Best christian church growth books according to redditors

Hey there! Boyfriend and I have an 8-hour time difference so I totally sympathize.

There's a game we like to play that I've mentioned on here in the past. It's not the same thing necessarily as spending time together, but you have to get creative in LDRs and having lively discussion is how I feel close to my boyfriend.

We take it in turns to ask each other three questions each day. The first question is something you could ask anyone. The second question is more personal. The third question is highly personal; for us it usually relates to sex (gotta keep that spark, lol).

So for example, when it's his turn to ask, he'll send me his questions and I'll answer them, and then he'll answer them, too. The next day, I'll come up with questions that he'll answer, and then I'll answer them. It's fun coming up with questions, it's fun to answer them, and it's fun and sometimes surprising to hear each other's answers.

Some example questions:

1: What's the first thing you'd buy if you won a ton of money?

2: What's the most pseudoscientific thing you genuinely believe is real?

3: What's something that many people see as sexy, that you're turned off by?

If you or anyone else decides to try it out, I hope you have fun with it! If you have trouble thinking of questions you could probably try doing a search for conversation starters or ice-breaking questions. There are also a lot of great question books out there; my favorite is The Complete Book of Questions because it offers a range of depth.

A few thoughts:

1. There are thoughtful & intelligent people going both directions. Some protestants convert to RC, many RC convert to protestant. I come from a very devout RC family, and converted.
   
   
2. It's important to realize that we can't be 100% sure about anything, but we can have reasonable certainty. For more on this I highly recommend reading Ch. 4 of "Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church", and you can read the 1st bullet point from my comment here.
   
   
3. For books, honestly read the Bible, a good commentary on Romans (I recommend Moo's commentary), and compare them with the catechism of the Catholic Church and the decrees of the council of trent. I have not read any protestant books aimed at converting RCs, but I've read a lot of RC books by former protestants or for protestants, and they all straw-man and oversimplify. I imagine that the protestant books do the same as well. It's easy to read these books and think that they give a good understanding of the debate. They Don't. They give a very simplified one-sided perspective. To get a good understanding, you have to study in depth the Biblical texts, and the documents, commentaries, articles, scholars on both sides. This is daunting, but it will be immensely beneficial and will help you grow in your knowledge, understanding, and love of God. Just like anything else, to really know something and be sure about it, it takes time, effort, and study.
   
   I would also recommend looking at:
   
   

• Sermon on Romans 8 & 9 by D.A. Carson
  
  
• Ryan Reeves' great videos on church history
  
  
• Romans commentary by Fitzmyer (Catholic priest and scholar)
  
  
• Aquinas commentary on Romans
  
  
• Knowledge and Decisions by Thomas Sowell. This is an odd one in the group, but I include it b/c it's very helpful for understanding systems and structures, and how it impacts people's decisions and actions. I think it would be helpful in understanding the RCC. Also, this book was influential in helping me realize the faults with the RCC teaching people what to think (& obedience to the RCC), and the dangers but superiority of the protestant emphasis on teaching people how to think - that is how to read and understand scripture, and make decisions for themselves.
  
  Finally, if it would help, I can send you the letter I sent to my family, where I explain why I left the RCC after years of study. PM me if you're interested.
  
  God Bless

Be excited and talk about your mission efforts and disciplship stuff. If you are not doing those then implement them and talk about them. Here is a book.

Be yourself and be social. If that doesn't work give them candy

>Sadly no good books on Reformed Postmillennialism come to mind.

I haven't read it personally, but I just now googled "doug wilson postmillenialism" and got this:
http://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Misplaced-Christs-Kingdom-Earth/dp/1591280834

I googled him because that is the only author that I know that I like who is also postmillenial. No other reason.

This is actually a HUGE problem. Especially in the developing world. In parts of Africa, some have tried to limit access to books like Leviticus just because of how much danger there is of groups trying to put it into practice.

