a good thing to seek

the lost, but at what cost? The Convergent Church by Mark Liederback and Alvin Reid
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embodies the current struggle between keeping the timeless story and teachings while needing to

reach this rapidly-changing, lost world for Christ. The current struggle appears that a church

must decide what they are going to be, either they are going to remain conventional and focus on

doctrines and teaching or be emergent focusing on reaching the lost. However, Liederbach and

Reid claim there is a middle ground. The thesis of their book The Convergent Church is that “by

taking the best of conventional convictions regarding doctrine and truth and gleaning the best

from the ECM (Emerging Christian Movement) concerning cultural engagement and relevance, a

Convergent Church can be forged that will provide the most biblically faithful and

methodologically effective disposition for the Western church.”3 For times such as these, church

leaders may read this work and find hope realizing there is an option that reaches out to attract

the lost and also reaches in to disciple in biblical truth.

The strength that encompasses this book is the brief (but deep) history of ideas lesson in

the beginning and clear recognition and explanation of the “pendulum swing” of these

movements. The Convergent Church is all about offering a truce between two radical ideas of

doing church in the west and the history of ideas teachings in the beginning of this book was an

eye opener. As one reads about key players of particular intellectual movements in the past, one

can actually see what the outcome will be and how it produces the mindset here and now in the

modern day. The progression is only seen in 20/20 hindsight, but it is truly amazing to see how

ideas have shifted and have influenced how we do church. The brief list of key players in the

beginning of The Convergent Church is astounding. The book’s other strength is found in its

interpretation of these movements. It is easy to look at a strategy and state that it is just different

than what has been happening before but to look at the history and see why something has

3
Mark Liederbach and Alvin L. Reid, The Convergent Church: Missional Worshipers
in an Emerging Culture (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2009), 25.
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become a viable alternative is something different. Liederbach and Reid looked at the culture

and ways of doing church and saw a pendulum swing. One strategy wasn’t merely doing

something different, but was trying to correct the damage that had been done. As pendulums

usually do, the actions overcorrected leaving the church with 2 extremes.

The weakness of The Convergent Church was the opinion of ECM instead of

acknowledging what the movement did. It is certainly a big deal to do any sort of ecclesiology

without biblical truths and doctrines, but one must not forget the motivation behind ECM. The

authors described the changing of methodology as packing up all your belongings and living in a

halfway house before moving into your new house. Right now the church is in the half way

house (with just enough to get by) before deciding what to do and how to approach church, but

the ECM should be commended. It may have been premature to jump ahead into seeking the lost

without institututing biblical truths, but the ECM saw a church that was irrelevant which did not

impact the world so, decided it would do something. Value may come in staying in the halfway

house to work through all the issues but if the church stays to long, it could be too late. While

the ECM still needs work and anything without support of Scripture is wrong, The Convergent

Church did not commend its urgency which should have been acknowledged.

Each of these great literary works that have been reviewed, their purposes, strengths,

and weaknesses, stands alone in providing practical tools for evangelism and ecclesiology.

While these works were not written in a series, they certainly complement each other, pointing

church leaders and pastors in the right direction on how to do church in the west. While reading

and analyzing these books, The Convergent Church, Comeback Churches, and Breaking the

Missional Code, key topics can be found proving their importance. These books offer thoughts

such as the church being responsible for their community, therefore urging them to become
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indigenousness and missional in their efforts to reach a culture that is now different from the

church. In The Convergent Church, Reid and Liederbach informs churches that they “must

develop ministries that continually adjust and change with [the] continually changing culture and

must be about leading people to the source of Living Water.”4 The culture inside most churches

has changed from what is found surrounding the church, so the church must change to become

indigenousness to community. A church that sees their surroundings as their responsibility will

adapt their “leadership, expressions, forms, and functions to reflect that of the context”5 for the

sake of reaching them. While this is indeed a noble task, it is definitely not easy because culture

in terms of Christianity has changed.

All three books also lead to the notion that breaking through to the community is

difficult due to America resisting the work of the gospel because many have no Christian

conscience. One of these books declare that at one time, most automatically knew the concept of

key biblical terms such as John 3:16, gospel, or Jesus Christ, but now a foundation from scratch

has to be laid every time. Stetzer and Dodson in Comeback Churches declare that “churches are

rediscovering the need to focus on the mission of God and be missionaries in their

communities.”6 Everything from language to culture must be learned and interpreted here in

America to tell the good news of the gospel because the west has forgotten. In Breaking the

Missional Code, this trial is due to the fact that “people are no longer starting their spiritual

4
Ibid., 71.
5
Ed Stetzer and David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can
Become a Missionary in Your Community (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006),
22.
6
Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned
Around and Yours Can Too (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2007), 4
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journey near the cross or even facing the cross.”7 The process of winning the unchurched for

Christ has changed, so the methods of getting them there must change also. While it is important

to be relevant, a church must be careful not to forget biblical teaching.

A final observation that can be seen in all three books is the key of being culturally

relevant so to reach the lost people of this world while remaining biblically sound. Without the

desire to change with the times, “there is a tendency for the faithful not only to be accustomed to

the style of ministry developed in their own context, but also to ‘freeze the style in the particular

culture in which it originates.’”8 Instead of the church settling on preferences, the challenge of

change must be attempted in order to accommodate the lost, but great care must be given.

Stetzer and Putman challenge the church and state that the church’s “task is to find the right way

to break through cultural barriers while addressing the spiritual and theological barriers as well.”

All three books speak to reaching the lost and being unique and custom in ways to reach them,

but the role and use of Scripture should always lay the foundation, define the parameter, and

remain the priority.

The final portion of this paper will speak of some of the concepts brought forth in these

books that speak volumes to the conventional church and personal witness of all believers. A

main thought that every church should learn from these books and immediately put into practice

is the process of becoming missional and reaching out to the community. God is not too small

not to know exactly where each church is placed and where every people group and segment has

come together. The surrounding communities are to be reached. A church that does not feel the

7
Ed Stetzer and David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can
Become a Missionary in Your Community (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006),
103.
8
Mark Liederbach and Alvin L. Reid, The Convergent Church: Missional Worshipers
in an Emerging Culture (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2009), 76.
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burden of those within the square miles surrounding their church because they prefer their own

traditional preferences needs a heart for the Great Commission and its implications. This

concept also speaks to the personal witness of each believer within the church. In order to break

the barriers of those across the street, missionaries must be sent. People becoming missionaries

and having a love and care for the lost is what God desires and expects of His people.

Another application for the church and personal witness of the believer found in these

books is the importance of biblical truth. This concept is broad and applies in many situations

discussed in these books. These books affirm that change is not a bad thing. In many cases

change is good, but only for the right reasons and only through the guidance of Scripture. A

focus on biblical truth will show a church and believer that the lost of the world should be

engaged instead of ignored. These changes in church practice should be filtered through the

Scripture so to still fulfill a purpose instead of seeking to please the crowd. Biblical truth

should govern the lives of both the church and the believer. These books seek to guard and

honor that. May God get the pleasure of seeing churches and believers honor His word and

becoming more equipped through these books.

 1Works Cited

Liederbach, Mark, and Alvin Reid. The Convergent Church: Missional Worshipers in an
Emerging Church. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2009

Stetzer, Ed, and Mike Dodson. Comeback Churches:How 300 Churches Turned Around and
Yours Can Too. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2007

Stetzer, Ed, and David Putman. Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a
Missionary in You Community. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006