The Next Christians: A Book You Should Definitely Be Reading

I read a lot of books every year.  A lot.  And I’ve been tweeting a couple lists lately.  My 5 Essential GroupLife Reads for your Christmas List and also a list from my other blog, Top 5 StrategyCentral Reads for 2010.  I’ve even got a recommended reading list with over 50 titles on it.

If you’re a reader, there are some real essentials on these two lists.  If you’re not a reader…well, you should be.

I need to point you to one final book in 2010.  Honestly, I had seen The Next Christians, by Gabe Lyons when it came out earlier in the year.  But I was too busy to pick it up.  You may have read his previous book, unChristian (with David Kinnaman).  90 pages into this one…I can tell you that you need to be reading this.

I’ll be back with a full review soon.  Just wanted to get it on your radar.  There are definitely some implications here for a number of the things we’ve been talking about.  Most importantly, that the widening 60% will never come to church.  If that’s true…then it will take the wisdom of books like The Next Christians to guide us in reaching them.

Although I’m not quite halfway through it, I can tell you with conviction that this is a book that will be influencing my writing and thinking about small group ministry.  The first 90 pages are pretty marked up and dog-eared and there was a jaw-drop moment on pages 66-67 that I know I’ll be coming back to many times.

If you end up with some Christmas money that’s burning a hole in your pocket…The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons is one you need to pick up.