For insights on the state of global Christianity, check out The Next Christendom by highly-respected professor of history and religious studies Philip Jenkins.

No doubt. For better or worse, Pentecostalism is here to stay. Philip Jenkins has written in detail about how Christianity will continue to grow in the global south with largely pentecostal christians and churches.

That's very true. But I am not sure it is misleading. If you think of it, it may be actually very to the point. In many places (think of Russian Orthodoxy some 400 years ago, or Quebec 70 years ago) Christianity it its local contemporary forms affected political and legal life to a great extent. Maybe not as much as Islam in modern Afghanistan, but to an almost unimaginable extent. Yet it changed later.

So I think this difference between Islam and Christianity (or post-Christianity) is a really important and real phenomenon. Also look at Christianity in South America or Philippines (at the RGB map). People write books about that.

Joseph Smith As Scientist is still available in all its nutty glory. Joseph Smith's radical doctrine is supposedly vindicated by modern science.

I was given that book as a high school graduate. It was a copy that was owned by my deceased great-grandfather 50 years ago and the science in the book is atrocious and embarrassingly outdated. As one flagrant example, the book champions the doctrinal grounding of the theory of "universal ether". This theory was completely demolished via the Michelson Morley experiment in 1887. But Widtsoe apparently was not up on the latest findings in physics.

I know many who have been influenced by Keller's Center Church which I think has a series that are small, paperback versions of the chapter that may be good for this sort of application. Take a look at this

I know you are right, because after reading Rough Stone Rolling a long time ago, I wasn't even really sure that JS was a polygamist, haha. But by comparison to FAIR, and other apologetics, it is more objective and balanced. I'm reading "Joseph Smith As Scientist" by John A. Widstow (https://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Smith-Scientist-John-Widtsoe/dp/1533544530), and I think you'd be hard pressed to find a book with more proof-texting and twisting of Joseph Smith's words to make them say he was ahead of his time in Scientific Understanding (without JS ever actually talking about the scientific concepts or actually describing anything new or useful) than this one. Not to mention, that all of the scientific thought he claims JS had was all proven to be wrong a few decades later, e.g. belief in the "ether" in space and in the body, etc.

Perhaps I can offer an alternative perspective that I don't think has been offered yet.

I think the crux of the matter rests here:

>if the primary mission of Christians is to "make disciples of all nations"

This isn't the primary mission. At least not how it is normally understood. What is the subject in that sentence? Nations, not people.

>Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Yes, nations are made up of people, but our mission as the church is to disciple entire nations (including the people, cultures, governments, etc) to obey Christ.

>"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. - 1 Corinthians 15:22–27

Paul tells us plainly that Jesus reigns from where he is currently seated heaven until all worldly and spiritual opposition is defeated. In other words, the great commission is not just something to keep us busy until Christ returns, but Christ doesn't return until the mission given the church has been accomplished. That mission includes teaching entire nations to obey Christ.

So, why is feminism so dangerous? Because a nation that embraces feminism is a nation in rebellion to God and is thus still in need of discipleship. In other words, to actually disciple a nation to obey all that Christ commands necessitates the abandonment of feminism and all other disobedient ideologies.

To be clear, unlike the spread of Islam in many instances, this discipleship isn't something we do at the end of a sword or gun. The battle is won through spiritual rather than carnal weapons. Paul makes this very clear.

To show my hand, this is an eschatological view known as Post-Millennialism. If you are interested in further reading on the topic, I recommend this book as a primer Heaven Misplaced

Excellent point. I believe it is this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Miraculous-Movements-Hundreds-Thousands-Muslims-ebook/dp/B00759NKOM/

Which polls something like a 4,000 Muslims who have converted to Christianity. An astronomically high number (like 80-90%) come to Christ through experiencing 1) a dream, vision, or healing and 2) a faithful Christian witness sharing the Gospel and giving them community when they leave the faith.

I've met a number of them in person - the stories are true. Jesus really is the same yesterday, today, and forever, despite what others may say :)