Breakout Churches: Discover How To Make The Leap

by Thom S. Rainer

Breakout Churches Can Your Church Become One? This is the story of thirteen churches and the leaders who moved them from stagnancy to growth and from mediocrity to greatness. Drawing on one of the most comprehensive studies ever on the church, this book reveals the process of becoming a “breakout” church and the factors that lead to this spiritual metamorphosis. Eighty percent of the approximately 400,000 churches in the United States are either declining or at a plateau. Is there hope for the American church? Breakout Churches offers a resounding “yes!” and offers specific examples and principles to help you and your church become more effective.

Genres: Church, Leadership, Nonfiction, Religion, Christianity, Christian, Church Ministry

272 pages, Hardcover

First published December 28, 2004

About the author

Thom S. Rainer is the founder and CEO of Church Answers and Executive Director of Revitalize Network. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama where he received his degree in business administration. He received both the master of divinity and the Ph.D. degrees from Southern Seminary.

Dr. Rainer has served as pastor of four churches. He is the former president of Rainer
Group consulting. He served for twelve years as dean at Southern Seminary and for thirteen years as the president and CEO of LifeWay Çhristian Resources.

Dr. Rainer has authored or co-authored 33 books. Among his greatest joys are his family: his wife Nellie Jo; three sons, Sam, Art, and Jess; and eleven grandchildren.

Reviews

[Joe Cassada]

Negatives: Rainer relied too heavily on Jim Collins's book Good to Great. Modeling a book on church growth after a book on corporate success is a huge turn-off for me. Also, Rainer's portrayal of leadership qualities based on Acts 1-7 was a work of fiction and not exposition. Any book on ministry should deal seriously with biblical texts. Last negative: Rick Warren's ministry philosophy is lauded and defended. The seeker-sensitive model is unbiblical at its core.

Positives: the subject matter is intensely interesting. I applaud Rainer and his team for their extensive research. Most praise-worthy is his bottom-line: leading a church to "greatness" is not about methodologies as much as the passion and perseverance in leadership. And Rainer's got the research to prove it.

[Ryan Rench]

If you listen to Thom Rainer on Leadership podcast, you know that Rainer can tend toward wordiness. This book has a tinge of his Southern drawl to it, though it is excellent in its stories and research. The book covers the lessons learned from a project that surveyed thousands of churches, looking for those that plateaued (or shrunk) and thereafter exploded in growth. It examines the how and why, following the structure of the secular book Good to Great, by Jim Collins. This book is formulaic, but not at the expense of spiritual emphasis.

[bookme4life]

Despite understanding the logic for books like this, I always find myself conflicted when business principles are applied to a church.

[James Collins]

Leadership Counts
In this book, Rainer examines thirteen churches that increased their attendance by at least 70% in a five-year period. The book is modeled on the secular business book, Good to Great. And like its secular counterpart, Breakout Churches concludes that there are several factors that contribute success. However, all the factors can be summed up in leadership. A church with strong, dynamic, biblically grounded leaders has a better chance of success in evangelism and discipleship than churches that don’t have this type of leadership.

[Chris Dewar]

A good work with interesting insights, but...

It feels as if the definition of a breakout church may have been narrow. For example, pretty much any church that started from scratch then developed into self sufficient maturity also likely went through many of the struggles and processes described in this work.

[Brian]

One of the best of the bunch

I’ve been reading through several of Rainer’s “_____ Church” books, and this is probably the best so far regarding application, statistics, and pastoral encouragement. Having also read “Good to Great,” this is the better book for those in church leadership and perhaps parachurch leadership as well.

[Rob Markley]

Some good ideas but not really ground breaking!

[Darrin Niday]

Not for leasure read LOL, some good information for growing churches.

[Sherry Tobin]

Interesting read. Haven’t tried to apply any of it but it gave me things to think and pray through as I read it. The rest is to be determined

[Caleb]

I thought this was perfect for where we are as a church.

[Nicole]

work read

[Rev James Driskell]

Excellent book full of good information for churches of any size

[Dr. Paul T. Blake]

There were a lot of helpful insights in this book. In the big picture, his bias is towards how growth is a requirement due to the Great Commission. I'm glad he only included churches with an emphasis on evangelism, as it's so lacking these days.

While he valued starting new congregations in his written analysis, I'm not sure his statistics capture that since they only wanted to interview churches that grew. With that said, I'm not sure how much different his conclusions would have been if they had somehow statistically analyzed churches who had successfully started new congregations.

It was great to see that we don't need the yin/yang influence from Good to Great, as we now have a Christian author who was able to capture a more Biblical perspective (albeit mostly the same conclusions).

[Ernest Kincaid]

Excellent book. If you liked Jim Collins' Good to Great, and if you're at all concerned about your church, you will like Breakout Churches. Rainer is a church consultant and has done extensive research for this book on what makes for a breakout church. Complete with actual case studies and comparison churches; Thom Rainer models his research and the premise of this book on 'Good to Great'. Rainer is meticulous, detailed, and easy to follow in this technical, yet consumer friendly read about the state of the Christian church in the United States. Worth keeping in your library, and definitely worth rereading.

[Daryl Watts]

Even though the book is 4 years old, I finally finished it. Based on Good to Great by Jim Collins, the book provides some interesting insights into leadership. It's not really about churches but about the kind of leader it takes to lead a church to spiritual greatness.

It does tend to repeat a lot of data and sometimes the parallels between the book and Good to Great are forced, but the date and the principles are still well worth the read. See my full summary at http://cybertsunani.typepad.com

[Danny Jefferson]

Very insightful! This book provides the research and the data that is critical to do a necessary analyses for strategic planning in the local church! So often church leaders attempt to to create solutions to church problems without ever really knowing what the problem is. This is the church version of "Good To Great." Thom Rainer provided clear components of what moved some churches from mediocre to good and finally to GREAT!

[Bill]

A great research based book that is along the same lines as "Good to Great" but adapted to churches. Insightful, and filled with a number of surprising statements and data about the "great" churches in the United States.

[Mary Lewis]

A seminal work from Thom Rainer. Based on "Good to Great", Rainer studied churches that were able to make a similar leap from Good to Great or to "Breakout" status. Incorporates a lot of the concepts from other Rainer works. If you want to read one thing by Thom Rainer, this is the one.

[Ryan]

Modeled after Good to Great ( Jim Collins), this book is the result of a study to see why some churches are growing while others are not.

[Joani]

A study of successful ministries based on the "Good to Great" model. Now I'd like to read "Good to Great".

[Andy Anderson]

Greatbook that every pastor needs to read, especially those who are trying to make changes in their church.

[Michael]

This was a good book even though it matched up very much with one of Jim Collin's books. I found that the recaps were almost sufficient in understanding each chapters information.

[Justin Carter]

Great research based book. I highly recommend this book! Shows elements in various church in various contexts that all churches should strive to hvae!

[Jt]

Got me thinking about what it takes to lead a church