Book review: The Myth of the Dying Church

Bud Brown June 30, 2019

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Reading Glenn Stanton’s latest work, The Myth of the Dying Church: How Christianity Is Actually Thriving in America and the World, was like a tall, cold drink on a hot summer’s day. It was surprising, refreshing and brimming with welcome news. I gulped it down. 

His basic thesis refutes the widely held notion that Christianity in America is in retreat and that the church is in danger of disappearing (p. xix). Stanton points his readership to the widely known and readily available facts.

The facts don’t support the doom-and-gloom story the news media and many Christian leaders are reporting. There are, indeed, positive sides to the story if one reads beyond the headlines and summaries,  and many are very positive [his emphasis]. An absolute wealth of information is available that tells a whole different story. (p. 3).

In this 199 page volume, Stanton meticulously lays out the research that establishes seven truths about the current state of Christianity in America.

1. Liberal churches are hemorrhaging members.
2. Biblical churches are holding strong.
3. Church attendance is at an all-time high in both raw numbers and as a percentage of the population.
4. More young adults attend biblically faithful churches today than attended nearly 50 years ago.
5. Atheism and agnosticism are not growing wildly.
6. The Nones are not new unbelievers.
7. Christianity is booming around the globe.

Perhaps the greatest surprise for me was the fact that only 1 percent of churches in the United States die every year (p. 144). This casts a considerably different light on the steady drumbeat of bad news pumped out by the media, even the Christian news media. Rather than being in retreat, Christianity is growing steadily in the United States, faster than the general population. If the past 10 years are any indication, “by 2050 the United States will have more Christians living on its soil than any other country” (p. 78).

I examined Stanton’s evidence, tracked down sources he quotes and re-read many pages to be sure I didn’t misunderstand. He cites scholars who are well-known and widely respected by those who labor in this field. Perhaps you’ll recognize names like Rodney Stark, Bradley Wright, Leon Schnabel, Greg Smith, Ed Stetzer and others. 

The book rests on recent work by Pew Research, the GSS, the Harvard / Indiana University study by Schnabel and Bock, Gordon-Conwell’s Center for the Study of Global Christianity, and other well-regarded publications and institutions.

I have one minor complaint about the book. When I jumped to the Endnotes, I found the following:

In references like these, I chose not to mention the names of the Christian leaders making such statements for obvious reasons: It is bad manners to point out the mistakes of others by name. Do unto others as you would want done to yourself. But they are real statements made by real people and organizations. (n. 2, p. 195).

I appreciate Stanton’s gentlemanly grace here, but as a reader what I would want done for me is to have the author give proper citation for these errant claims so I can examine them for myself. I would like to have seen Stanton correspond with those to whom he alludes in a respectful and irenic manner prior to the book’s publication.

Now my job is to pull a few volumes and journals off my shelves, re-read them to see if Stanton is quoting them accurately. If he is, I need to start rethinking my messaging!

Photo source: istock 

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Bud Brown is an experienced ministry leader, writer and educator. He is co-founder of Turnaround Pastors and co-author of the ground-breaking Pastor Unique: Becoming A Turnaround Leader. He brings special expertise to change leadership in the local church, mentoring pastors to become revitalization leaders, training churches how to find and recruit the best talent, and training leadership teams how to achieve their shared goals. Learn More »

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