Book
Church Scattered — The Book
In this intentionally disruptive book, author and leadership development consultant Dan Greer clearly depicts how the cultural forces of change are negatively impacting the lives of individual Christians and the mission of the church. In post-Christian America, the church is in serious decline and unless a transformational leadership approach is taken—both in our homes and in our churches—that trend will only get worse. While the message of our faith is sacred, Greer says, our methods are not.
In his new book, Church Scattered: Christianity for the 21st Century, Greer offers transformational truths and biblical solutions to the crisis we face as Christians and as the church. Christianity must become more about a people living on mission than a place to attend on Sunday.
In Church Scattered, readers will discover how:
- Challenging and equipping Christians to live out their calling by merging all of the sacred and secular priorities in everyday life is transformational.
- Tearing down the unnecessary walls of segmentation between clergy and laity, work and faith, career and calling, social justice and eternal redemption, and church and kingdom is transformational.
- As church leaders, prioritizing the ministry of the individual Christian and empowering them to live out their faith every day in the Church Scattered at home, work and in their neighborhoods over the important ministry in the Church Gathered is transformational, and it’s also the most biblical thing we can do.
“Jesus Christ is still the hope of the world and the abundant life he promised to every Christian is still available. His presence dwells within you, so his peace and power will never leave you. Surely if he can be trusted for eternity, he can be trusted for today.” — Dan Greer
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Book Endorsements
Dan gives our changing cultural conditions thorough and thoughtful analysis. As a Christian leader, we are all asking the same thing, “what next?” Our mission of the Great Commission is the same, but what will happen to our method? As the Church becomes scattered around the world, Church Scattered is worth the read.
Dan Greer understands the church and the marketplace and has put his finger on some natural tensions between the two. In Church Scattered Dan grapples with the role of Christians in the church—Church Gathered—and then in the marketplace— Church Scattered. Thankfully, when many observers are diminishing the value of the local church in the name of cultural relevance, Dan doesn’t do that. Indeed, he maintains that the Church Gathered and the Church Scattered are “one church with the same mission.” I commend this book to everyone as a primer on discovering and maximizing our calling as followers of Christ.
The landscape of the American Church is rapidly changing. In order to meet the needs of an ever-changing world, we don’t need to figure out how to be more relevant, but rather to go back to the Scripture and look at the biblical blueprint for how to take the gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation. Dan Greer has written a timely and thought provoking piece that will help pastors and church leaders equip the everyday believer to live on mission and see the gospel advance through a rapidly changing world.
Get ready to be powerfully convicted of our ambivalence as missionaries to our fallen world, which is right outside our door. If our goal is to enhance our careers to better our lives, we will live unfulfilled. If we live for our calling, our career is just one part of our strategy to reach the world for Christ. It is a means to a greater end. Church Scattered provides the roadmap for reaching and regaining three lost generations for Christ.
Church Scattered gives us a blueprint for how to live as the church in the 21st century. Dan is clear on how “we are the church” and how we can live out our faith in our workplace, school and neighborhood. Church Scattered shows us how we can live out the Book of Acts now.
This quote from the prologue sets the stage for what follows and provides sufficient reason to read further, “The current church model has failed to equip Christians to live out their calling in the other 95 percent of their lives ... ” Dan has been on “both sides of the table” as a business leader and church leader. Readers will receive the benefit from his combined experience and wisdom.
In his life and ministry, Dan Greer is known for offering biblical, precise, practical, and often mind-blowing wisdom. His voice is one of the most valued and trusted in my home because his clarity and sober-mindedness have so regularly bolstered our faith and influenced our actions for the better. In Church Scattered, he does this yet again. This is a book that will sharpen, challenge, and inspire your faith, your church, your thinking, and your methodology. Dan’s insight into disruption, the failings of the Church Gathered, and the hope for the Church Scattered is an essential message for the individual believer and institutions alike, especially as we strive to minister effectively during a pandemic that scatters us. Church leader, trust me: this is a “for such a time as this” message. Don’t miss it.
The Church Gathered is a vital part of God’s plan and is extremely important. The Church Scattered is equally important. Dan Greer has done a great job in Church Scattered to help you develop an intentional plan that emphasizes the mission of the Church out in the communities in which we live. It will help you, who love the Church, make an increasingly greater impact for Christ in your community.
Dan Greer has been a keen observer of church life for over 30 years. He has been on the executive leadership team of large churches as well as a church consultant. His observations on the directional focus of the church are spot on. In the coming years, the church will have to be much better at scattering in order to see its God-given potential realized— the church fully released where we live, work and play. Whether buildings remain relevant or not, this is the issue. Dan covers the ground masterfully. So many astute observations. A great read—you will be glad you took time to go through it!
