BOOK REVIEW:
The Multigenerational Church Crisis: Why We Don’t Understand Each Other and How to Unite in Mission by Bryan Chapell. Baker Books 168 pages. 2025
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The latest book by Bryan Chapell (pastor, seminary president and denominational leader), is designed to help churches fulfill their biblical responsibilities to each generation so that churches maintain faithfulness for many generations. In this book, he aims to help different generations grasp why they may have trouble understanding each other, and at the same time to help them treasure and steward the contribution each can make to Christ’s mission in their particular time and context. He tells us that the overall goal of the book is to help churches understand how our changing culture is affecting generations of faith. He wants to help churches understand how our changing culture is affecting different generations within their midst so that we can work together for future health and mission. He wants to help us understand generational differences so that we may celebrate how God has differently gifted his people for the purposes of his church at this critical time and so that we may respond with a unified mission.
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BOOK CLUB ~ Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
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The author tells us that the reason churches should celebrate faith that passes from one generation to the next is obvious – any church that does not become multigenerational dies. He tells us that unless a church makes the nurture of the next generation a high priority of its mission, the preferences and priorities of the dominant generation will limit that church’s witness to the lifespan of those presently in charge.
He writes that it is critical for our churches’ future that contemporary church leaders recognize that no group has been more challenged by the consequences of this dechurching than our young people, which he refers to as the “rising generations”. If we do not address their plight and pressures, there is little hope that our churches will experience multigenerational health. On the other hand, he writes that churches are experiencing an unprecedented loss of mature Christians, which he refers to as the “Moral Majority generation”, who used to be churchgoers in a dominantly Christian culture.
Overall, there is no age category in which church membership has not shrunk over the last four decades. He tells us that the cultural ground has shifted beneath the feet of all of us – young and mature – with remarkable swiftness.
The author tells us that ever since childhood, Christians in America who are now age fifty and older have perceived themselves to be in a majority Christian culture. Their children and grandchildren have not. Christians who are in their forties or younger have never known a day in their lives when they considered themselves to be in a Christian majority culture. Always they have perceived themselves to be a minority in a secular, pluralistic culture. Such differing perceptions have profound effects on what each generation and its leaders consider their church’s cultural engagement responsibilities.
Is there hope for the church in the U.S.? The author tells us that in post-COVID America, Millennial adults (those in their thirties and forties), are the generation most likely to attend church. He states that the best reason for hope is the Lord Jesus’s promise, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). He tells us that since we know that young people are simultaneously most open to the gospel and most likely to retain the faith that they embrace in their teens, focused efforts to make Christ known to this younger generation are likely to have the greatest impact on the future of our faith. He states that what should give us hope in this present evil age is the openness rising generations in this country and throughout the world have to the claims of the gospel.
Among the subjects the author addresses in this book are the impact of parents, church hopping, online worshipping, identifying religious convictions on the basis of political associations, the troubling drop in the percentage of those in the U.S. who identify as Christians, the “Nones”, the “Evangelical Uniform”, a comparison of Evangelical Generational Expectations and Issues, Christian Nationalism, church leaders on social media, immigrants, and Christianity outside of the U.S.
The book is loaded with statistics and includes questions for review and discussion at the end of the book – though they would have been more helpful at the end of each chapter.
This helpful book about the multigenerational crisis in our churches, would be a good one for church leaders to read and discuss together.
Here are some of the most helpful quotes from the book:
- Church youth programs are great, and Christian teachers, coaches, and peers are invaluable, but nothing more powerfully engenders lifetime faithfulness than consistent and caring Christian parenting.
- My experience also teaches that teens are often most profoundly influenced by role models a half generation older.
- In one generation, American culture has shifted from 90 percent of the population identifying as Christian to less than half belonging to any church and 95 percent not engaged in weekly Sunday worship.
- Different conclusions about how the Evangelical church should now engage cultural issues often divide churches, and often the divide is along generational lines.
- Different generations may perceive the church’s priorities differently without necessarily being disloyal to Scripture.
- To get a sense of how deep and visceral the divisions may be, ask leaders in each group who their heroes are in the ongoing battle for the soul of America.
- My heart aches for the younger pastors and church leaders who spend so much time performing for the applause of their peers by trying to scandalize others.
- Though there are many variations of Christian Nationalism, its core ideas seek to make Christian norms the standards of American society.
- Ultimately, any hope of gospel progress depends upon the witness of Christians living faithfully in the body of Christ.
- Christianity remains the largest religion in the world with 2.6 billion adherents and growing.
- Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold. My wife Tammy has published a book about HOW to study the Bible. The book is available on Amazon in both a Kindle and paperback edition. She writes “Maybe you have read the Bible but want to dig deeper and know God and know yourself better. Throughout the book I use the analogy of making a quilt to show how the Bible is telling one big story about what God is doing in the world through Christ. Quilting takes much patience and precision, just like studying the Bible, but the end result is well worth it.”
- The Collected Best Books of 2025. Tim Challies writes “Here are the books that appeared repeatedly and, in a more subjective sense, seemed to generate the most positive buzz throughout the year. For each, I added the publisher’s brief description.”
Won’t you read along with us?
Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
Pastor and author Timothy Keller (1950–2023) built a lasting legacy in Christian ministry, planting Redeemer Presbyterian Church and cofounding the Gospel Coalition. With sharp biblical insight that has shaped countless church leaders, along with counsel on the Christian life that has stirred and strengthened audiences worldwide, Keller’s teaching promises to influence generations to come.
Synthesizing Keller’s work topic by topic, each chapter of this book highlights a key aspect of the Christian life—covering his views on prayer, suffering, friendship, vocation, intimacy with God, and more. Written by pastor Matt Smethurst, Tim Keller on the Christian Life draws from Keller’s nearly 50 years of sermons, conference messages, and books to share practical theological insight that will galvanize leaders and laypeople alike.
As we read through this book, we now look at Chapter 5: When Faith Goes to Work Serving God and Others in Your Job. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:
- Work is a divine calling through which we honor our heavenly Master and love our neighbor in tangible ways.
- in his first sermon in Manhattan on work, Keller sounded two notes. First, work is not a curse; it’s a calling. Second, work is not for yourself; it’s for God.
- Here’s the tragic irony: when you invest everything—even your identity—in your job, you will eventually do worse work.
- Adapting categories from John Newton, Keller identifies three factors that often constitute a “call”: Affinity: Do you enjoy it? Ability: Do others think you can do the job well? Opportunity: Is there an open door?
- All jobs—not merely so-called helping professions—are fundamentally ways of loving your neighbor.
- Practicing a form of Sabbath is both an act of trust and a celebration of our design.
