Sticky Church is a book by Larry Osborne, who is the lead pastor of a church in California himself. The main objective of writing this book was to show other pastors on how they can retain people from attending the church. Osborne noticed that most churches focus on attracting the people but don’t do much to retain them. He, therefore, writes this book to show how to make churches ‘stickier’, that is become better at retaining the people who visit the church.
There were a number of insights in the books that were helpful. One of the main insights in the book was “Most of our discipleship programs are very linear. Unfortunately, most spiritual growth is not”. When designing discipleship programs, this fact is often ignored. Spiritual growth is the end goal of all discipleship programs but the fact that growth is not linear, these programs need to be designed differently. One of the ways is to organize them in small groups. By forming small groups, they can support and help each other grow.
Another great insight from the book was that some people need to be preached to hug and others through a kick. He agrees that it takes the personal judgment to know which person needs which kind of treatment. This point is really insightful as not many pastors would agree to this. But this is a fact, and every person needs different levels of accountability.
There were also a number of ideas in the book that could help other potential leaders. One of the main takeaways for potential leaders is that the church is about discipleship, not the growth of the church. Osborne puts emphasis on developing discipleship through sermon-based small groups. According to his experience, creating small groups is the most effective way to create sticky churches and help people grow spiritually.
Another takeaway for future leaders is that it is important for senior leaders to be visible in the church affairs. If they are visible, then their group will follow them, and they can then help them grow.
A third insight for a future potential leader from this book is that new people should be used to form new groups. According to his experience, new people in the church have the energy and motivation to connect with other people. He also suggests not to divide existing groups as they already have a familiarity with each other. Lastly, he also suggests making it easier for people to opt-in or opt-out of the group, without any fear of being out casted.
I would rate this book four out of five as there are a few things that can be improved in the book. Firstly, there were a few areas in the book where I felt the need for more guidance. For example, he could have further elaborated on how to run sermon-based groups. Furthermore, Osborne assumes a large church model, which is not true for most cities in United States.
In conclusion, Sticky Church is a great book that shows pastors and churches to not only focus on attracting people, but also on retaining them. His strategies for retaining church-going members primarily consists of forming small groups of people that would hold each other accountable. They would also help each other grow spiritually and would learn from each other’s mistake.
Bibliography
Osborne, Larry W. Sticky Church. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2008.
