No comments about The true religion and religion of others.

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2 comments about Falling in Truth: The Education of a Jehovah\'s Witness.

1. A young man falls headlong into religious zeal at an age when he should be falling in love. He meets a wise old elder and falls deeper into the truth about religion. But he also meets a young woman and falls in love. When tragedy strikes he discovers a fatal conflict between his religion and his love, and he is forced to make a life-altering choice.
   
   This is a book that will help people understand the lifestyle and thinking of Jehovah's Witnesses. It also gives practicing Witnesses a great deal to ponder. Although this is a novel, it is based on real-life experiences and delves more deeply and objectively into religious beliefs than many non-fiction works on the subject.
   
   Some comments I have received from readers over the years:
   
   It is seldom I read something as stimulating as your book, Steve! I couldn't put it down. It is as revealing as having read Letters from Earth by Mark Twain, or the two books by Ray Franz. It's too bad I didn't discover intelligent reading material such as your book sooner.
   -CT -- Former JW elder
   
   I want to thank you for writing that book, I recognize so very much of what I believed and felt... it has made clearer all that I have been trying to word myself.
   -NN
   
   You did a remarkable job of stuffing the entire JW experience into one set of events. Chapters 5 and 7 should be mandatory reading for Witnesses... Thanks. It's good reading.
   -FT
   
   I am astounded by the amount of research and investigation it must have taken you to write this story... I have a lot more to think about regarding why we are here, and life in general. But the real benefit I got from your book is an increased empathy for other people, no matter what their belief. And for this, I thank you! You have a real talent for writing, and your dialogue kept me glued to the screen (I read it online). I must say, I can totally relate to the feelings your character "Ted" was having.
   -J.S.
   
   I found it to offer quite a roller-coaster ride emotionally. It is excellent! I was surprised at how strongly I was gripped by the plight of "fictional" characters... I must have recognized bits of dozens of people I knew as I grew up.
   --J.



2. Never before have I been so amazed by an author who obviously did much research to make a writing as detailed and genuine as "Falling in Truth."
   
   This is a true work of genius. The compelling storyline deals with subjects and characters not covered in mainstream print. Not only are the characters so real that you may recognize your friends, or even yourself, but the situations in which they find themselves are true to life, and even humorous at times.
   
   This book stimulates deep thought over the big questions of life, and self-examination of what we really know about "truth" and our beliefs, from the perspective of a youth entering the most decisive years of his life. Seekers of truth, of all faiths, will find this book most rewarding.

5 comments about The Unchurched Next Door: Understanding Faith Stages as Keys to Sharing Your Faith.

1. Rainer did a great research on the unchurched, and in the process, developed a grading on where to place people, i.e. the Rainer Scale of U5 to U1 where U5 are the most resistant and U1 the most receptive. Rainer goes beyond what people are resistant about to show that, often times, there is history and past experiences that give people a certain perception. He also offers some approaches towards reaching and building relationships with the different categories of people.
   
   One of the important results of the study is that most people whould go to church if they were invited. Some young Christians (those who just had a relationship with Jesus) wondered why their Christian colleges, friends and neighbors never opened their mouths to invite them if having a personal relationship with Jesus is a matter of life and death, heaven or hell. People tend to feel intimidated walking into a church, and so by inviting friends there, and helping them to know their way and meet people, greatly helps. Also, some Christians have bad experiences with U5s (which constitute only about 5%) and gets turned off from inviting the unchurched or in sharing the gospel. Christians need to look to the other 95% and get over their bad experiences.
   
   Even as culture and society changes, the results in the future may change from what is presented in this book, but as for now, this research shows that there is a window of opportunity to invite the unchurched to church and leading them to a personal relationship with Jesus.



2. This book provides a helpful introduction to near-neighbor evangelism which is lacking among many Christians, myself included. The main points are that not all unchurched people are at the same place on their faith journey, and that many will come to church if they are invited, which unfortunately seldom happens.
   
   I think a couple of weaknessesshould be noted. There seems to be an underlying assumption that there is a clear path between someone coming to church and their becoming a disciple of Jesus. Rainer doesn't really help us see what that path is. The second weakness is that conversion is seen as occuring when someone pray's "the sinners prayer," "invites Jesus into their hearts," or "accepts Jesus as their personal Savior." Biblical conversion is more complex.



3. I think we need to stay mindful here that as we share Christ with those who don't know Him, they are real people, much of whom are very open to God and His Word, but are disillusioned with the church. Let us as His ambassadors not get mixed up into thinking we need to invite them to church (which is a gathering of believers), and rather invite them into our home, build a relationship and 'show' Jesus to them...it's not all about church growth; it's about growing the Kingdom of God through growing disciples!!!



4. Extremely helpful to read before going on mission doing surveys and witnessing door to door. Helped to understand where people are in the process of receiving a witness about Jesus Christ, and to not feel discouraged when they "rejected" our offer to hear the gospel. It helped us know how to pray for certain people knowing that they are either resistant, neutral, seeker, or just waiting to hear the gospel.



5. I recently finished reading The Unchurched Next Door by Thom Rainer. I had previously read his books Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Simple Church, and I found his research to be very illuminating in those books. The same is true of this book.
   For this project, Rainer had a team of interviewers conduct extensive one-on-one surveys with unchurched Americans from a wide variety of backgrounds. Rainer classifies them into five categories of unchurched. These are classified on the "Rainer scale" from a U5 (highly resistant and antogonistic to the gospel) to a U1 (high receptive to the gospel.) His researchers found that only 5% of Americans were U5's (antogonistic), and that among the remaining 95% of the unchurched, the majority would likely come to church if somebody they knew invited them and offered to go with them into the building. Here was the most interesting statistic in the book-- Answers to the question, would you be likely to go to church if invited:
   U5 (antogonistic): 0% very likely, 20% somewhat likely, for a total of 20%
   U4 (resistant but not antagonistic): 17% very likely, 45% somewhat likely, for a total of 62%
   U3 (neutral): 23% very likely, 63% somewhat likely, for a total of 86%
   U2 (receptive): 46% very likely, 51% somewhat likely, for a total of 97%
   U1 (highly receptive): 52% very likely, 45% somewhat likely, for a total of 97%
   Over and over again, Rainer pleads in this book for Christians to invite their friends to church. His plea needs to be heard.