The Gallup Guide is really a follow-up to an earlier book Surveying the Religious Landscape: Trends in U. S. Beliefs, printed in 1999. This latest book has a different format because it not only updates and summarizes their conclusions, but also provides resources to help you “understand the times and what Israel should do,” to quote 1 Chronicles 12:32. 

The book picks up issues and trends that require our careful attention. For example: there is an explosion of interest among U. S. populace in spiritual matters but what does that mean? They underscore that major surveys have shown there are three felt needs in those surveys concerning spirituality: a need for deeper, more meaningful relationships with other people, a need for spiritual moorings, and a need to reach out to hurting people. They also conclude that American churches are “wonderfully positioned to respond to these three deep needs as we move through the twenty-first century.” 

I appreciate the overall emphasis that where applicable, churches should move from maintenance to mission. But they suggest that whatever is done to revitalize religious faith in our churches, “should be considered with some urgency…that the church is only one generation from extinction applies today as perhaps never before.” Although they are referring to the visible church, their warning must be heeded. The Gallup Guide contains several reproducible surveys to help a church glean helpful data in planning its ministry with an intentional, missional focus. As one reviewer stated, this book could be a “comprehensive and compelling resource guide to diagnosing a church and a community.” These resources can help you diagnose such things as: “what values shape your community, what problems impact families, and what people expect from your church.” The book also puts you in touch with a protected website where you can download the surveys.

This book is thought provoking, well researched, and clearly written which enables Christians, particularly those in leadership position and discipling making roles, to frame the Gospel and all of God’s truth in the context of this generation to whom we are called to minister.

 - Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator