Douglas T. Anderson is a clergy member of the North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. Michael J. Coyner is Resident Bishop Dakotas Area of the UMC and the author of Abingdon’s Making a Good Move.

In this well-written, practical, exciting, informative and comprehensive book about successful ways to reach out to newcomers, they make an excellent analogy with a relay race, where teamwork is vital to winning. Anderson stresses teamwork in his brief introduction. Coyner stresses that the only adequate motivation for assimilating new disciples is a passion for God and a passion for people. The book shows how both teamwork and passion play roles here – they make it clear that many in the church – clergy, staff and variously focused teams – must be involved to “win” the race. Each of the seven chapters includes the word “newcomers,” prefaced in Chapters 1-6 by important key concepts: attracting, welcoming, identifying, responding, listening, and including. The chapters and concepts, taken together in the order given, provide a lesson plan that gracefully and effectively embodies the teamwork and passion needed in “the race to reach out.”

Especially impressive are continuing stories about a few well-chosen “typical” newcomers, whose story lines shows what’s needed, what works, and recovery form a misdiagnosis (quite likely for teams with good communication). To me, the stories bought to life encounters that occur with newcomers to a church – these stories, and the lesson plan steps they exemplify, made this book one I just could not put down until I read it all – twice. Chapter 7 is Including Newcomers as New Members. A crucial concept is involved here: involvement in church activities often remains at the same level as when becoming a member, for membership without activity usually leads to an inactive member, whereas active involvement (in classes, choir or other activities) before becoming a member usually leads to an active member. This is one point they stressed strongly, but there are many other important points stressed (and shown by their stories) in this wonderfully engaging little book. I give it a high recommendation and strongly encourage everyone to read it, figure out where you can be involved, then pass your copy (free in my church's office) on to someone else in our church community.