The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church

by Reggie McNeal

In this provocative book, author, consultant, and church leadership developer Reggie McNeal debunks these and other old assumptions and provides an overall strategy to help church leaders move forward in an entirely different and much more effective way. McNeal identifies the six most important realities that church leaders must address including: recapturing the spirit of Christianity and replacing "church growth" with a wider vision of kingdom growth; developing disciples instead of church members; fostering the rise of a new apostolic leadership; focusing on spiritual formation rather than church programs; and shift, from prediction and planning to preparation for the challenges in an uncertain world. McNeal contends that by changing the questions church leaders ask themselves about their congregations and their plans, they can frame the core issues and approach the future with new eyes, new purpose, and new ideas.

Genres: Church, Nonfiction, Leadership, Christian, Spirituality, Theology, Christian Living

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 3, 2003

About the author

Reggie McNeal enjoys helping leaders pursue more kingdom-focused lives. He currently serves as a senior fellow for Leadership Network and city coach for GoodCities. In his consulting and speaking, Reggie draws on his experience as a pastor, denominational leader, seminary teacher, and leadership development coach for thousands of church leaders across North America and the world. His books include The Present Future, Missional Renaissance, A Work of Heart, and Kingdom Come.

Reviews

[Steven Bullmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is almost 20 years old, and while the Pandemic of 2020 has changed things in the world, much less the church, forever, what McNeal had to say 20 years ago still has value and worth as we try to figure out what a Post-Pandemic Church might look like.
I bought this book many years ago, at our denominational gathering, on the recommendation of the bishop (he was giving 25% off because he thought we should read it). So I read it. I have yet to figure out what the bishop saw in the book because he did none of the things McNeal said we should be doing if we wanted to church to get out of its tailspin and become relevant again in the North American culture.
McNeal is calling for a paradigm shift--a radical change in how we think about church. In his summary statement, we have to stop thinking about DOING church, and start thinking, instead how we can BE the church. Or again, ever since God commissioned Abraham, some 4,000 years ago, we who are heirs of Abraham have had but one task to perform: Bless others. God blessed Abraham, and God blesses us so that we can pay it forward and bless as many other people as possible. Somewhere along the way the church institutionalized itself and forgot that the blessing was to be shared. Instead, we reinvented ourselves as a club and bless each other. The result has been catastrophic.
To help us get out of our clubhouse paradigm, McNeal proposes we take seriously changing the six questions we tend to ask ourselves and ask instead six other tough questions. They are:
New Reality Number One: The Collapse of the Church Culture
Wrong Question: How Do We Do Church Better?
Tough Question: How Do WE Deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

New Reality Number Two: The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth
Wrong Question: How Do We Grow This Church? (How Do We Get Them to Come to Us?)
Tough Question: How do We Transform Our Community? (How Do We Hit the Streets with the Gospel?)

New Reality Number Three: A New Reformation: Releasing God's People
Wrong Question: How Do We Turn Members into Ministers?
Tough Question: How Do We Turn Members into Missionaries?

New Reality Number Four: The Return to Spiritual Formation
Wrong Question: How Do We Develop Church Members?
Tough Question: How Do We Develop Followers of Jesus?

New Reality Number Five: The Shift from Planning to Preparation
Wrong Question: How Do We Plan for the Future?
Tough Question: How Do We Prepare for the Future?

New Reality Number Six: The Rise of Apostolic Leadership
Wrong Question: How Do We Develop Leaders for Church Work?
Tough Question: How Do We Develop Leaders for the Christian Movement?

I don't know about anyone else, but I would LOVE to be part of a church that was seriously examining McNeal's "Tough Questions." There would be a vibrancy there that is sorely lacking in most institutionalized mainline churches.

Alfred North Whitehead has a famous quote about Plato. He said (and I must paraphrase because I heard it in a philosophy class many, many decades ago): What makes Plato great is not that he had all the right answers, because he did not. What makes his great is that he was the first person to ask the right questions.

