Re-emerging Church

Reviews / Votes

From The Methodist Recorder July 2008 In Re-Emerging Church - Strategies For Reaching a Returning Generation, Standing draws on 30 years' experience of Baptist ministry and evangelism and his current role of tutor for mission, evangelism and pioneer ministry at Spurgeon's College, London. He also experienced a moment of revelation at a football match in Reading, when being surrounded by the accents of his childhood led him to realise the importance of 'nostalgia and roots'. Mr Standing offers thoroughly realistic and believable case studies (drawn from real-life events) of the sophisticated, media-savvy, social justice-conscious boomers finding their way back to churches of all denominations. He also examines the gulf that can appear between 'loyalists' and 'returners'. He acknowledges the difficulties and tensions that may arise between those who have 'grown up in a faith' and those who are 'growing in faith', while concluding that 'the body of Christ will be built up as it presses on to maturity and the whole measure of the fullness of Christ'. Reviewed by Margaret Daniels From The Baptist Times - November 2008 Between 2011 and 2030, the baby boomer generation will be coming up for retirement. In this book, Revd Dr Roger Standing, a Baptist Minister and tutor for Mission, Evangelism and Pioneer Ministry at Spurgeon's College, examines the challenges and opportunities the church faces in light of this demographic change. The generation in question are described in all sorts of ways form third agers, saga louts, to silver surfers. However we describe them, this is a change that we need to prepare for. In this book Roger helpfully describes this generation and their history. They were probably the last generation of mass Sunday school attenders; they have a Christendom heritage and often a nostalgic view of the Church. They are faced in retirement with questions of life and death more acutely than they faced in their working life. Roger also helpfully paints a vision of the retirement of this generation who are generally healthier and more financially secure than generations that preceded them. They will have time on their hands and opportunities to do all sorts of things. This book explores how churches can prepare for the returnees, equip those within the Church for future ministries and helps them face the big questions of a clash of cultures and understanding that will occur. The real challenge of this book, which has a prophetic edge to it, is for it to be more than a good read, which it is incidentally. If what Roger says is correct, and his research is backed up by many others, this is a vital issue that Roger gives us an inroad into. It must, however, be put into action, and shape our priorities and future mission. I commend this book as a critique of the issues, and a helpful discussion starter for churches. I would recommend it as a basis for leadership and church retreats and for churches to truly engage with as they set their programmes and priorities for the future years. Roger gives us the rare opportunity, through research and thinking, to shape the future rather than reacting to it. This book is a must if you are seeking to be relevant to the largest people group of the next few decades. Read it, digest it, question it and be shaped by it. Grasp the opportunity to mould the future for the Church. Reviewed by Revd Ian Bunce. In an engagingly written presentation Standing offers a number of case studies as the basis for his thesis in which he identifies nine characteristics of 'Boomer' spirituality with which the church must reckon if it is to make the best of a perhaps unique opportunity. The case studies are well-chosen and illuminating of the whole raft of issues faced by both potential boomers as well as those who have remained and become deeply enculturated in the life of the church. This book would form an excellent basis for discussion in deacons' meetings and for some churches home groups too. Inevitably in a volume of this type some issues are only able to be treated at an initial level, but there are pointers as to where deeper exploration might begin. Reviewed by Nicholas Wood, Regent's Park College, Oxford