---
product_id: 26090747
title: "Disappearing Church"
price: "€ 40.72"
currency: EUR
in_stock: null
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.fi/products/26090747-disappearing-church
store_origin: FI
region: Finland
---

# Disappearing Church

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- **What is this?** Disappearing Church
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Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience [Sayers, Mark] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience

Review: A Powerful Book About the Modern Church - Mark Sayers has written a book that should be on every pastors shelf, indeed on every Christ followers shelf as well. He has obviously spent many hours working with God on the reasons behind the decline in the Church as a whole. I love one of the lines in the book which says "In a world where friends are added with a button and the beautiful, blank faces of stock photography stare out at us, church and faith offer us true, face-to-face encounters." As Mark points out, it is only with these encounters that we can live out the words of Christ in Matthew 28:19-20. Gnosticism has indeed reared it's ugly head in the modern church in new, stealthy ways that make self seem more important than obedience to God's calling in our lives. As Mark says "the enemy is not outside the ramparts, it is inside the castle." It is time for the Church to sit up and take notice. "To learn to abide in Christ, we also must break from the lures that surround us, while still offering good news to the culture that seduces us." An excellent book.
Review: A Revelation for the Modern Christian - If you were raised in the church any time after the 1950's then this is a must read. It doesn't matter if your experience was good or bad or if you're still in the church, it will be illuminating. If you want a historical, sociological, and theological understanding of how the church has gotten to where it is today then you have to read this book. My one critique was that it was more descriptive than prescriptive, meaning that it dealt more with the past than what to do today, but now that he has come out with the follow up "reappearing church" I can see why he decided to split the two subjects out.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #692,126 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2,191 in Christian Pastoral Resources (Books) #2,525 in History of Christianity (Books) #3,239 in Christian Church History (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (394) |
| Dimensions  | 5.25 x 0.41 x 8 inches |
| Edition  | First Edition |
| ISBN-10  | 0802413358 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0802413352 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 176 pages |
| Publication date  | February 2, 2016 |
| Publisher  | Moody Publishers |

## Images

![Disappearing Church - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81G14aUhajL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Powerful Book About the Modern Church
*by M***H on February 17, 2017*

Mark Sayers has written a book that should be on every pastors shelf, indeed on every Christ followers shelf as well. He has obviously spent many hours working with God on the reasons behind the decline in the Church as a whole. I love one of the lines in the book which says "In a world where friends are added with a button and the beautiful, blank faces of stock photography stare out at us, church and faith offer us true, face-to-face encounters." As Mark points out, it is only with these encounters that we can live out the words of Christ in Matthew 28:19-20. Gnosticism has indeed reared it's ugly head in the modern church in new, stealthy ways that make self seem more important than obedience to God's calling in our lives. As Mark says "the enemy is not outside the ramparts, it is inside the castle." It is time for the Church to sit up and take notice. "To learn to abide in Christ, we also must break from the lures that surround us, while still offering good news to the culture that seduces us." An excellent book.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Revelation for the Modern Christian
*by M***E on November 6, 2019*

If you were raised in the church any time after the 1950's then this is a must read. It doesn't matter if your experience was good or bad or if you're still in the church, it will be illuminating. If you want a historical, sociological, and theological understanding of how the church has gotten to where it is today then you have to read this book. My one critique was that it was more descriptive than prescriptive, meaning that it dealt more with the past than what to do today, but now that he has come out with the follow up "reappearing church" I can see why he decided to split the two subjects out.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Astute insight and fairly robust challenge to bring the gospel to our current culture.
*by H***E on August 15, 2017*

Summary: It is a deep look at our culture and how Christianity fits into it. Sayers is gospel guy, calling the church back to its faithful orthodoxy, the Bible and courageous creative response in light of the new cultural landscape. The Good: Sayers uses illustrations very effectively. Thy have wide range from islands traditions changing how they reacted to the Tsunami (134ff), movies (Safe 53 and Her 89), to Al-Qaeda versus Islamic state comparisons(109ff). Sayers talks of Christianity's "soft power (p. 10)" and the page before quotes another claiming Christianity is full of "thousands of quiet kindnesses.” Chapter 2 draws out an interesting history of how the north American church (and apparently the author homeland of Australia as well) is obsessed with “relevance.” It was fairly insightful. Chapter 3 is very good. It starts out with the often-cited Chinese sociologist given credit to the rise of the west no to guns, political structure, or but in sum, “we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity (41).” The real gem in chapter 3 is the first, second and third culture explanation. First cultures “believe in many gods(43).” Second cultures “are rooted in the Judeo-Christin ethic (43).” Third cultures “define themselves against second cultures ($45).” This insight into modern religious culture is tremendously astute. A partial solution offered here in the narrative is given in the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “to become a creativity minority…is not easy, because it involves maintaining strong links with the outside world while staying true to your faith, seeking not merely to keep the sacred flame burning but also to transform the larger society of which you are a part (page 50).” Chapter 4 lost me for a little. The talk about Gnosticism didn’t match up with what my seminary and undergrad profs talk about Gnostic teaching. But Sayers is using this is a similar way to many others currently. Sayer’s new Gnosticism seems combo of Zen Buddhism/Mindfulness, New Age thought, Secular Humanism and self-help movement, and the Prosperity Gospel. It seems Sayer’s is labeling a combo of all the threats to Christianity currently in one title. But I now found out there is a fairly large focus to this new label. Here is a solid quote from Chapter 4. “Gnosticism is an attempt to retain the fruits of Christianity and the solace of faith while maximizing the individual’s authority. It is the post-Christian impulse par excellence (59).” Part 2 (chapters 5 +) follows this outline: New Cultural Landscape (A) + Faithful Orthodoxy (B) + Courageous Creative Response (C) = Revitalization of the church and culture (D) He does a fairly accurate job to present solutions that aren’t simplistic and actually seem like they could work in the real world. Chapter 9 has a stand out idea. “Institutions are our beliefs and ethics enfleshed. They bring ideas down from the ether and ensure that they are operating within actual life of a community (132).” Sayers solution to helping the church rise and through it the gospel is strengthening the institutions that purport ideas. For the gospel to flourish churches need to flourish. He quotes Andy Crouch, “Institutions are the way the teeming abundance of human creativity and culture are handed on to future generations (135).” Sayers ends the book with a call to abide in Christ. “To do this (abiding and making an impact) … we must again learn to abide in the Father (167).”

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*Last updated: 2026-01-28*