I'm pretty sure many of the answers to McNeal's questions that he proposes in this book are no longer valid, given the passage of time since the book was written and how a global Pandemic has changed forever the way we do church. But I think his tough questions are still valid, worth asking, and worth searching for relevant answers to our current reality.

Many people have called 2020 a "dumpster fire." But if McNeal is correct, I think it was more like a "refiner's fire"--the fire that finally forces us to stop doing the same thing the same old way and adopt a new paradigm for being the hands and feet of Jesus.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book and says some things about the state of the current Church (maybe the word congregations might fit better) that I've already been thinking.

I suppose that always helps to up the rating of a book when it goes into a subject you tend to or partially agree with.

I won't take a stand on this for you. The author looks at (as said before) the state of Christian congregations and what the future of the Christian Church may be and some of the shifts Christians may need to make.

Be sure to complete the book. In other words be sure to read the "what I didn't say" portion of the text.

I "like" the book, if that's the correct choice of word. I find it thought provoking and possibly valuable. Decide for yourself.

[Jeff Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the book I wish I had read several years ago! Easily understandable, practical and applicable! I just found a great way to post all the highlights from my kindle (116 of them!)

I feel like I have been playing catchup in trying to bring my older congregation to face the new realities of the world we live in. This book is very helpful.

Here are the highlights:

We also generally think that the present makes sense only in light of the past. Again, we need to check our thinking. The present makes clearest sense in light of the future. We humans write history by looking at the past. God creates history ahead of time.Read more at location 150

If you believe these things, you are operating in a world that has a short time left. Even worse, if you persist in acting on these assumptions, you could actually hinder the current mission of God.Read more at location 193 • Delete this highlight
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The wrong questions reflect an approach to the future that focuses on solving yesterday’s problems. In my observation, most church leaders are preoccupied with the wrong questions. If you solve the wrong problems precisely, what have you accomplished? You have wasted a lot of energy and perhaps fooled yourself that you have done something significant. Each tough question reframes the issue in a way designed to prompt discussion within you as well as between you and other leaders in your constellation of influence.Read more at location 214 • Delete this highlight
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The current church culture in North America is on life support. It is living off the work, money, and energy of previous generations from a previous world order. The plug will be pulled either when the money runs out (80 percent of money given to congregations comes from people aged fifty-five and older) or when the remaining three-fourths of a generation who are institutional loyalists die off or both.Read more at location 241 • Delete this highlight
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The death of the church culture as we know it will not be the death of the church.Read more at location 245 • Delete this highlight
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The imminent demise under discussion is the collapse of the unique culture in North America that has come to be called “church.” This church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside the church and out.Read more at location 246 • Delete this highlight
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As he hung on the cross Jesus probably never thought the impact of his sacrifice would be reduced to an invitation for people to join and to support an institution.Read more at location 249 • Delete this highlight
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So far the North American church largely has responded with heavy infusions of denial, believing the culture will come to its senses and come back around to the church.Read more at location 256 • Delete this highlight
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Many churches have withdrawn from the community. An alternate form of denial has been the attempt to fix the culture by flexing political and economic muscle.Read more at location 257 • Delete this highlight
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Does your town even have room in all the churches for 40 percent of the population? A friend of mine in a Southern Bible Belt town called every church in his town after Easter in 2001 and reported that only about 25 percent of the town attended church—on Easter!Read more at location 270 • Delete this highlight
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Most churches have actually just written them off, waiting for them to grow up and learn to like what the church has to offer.Read more at location 276 • Delete this highlight
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90 percent of kids active in high school youth groups do not go to church by the time they are sophomores in college. One-third of these will never return.Read more at location 293 • Delete this highlight
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A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith.Read more at location 295 • Delete this highlight
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The American culture no longer props up the church the way it did, no longer automatically accepts the church as a player at the table in public life, and can be downright hostile to the church’s presence. The collapse I am detailing also involves the realization that values of classic Christianity no longer dominate the way Americans believe or behave.Read more at location 302 • Delete this highlight
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Sure, when there’s a community disaster or a national calamity such as 9/11, people scurry to church. This is not because they have a sudden interest in church but because they have a huge need for God, and they still seek sacred spaces to pray.Read more at location 305 • Delete this highlight
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Having retreated into a diminishing corner for several hundreds of years, the North American church culture unfortunately now reflects the materialism and secularism of the modern era. Not only do we not need God to explain the universe, we don’t need God to operate the church.Read more at location 318 • Delete this highlight
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The culture does not want the powerless God of the modern church.Read more at location 321 • Delete this highlight
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If we can pay attention we will eventually discover that not only will we not lose God in this emerging postmodern world, we will find him again!Read more at location 324 • Delete this highlight
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Faced with diminishing returns on investment of money, time, and energy, church leaders have spent much of the last five decades trying to figure out how to do church better.Read more at location 333 • Delete this highlight
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Church activity is a poor substitute for genuine spiritual vitality.Read more at location 344 • Delete this highlight
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The portfolio of skills that once gave them standing in the community of faith no longer distinguishes them, ensures their effectiveness, or guarantees their continued leadership position.Read more at location 349 • Delete this highlight
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Many church members feel they have been sold a bill of goods. They were promised that if they
would be a good church member, if they would discover their gifts, or join a small group, sign up for a church ministry, give to the building program, learn to clap or dance in worship, or attend this or that, they would experience a full and meaningful life. Trouble is, we don’t have much evidence to support the assumption that all this church activity has produced more mature followers of Jesus. It has produced many tired, burned-out members who find that their lives mimic the lives and dilemmas of people in the culture who don’t pay all the church rent.Read more at location 353 • Delete this highlight
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The faithful, maybe silently or not so silently, wonder when their ticket is going to be punched, when they are going to experience the changed life they’ve been promised and expected to experience at church. In North America, these people have been led to believe that their Christian life is all about the church, so this failure of the church not only creates doubt about the church, it also leads them to all kinds of doubt about God and their relationship with him.Read more at location 358 • Delete this highlight
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Many congregations and church leaders, faced with the collapse of the church culture, have responded by adopting a refuge mentality. This is the perspective reflected in the approach to ministry that withdraws from the culture, that builds the walls higher and thicker, that tries to hang on to what we’ve got, that hunkers down to wait for the storm to blow over and for things to get back to “normal” so the church can resume its previous place in the culture. Those who hold this perspective frequently lament the loss of cultural support for church values and adopt an “us-them” dichotomous view of the world. Those with a refuge mentality view the world outside the church as the enemy. Their answer is to live inside the bubble in a Christian subculture complete with its own entertainment industry. Evangelism in this worldview is about churching the unchurched, not connecting people to Jesus. It focuses on cleaning people up, changing their behavior so Christians (translation: church people) can be more comfortable around them.Read more at location 363 • Delete this highlight
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world—people outside the church think church is for church people, not for them.Read more at location 391 • Delete this highlight
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North American Christians think in terms of its institutional expression, the church, as opposed to thinking about Christianity in terms of a movement.Read more at location 397 • Delete this highlight
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Many church leaders confuse the downward statistics on church participation with a loss of spiritual interest in Americans.Read more at location 406 • Delete this highlight
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The North American church is suffering from severe mission amnesia. It has forgotten why it exists. The church was created to be the people of God to join him in his redemptive mission in the world. The church was never intended to exist for itself.Read more at location 470 • Delete this highlight
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We do not need to be mistaken about this: if the church refuses its missional assignment, God will do it another way. The church has, and he is.Read more at location 476 • Delete this highlight
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The movement Jesus initiated had power because it had at its core a personal life-transforming experience. People undergoing this conversion could not keep quiet about it. They had discovered meaning for their life and wanted other people to experience the same thing. They had a much more powerful spiritual tool at their disposal than coercion or legalism. They had grace and love.Read more at location 500 • Delete this highlight
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They don’t trust religious institutions because they see them as inherently self-serving. So they are off on their own search for God.Read more at location 506 • Delete this highlight
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Feeling trapped in the collapse of the church culture, club members are huddling together in the dark and praying for God to rescue them from the mess they are in. This is the refuge mentality that pervades the mentality of many congregations and church leaders. Instead, the church needs to adopt the role of the rescue workers on the surface. They refused to quit, worked 24/7, and were willing to go to plan B or whatever it took to effect a rescue.Read more at location 523 • Delete this highlight
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Central to church growth teaching was an admonition that church leaders should assume responsibility for the growth of the church, and, as a corollary, if a church isn’t growing it is being disobedient to God, falling short of his expectations.Read more at location 546 • Delete this highlight
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The culture began a decided march away from church values, and church leaders didn’t know how to deal with a church that moved from a privileged position to a church in exile in an increasingly alien culture. Tending to church members who were bewildered at the cultural shifts was draining enough, but to add pressure to grow to the list of expectations of church leadership proved too much for many.Read more at location 554 • Delete this highlight
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With rare exception the “growth” here was the cannibalization of the smaller membership churches by these emerging superchurches.Read more at location 570 • Delete this highlight
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created thousands of “losers,” pastors and church leaders who are not serving in high-profile, high-growth churches. Consequently, a large part of the leadership of the North American church suffers from debilitation and even depression fostered by a lack of significance. The army of God has a lot of demoralized leaders.Read more at location 575 • Delete this highlight
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either it has church growth as its engine (improving church health so that the church can grow—the point still is to grow) or it is an attempt to find another way to measure success other than bottom-line numbers growth (since this is not occurring in most places).Read more at location 582 • Delete this highlight
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we have the best churches men can build, but are still waiting for the church that only God can get credit for.Read more at location 587 • Delete this highlight
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The focus was on methodology—how to catch peoples’ attention, sign ’em up, keep ’em busy, and get ’em to contribute money, talent, and energy to church efforts. There were church growth ratios to consider (how many dollars each parking place produced, how many contacts it took to close the deal on membership, how many relationships it took to “assimilate” someone, how many people could be served by a staff member, and so forth).Read more at location 605 • Delete this highlight
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Unfortunately, several decades of the church growth movement’s emphasis on methodologies have conditioned church leaders to look for the next program, the latest “model,” the latest fad in ministry programming to help “grow” the church.Read more at location 618 • Delete this highlight
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The target of ministry efforts of the refuge churches (who certainly have not adopted church growth methodologies) is also on the church. In these churches ministry is spent largely to provide hospice care for the dying church, to ease its pain as much as possible. The refuge churches maintain their denial through more club member activities, better club member facilities, and more staff to attend to club member needs.Read more at location 621 • Delete this highlight
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More energy expended on the church’s survival or success is misplaced.Read more at location 624 • Delete this highlight
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Churches that understand the realities of the present future are shifting the target of ministry efforts from church activity to community transformation.Read more at location 633 • Delete this highlight
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what most churches practice won’t fare too well outside because they are selling membership packages (institutional wrapping: membership, fellowship, member services). The world does not want what the typical North American church has to offer. We can keep trying to get them to want what we have or we can start offering what they need. They need what people always need: God in their lives. This spiritual reality is what makes this such a tough transition. The North American church culture is not spiritual enough to reach our culture. InRead more at location 635 • Delete this highlight
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Religious people don’t see people; they see causes, behaviors, stereotypes, people “other” than them.Read more at location 655 • Delete this highlight
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The reason Jesus had trouble getting his disciples to see what he saw was simply this: they had grown up in church! They had been trained to be concerned with internal issues (keeping the law, and so forth) rather than on keeping their eyes on the harvest. Not that the harvest was totally out of their mind. It could just wait (four months more) until the internal needs could be met.Read more at location 656 • Delete this highlight
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Their message to people outside the bubble was: “Become like us (translated: believe like us, dress like us, vote like us, act like us, like what we like, don’t like what we don’t like). If you become like us (jump through cultural hoops and adopt ours), we will consider you for club membership.”Read more at location 664 • Delete this highlight
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Will people need to become like us in order to hear the gospel?Read more at location 702 • Delete this highlight
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It is the expectation of Pharisees that people should adopt the church culture, including its lifestyle, if they want admittance.Read more at location 703 • Delete this highlight
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The assumption is that only people interested in church (the way we do it) are genuinely interested in God.Read more at location 705 • Delete this highlight
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Church leaders mostly whine about how the church is suffering under this cultural shift rather than making serious adjustments to make the church more available to people who are not a part of the church culture lifestyle anymore.Read more at location 711 • Delete this highlight
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The call to take the gospel to the streets is more than the call to think up some new evangelism or outreach program. The church’s efforts at these generally fall way short because the approaches are devised by a bunch of church members trying to come up with ideas that will entice unchurched people to want to come to church.Read more at location 715 • Delete this highlight
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“We’ll do an outreach project, but we expect that the end result is that people who choose to follow Jesus will follow him back to our church (or at least, some church).” Or I run into this attitude all the time: “We’ll do this community stuff after we’ve handled all our internal needs, staffed all our programs, funded the services for club members, and paid salaries for ministers who spend their time almost exclusively on church members.”Read more at location 724 • Delete this highlight
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In the future the church that “gets it” will staff to and spend its resources on strategies for community transformation.Read more at location 732 • Delete this highlight
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The consumer church sees resources plowed into community transformation as “diverted” from the church (read: institutional needs and programs for members). Many pastors trying to reorient church focus and resources to the needs of those outside the church run into resistance from church members who view this as a reduction of member services.Read more at location 735 • Delete this highlight
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We will see more and more people, in the church and out, who have the call, the ability, and the finances to resource their own ministry passions in the community.Read more at location 748 • Delete this highlight
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How many “evangelism programs” have you encountered in which sharing the gospel assumes no relationship with the customer and Jesus is sold like soap?Read more at location 800 • Delete this highlight
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They listened because the New Yorkers were persuaded that Cathy and her fellow cleaners believed something so strongly that it had caused them to inconvenience themselves in service to people.Read more at location 814 • Delete this highlight
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We feel we need to convict people of their sin and cause them to repent and change their lives. WeRead more at location 830 • Delete this highlight
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Club members prefer to bullhorn people rather than engage them personally and up close. This approach fails to earn the privilege to challenge people with the truth because we haven’t proved we are their champions. Instead, we have played the Pharisee role of accusing and location 843

This is what evangelism sounds like in conversation with pre-Christians. “I don’t know this Jesus you are talking about, but the way you talk about him, he must be a great piece of work.”Read more at location 876

How hard is it to talk about the people we love? location 878

we must nurture the relationship side of our faith. Fundamentally this is what will capture the curiosity

There are many more but his is all I have the space for in this review...

[Robbie Pruitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reggie McNeal’s book, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church, addresses the need for the church to move from program driven buildings and bureaucracy back to missional service and disciple making.

In this book, McNeal looks at how the church has been inwardly focused and more like a “club” with a “club mentality”, seeking its own good and interests above the mission of reaching the unsaved and those who are “outside the club.” The local church has become something that is antiquated and far removed from its life giving vitality of mission and service toward dead ritualistic programs and facilities.

It has been said that the church is the only organization that exists for its non-members. McNeal asserts, in so many words, that this is no longer the case concerning the church in North America. We, the church, have become more inwardly focused and have done less and less for those who we should be reaching out to in selfless service, evangelism and discipleship. As the church, we must move away from the “country club” mindset and move back toward our mission—people.

The future of the church lies in the present. The old ways no longer work for a new generation with a differing culture and a diversity of need. Old models of ministry and church are ceasing to function and work as they once did. New methods of relationships and decentralization must be put into action. Disciples must be made and leadership must be developed and sent out.

The church is not something we go to, the church is who we are in the world. We must move from an attractional model of church buildings and programs, with the idea of “if we build it, they will come” and move toward being a people who integrate our faith into our work and into every area of our lives. We must be the church in “the present future.”

In The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church, Reggie McNeal addresses six serious topics, which include the following: The church culture, as we know it, is over; we must move from church growth models to kingdom growth thinking and initiative; a new reformation will begin once the church releases equipped people into the world for mission; spiritual formation and development must be at the heartbeat of the church; church leaders must move from planning to preparation so they will be equipped for every good work; and finally, church leaders need to be trained and equipped, not to do programing, but to do mission, and to be missional, as sent people into the world.

