Book Review:
You Lost Me
Nathan Richie
YOUT 350: Campus Ministry
4/16/18
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You Lost Me
You Lost Me is a book written about young people who grew up in church but now have
grown away from the church, and many times, Christianity altogether. This book attempts to
shine some light on why young people are leaving the church. David Kinnaman, the author of
You Lost Me, also is the coauthor of the bestselling book “unChristian” and is also president and
majority owner of the Barna Group. He frequently speaks on topics of young adults, cultural
change, leadership, and generations.
Chapter 1 is titled “Faith Interrupted”. One of the biggest ideas that this chapter talks
about is that the dropout problem is a faith-development and/or a disciple making problem. If
you look to the youth groups of today, it is normal a cool place to hang out where all of the teens
friends are, or it is some amazing event with entertainment. However, rarely do you see true and
real discipleship happening in the youth group. Not to mention, that the church labels the youth
as the “future church”. Now, where in the bible is this taught? The Bible teaches that if you are a
follower of Jesus Christ, then you are the church. The church needs to start seeing the youth not
merely as the future, but also the present.
An important chapter in this book is chapter 4. Chapter 4 is titled “Exiles”. Exiles are,
“those who grew up in the church and are now physically or emotionally disconnected in some
way, but who also remain energized to pursue God-honoring lives. They feel the loss, in many
ways, of the familiar church environment in which they once found meaning, identity, and
purpose. They feel lost, yet hopeful.” This speaks volumes on how important it is to have
community and to be connected with a church. Exiles biggest struggle is what the church is and
what they think the church should be. Most want community, they just don’t want to be
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connected with the church. Therefore, they think it is better for them to live the Christian life
alone, which is obviously very difficult and very lonely.
Chapter 5 is a good chapter and it is titled “Overprotective”. This is something that starts
inside the family. Parents want to shelter their kids from the outside world and the chance of
them making bad decisions, but then when they graduate, they are bombarded with all of these
temptations that they have never gotten the chance of saying “no” to before. Parents need to
allow their students to choose to love Jesus instead of letting them live off of their love for Jesus.
Then, we look at youth groups. Youth groups need to totally shift the way they do ministry.
Instead of pulling students out of their environment to give them safe places to hang out and
always be around other Christians, they need to come alongside the students and equip them into
becoming disciples of Christ.
Chapter 7 is the last chapter I’ll talk about. Chapter 7 is called “Antiscience”. If you have
been around a church at all, you know that science gets a bad name around church and church
usually gets a bad name around science. I think as a church, we need to welcome science.
Science is defined as, “a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths
systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws.” Therefore, if science are
facts, then they have been proven to be true. With that being said, there has never been one piece
of science that has disproved God. Actually, all science points to a Creator. Now with scientific
theories, yes, the church needs to stand up against those because none of that is proven.
This book has been great for me as a person and for my future ministry. It helps you
understand why teens are falling away from the church and reminds you that we aren’t called to
make converts, but we are called to make disciples. I will recommend this book to many others.
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Works Cited
Kinnaman, David, and Aly Hawkins. You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church ...
and Rethinking Faith. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2016.
