Crisis in American Churches

Is the Church Really in Crisis?

Book Review: The American Church in Crisis

David Olson, in The American Church in Crisis writes  an intriguing essay about the state of the church in America. Although written in 2009, it feels relevant and timely as ever. If you are interested in statistical numbers about the condition of the church, this book is for you. He also provides ample charts for the visual learner.

Olson provides interesting nuggets of fact such as "Fast-growing churches...were more likely located in zip codes where the population growth was higher than the national average. If a church declined or was stable, it was more likely  located in a low-growth zip code where the population growth was lower than the national average." This seems to indicate a direct correlation between church growth and decline and population growth and decline.

This book has four sections. In the first section, observation, Olson looks at the many statistics collected over the many years. After collecting and analyzing the data and trends, Olson makes many good observations and draws some good conclusions such as:

A denomination lays the foundation for its future by (1) each year planting quality new churches, equal to at least 2 percent of the number of congregations in the denomination, (2) creating synergistic systems of health and growth between both new and established churches, and (3) reinvesting the assets of closed churches into the planting of multiple new churches.

Not satisfied with merely communicating the state and challenge for the church in America, in the last section, Olson relates the message and mission of Christ for the church. The message is what Jesus spoke about, what He did for man, and the mission is what Jesus came to act out for man. Solutions are most profitable when churches align their behaviors and resources with their missional values. This book will challenge church leaders to take a hard look at their churches and denominations.

Olson, David T. (2009) The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of over 200,000 Churches (Kindle ed.) Zondervan,