The Present Future is an excellent book for anyone in church and ministry leadership. This book is relevant in addressing real concerns with the current state of the church and is motivational and inspirational in addressing real issues with real solutions of mission and focus.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Church in North America is slowly drying up as congregations age and endowments from previous generations dwindle. Many churches have responded by attempting to preserve their churches rather than advancing the Faith once received. In this work Reggie McNeal sounds a clarion call for the North American Church to rethink its ethos as we enter an increasingly Post-Modern, Post-Parochial, Post-Christian, and Post-Literate society. Written as a clear polemic, McNeal does not merely stop at laying out criticism, but rather offers constructive ways that the Church can recover its Mission, by rejoining in the Mission of God to seek and save the lost, not make "club members."

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was given to me by a great pastor from Santa Rosa. It is just what I needed. McNeal nails it. But traditionalist will find this book subversive and will seek to ban it from the church.

I find it to be a breath of fresh air and just what we need. It is almost like he read my mind.

[Jim Kilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is actually the third time I've read this book, and it never gets old. Though practical ministry books often become outdated, this one has stood the test of time! Clear, concise, and above all practical, this book should be on the "required reading" list of any minister or church leader!

[Randy Corn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book when I heard that Troy Johnson was using he video version of it in his life group. I have to say that my initial reaction to this book was something like the reaction that I had to Barna’s Revolution. It seemed to be an apologetic for the end of the traditional church. As I read further in the book, I was more sympathetic with the author’s position.

The subtitle of the book is “Six Tough Questions For The Church.” These revolve around, the collapse of church culture, the shift from church growth to kingdom growth, releasing God’s people, the return of Spiritual formation, moving from planning to preparation, and finally the rise of apostolic leadership.

I suppose one of my major objections is the fact that it seemed the author was willing to use statistics when they served his point and then when they did not he assumed anecdotal evidence would prove his point. Still, I think there are some valid points in this volume. I would agree that if the church adopts a “business as usual” approach it is doomed. One of the things which the author did not seem to take note of is the competition among churches. They force the established churches to change things. I would like to see a number of pastors read this book and discuss it. I think I will be recommending it to some in the pastoral ranks just to see what they think of it.

[Justin Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I've wanted to read this book ever since I tore through McNeal's A Work of Heart almost 14 years ago. I don't know why I waited so long--this book is superb! He brings up incredibly challenging but ripe and relevant questions for the church to ask ourselves, honestly and openly. Humility is going to have to be front and center if we want to implement any of these changes to church culture and help to shape society outside the 4 walls, starting with a missional movement mindset. I wrote down so many quotes. It's such an incredible and necessary book. I'm glad I borrowed it from Mike, but I'm going to have to buy a copy of my own! :)

[Anita Gabriela King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and compelling

Not just another book about Church growth, this book provides insightful challenge for current Church leaders to revisit the purpose of the church as an organization. It provides a different perspective on what church should look like for future generations. Change is inevitable if the church is to survive, but it will look different from church s it exists today.

[Shawna Connors · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is 20ish years old. Still relevant in the way the things are changing and the church culture in the US. I can look at my current church, past churches and see steps made toward some applications this book puts forth. The pandemic threw a new wrench in things and coming out from that may look different too.
I am a lay person in this realm. Not a leader in the church so some of the information didn’t hit home for me, while other stuff did.
Easy to read book.

[Stephen Ring · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of three required textbooks for my Acadia Divinity course Bringing Renewal to Established Congregations. Excellent handling of the challenges churches are facing in today's world, and identifying the need for a shift in how one does church. Move out of the building into the community.

[Angela Armold · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this is your field, or you are in religious leadership, this is a must read book. Far more than complaining about culture, despairing about dwindling congregations, or moaning about the ministry life, McNeal offers suggestions, conversations to have, and a way forward.

[Tony Seel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stuff. I recommend this book.

[Jim King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Country Club or community, we or them, meeting or mission

[Becky Kimmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Challenging as a leader of my church to support tough changes.