Church Scattered—classic Dan Greer—really great content—insightful, practical, relevant, futuristic, disruptive, prophetic—clearly a high leverage message for individual followers of Christ and a playbook for churches which serve us!
Church Scattered could not be a more timely call to action for the church to respond to the Great Commission. Dan Greer shares a clear, concise strategy of how people of faith can lead their clients, co-workers and neighbors through the COVID-19 crisis with faith, hope, innovation and vision right into the kingdom. The only question that remains is whether you are willing to answer the call.
One of the most refreshing books I’ve read in a long time. Challenging, practical, dynamic. A must read for Christians who feel side-lined, wounded and disillusioned by the institutional church. There is a place for people like us! And it’s the tip of the spear!
Church Scattered is the modern-day version of Jeremiah 1:10. It is time to root up and to pull down in order to build and to plant. Dan Greer provides a roadmap for the changes we can implement to bring true kingdom principles into our daily life in order to positively impact the world.
Never have we needed a more clarion, convictional voice on the diagnosis, prognosis and prescription of the current health of the church. This book will “disrupt” you personally, professionally and spiritually. It will challenge you to the core about what you have traditionally thought of as an effective church and your role within it. In Church Scattered, Dan gives us the framework and tools to change our approach to the way we relate to our church, our family, our career, our business, our neighbor… all for greater kingdom impact in the 21st century and beyond.
This book revealed so much to me about my role as a disciple of Christ in the church during these trying times. If you are a Christian affiliated with a local church, this book will inspire you to rethink your own personal approach to the Great Commission. If we have the courage to listen to these words and then to let go of our failed “church mindset”, we can create the opportunity for God to grow His people and the harvest will abound.
If Bear Bryant only lectured his players on how to play football; only showed films from famous players on how to tackle, block, throw a spiral; and only drew “Xs and Os” on the chalkboard to explain assignments, then what do you think Bear’s coaching record would have been? Instead, Coach Bryant had his boys practice in every condition possible, get dirty, and experience injuries and failure and taste success in preparation for the real games. Dan knows this and wants all of us followers of Christ to get out of the stands and into the ultimate game. And, this game is far more important than college football in the South; it’s about eternity. If I don’t care enough about my neighbor to get dirty and tackle the real issues in life, then I should stay in the stands. But what kind of love would that be?
Disruption is the great initiator of change, and we are in the midst of one of the greatest disruptions in anyone’s lifetime. As an excellent leader in the Church Gathered, and a strong enabler of the Church Scattered, Dan Greer shares lessons and insight that will challenge and encourage all of us. There is an enormous opportunity before us and God is on the move. The real challenge is how we respond to the opportunity right before us. Do we revert back to only what we know, or do we move forward into a new space that is very uncomfortable, but can transform our homes, work and neighborhoods?
There are key moments in our lives where we realize we need to think differently to achieve a new outcome. While I wish we arrived at these moments of awareness on our own, they are usually triggered by a disruption that is imposed upon us. It seems that one of these moments of disruption has come to the church. In Church Scattered, Dan Greer compels us to think differently about what it means to be the church and guides us through the perspective shifts we need to make to see the church flourish today.
As Dan Greer shares in the Introduction “we have placed more value on the Church Gathered than we have placed on Christ and following him every day in the Church Scattered.” Seldom in history has there been a more timely and compelling book for church leaders. If you truly desire to be the effective leader God made you to be in our day, RUN, don’t walk to Church Scattered by Dan Greer.
This book is cerebral, prolifically honest and direct about the challenges the church faces brought about by a continual and ever-changing worldview, and the economic and technological changes that impact our culture, and how leadership must align themselves spiritually and biblically to effectively lead the church in the future to come.
Dan’s insights have helped me in a variety of ways over the years. The chapter on personal leadership from his recent work, Church Scattered, challenged me in fresh ways. Each of us is called to lead in our sphere of stewardship, regardless of our place in life. Saying “no” to good things in order to create “yes” margin for even greater things is a powerful, God-honoring concept I am more convicted of and committed to, thanks to Dan.
Early on in my ministry, I had the privilege of serving and being mentored by Dan Greer. The Church Scattered is not theoretical in his life; it is what he has lived and breathed for decades of faithful ministry. The Church Gathered and The Church Scattered is not an either-or approach, they are necessities and more important mandates for each believer. In his book, Dan has disrupted the traditions of many of our churches, and the result will be a church that thrives as it continues to deliver an unchanging message to an ever-changing world.
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