[Jonathan Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a ministerial colleague who is a very big fan of Reggie McNeal. I've heard McNeal speak, and not only is he incisive, but he's absolutely hilarious. (Although one might have cause to be concerned with the frequency with which he sniffs marker fumes...) And so I came to this book with quite high hopes, given that it's considered his classic work. He sees 'the American church' as asking six wrongheaded questions, to wit:
1. How do we do church better?
2. How do we grow this church?
3. How do we turn members into ministers?
4. How do we develop church members?
5. How do we plan for the future?
6. How do we develop leaders for church work?

In their stead, McNeal proposes the following six questions, respectively:
1. How do we deconvert from "Churchianity" to Christianity?
2. How do we transform our community?
3. How do we turn members into missionaries?
4. How do we develop followers of Jesus?
5. How do we prepare for the future?
6. How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement?

For the most part, McNeal's proposed questions are better questions to ask - although in them, McNeal at times reveals a deficient ecclesiology that hinges on too radical a disjunct between 'church' and 'kingdom.' (A great deal of his enfeebled ecclesiology is simply incompatible with New Testament theology - so caveat emptor.)

Indeed, this ties into the book's all-pervading disappointment: McNeal intentionally makes the book so polemical, so uncharitable, as to be almost deliberately unfair to anyone and everyone who disagrees with him. He rails so dramatically against "the institutional church" that, by the end, I wasn't even sure I could define 'institutional' any more!

Additionally, in keeping with an irksome trend in 'emerging'/'missional' literature, McNeal assumes the existence of a quite monolithic postmodern American culture, and a great deal of his polemic is rooted in that assumption. But both of those qualifiers are open to question. Can we really say that American culture in general is 'postmodern,' given the continued cultural trust in the scientific enterprise (however much various parties might quibble with it at ideologically inconvenient points)?

And, even granting that American culture has strong postmodern trends, is there anything less postmodernism-friendly than treating our national culture as a monolith toward which one and only one approach (i.e., McNeal's) is permissible? (For shame, Reggie!)

Still, not to end on a sour note, there is one quotation I found particularly apt:
"Not telling people the truth doesn't serve them fully even if you love them. Telling people the truth without loving them hardly encourages them to embrace it" (32).

[Marian Hartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is phenomenally thought provoking and instantly provided me a revalation in that I'm not the horrible sinner I previously thought for being burned out and disliking the church club. My frustration with the church was at an all-time peak with the lack of interest in community and what we really need as a people, when Dr. McNeal explains so simply and concisely that it's not Christianity suffering; it's the church club mentality. We're at a position with a world seeking spirituality to bring people to Christ, but the church is too immersed in it's own little bubble to notice the cultural needs and adjust.

I was so impressed by this book that I ordered enough to send one to each of my online faculty who teaches in the Christian Ministry degree program at the university for which I work. As an educational institution, our function in the training of future ministry is too important to pass up the opportunity to influence curriculum and faculty towards the missional approach of Christianity.

[Ryan Fisher]

This was a pretty tremendous work. The author pushed a lot of boundaries in critiquing the present and the future of the church and the changes that are necessary in order to make the two become one. The book was essentially a rant by the author expressing a lot of the things he is frustrated with the church about and the ways that he things they could be improved upon. If he were a younger man or someone with less clout he would probably be labeled a troublemaker or worse... an idealist. Having said that, many of the ideas and opinions he expressed were dead on with my own views and those that seem to be impacting and guiding a generation of people who are less than satisfied with the status quo of the church in America. I would recommend this book enthusiastically for anyone looking to expand their horizons and outlook about what the future of the church could be.

[Jeremy Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that is more interested in addressing problems that have crept into the Western church than providing a model to emulate. If you are okay with having your thoughts about church challenged and left to think about the best way to find solutions to the problems that McNeal addresses then this is a book for you. McNeal doesn't give you easy models or answers, but he does challenge old ways of doing things. Even though it has been eight years since this edition it is still a very relevant book. While I do think there are traditions and branches of Western Christianity that are more aware of these issues and are addressing them, there are many who would benefit from this book in order to re-prioritize the mission of the church and work once again for the kingdom of God instead of their own personal club.

[Tung · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is one of the many recent books to point out the American Christian church’s current problems in effectively preaching the gospel and engaging culture. McNeal frames the problem as six big issues: the death of traditional church culture (which McNeal thinks is a good thing), the move away from the church growth and megachurch model (also a good thing), the rise of missional churches, a focus on discipleship, a need for a refined vision for future church models, and reformed church leadership models and training. Throughout each section, McNeal presents the issues from a question/answer, wrong/right format. He peppers in personal anecdotes with Scripture passages and practical advice. Overall, there’s nothing in this book that is radically different from the other what’s-wrong-with-the-church books (especially those books that preach a missional church model). Recommended.

[Ray Boshers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is well written and the information provided is easily understood. My rating comes from the questions being asked. While the six questions the writer puts forth are important, they are not the "tough" questions the church should be asking. Many people will find this book helpful for the information it provides, provided they are asking those questions presented. Overall, I would rate 3.4. I am not discouraging anyone from reading this book, just look at the questions to see if they are the questions you would be asking. If you do read this book please get to the section entitled, "Things I Didn't Say." Reading this will help you in understanding the previous chapters.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book by Reggie McNeal is absolutely not for the "Church" goer who is looking for a pat on the back, and a "Job Well Done", but if you are interested in answering questions like "Can the Church be saved" or "Is Christianity Outdated" this is the book for you. The Six Tough Questions for the Church are direct and will be addressed either by action or inaction, while these are questions that will effect the "Church" they will be answered one person at a time. An excellent book, with a very serious challenge.

[Daniel Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had read this book when it came out 10 years ago (though I might not have been prepared to receive it). McNeal is still on the bullseye. This book doesn't specify the details of the kinds if shifts the church should engage, but he liberates the church to consider the surrounding culture, traditional church practices, and how God is at work to redeem the world.

This might be he best introductory book to the missional church dialogue for anyone wishing to dive into the subject. Highly recommended.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author sets up straw men and knocks them down with solutions from an emergent philosophy. There are some truths addressed, but the redemptive power of the spirit and the word is never addressed as a possible solution. Everyone can complain about their parents, but really, is there any good to come of it? That is the kind of treatment the church receives from this guy. There is a blame America first crowd out there and this blame the church first philosophy is about as productive as that. An author for his time - 2008 to 2016.

[Dr. Jake Brock · Rating 3 out of 5]

McNeal makes several valid and useful points in his work. However, the conclusions and solutions he draws from his analysis of post-modern culture and the church are often misguided and contradictory to other points and assertions made in the book. Although he issues disclaimers to the contrary, the author frequently appears to border dangerously on emphasizing his notions of cultural relevance at the expense of clear New Testament teachings concerning the church. The Christian leader should read and examine McNeal's assertions with caution.

[Craig Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the key books I read early on as I re-discovered reading as a tool to keep me moving forward. This book challenges a person's thoughts about "church" and the christian community. I agree with some reviews I've read that the latter part of the book appears to be weak in presenting solutions... but I would need to go back and re-read it based on all the changes that it helped initiate. I'm guessing I would have a little different perspective now.

[Fraser Coltman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an upsetting book to read, but intentionally so. The author explains the cultural change ongoing in North America and its effect on the Church. He also laments the inadequate preparation of the Church for responding to the situation, and he sets out a framework for changing the Church's response from its present refuge mentality to a mission focus. It is a book to be read thoughtfully, prayerfully, and with others to discuss its conclusions and practice its directives.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

The phrase I loved in this book, "the church in North America has missional amnesia." McNeal's research is solid and startling. He builds such a great case for the need for missional living by individual Christians - not just the "church." If this is a topic you're interested in you must read this one.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of books on this topic but this book is as readable, concise review of today's church and what must take place for Christianity to make a significant impact on the world in the future as any I've read. I was surprised by the content because the cover is a bit old school. The content however is fresh, revelant and easy to digest.