What do you think?
Rate this book
The Attractional Church: Growth Through a Refreshing, Relational, and Relevant Church Experience
Every church leader and church member want their church to grow. The promise of THE ATTRACTIONAL CHURCH is that if a church experience is positive, the lost, absent, and unfilled will come and complacent people in the pew will have their faith renewed. Author Billy Hornsby says that what keeps most churches from growing are the "methods" they choose for their outreach efforts. The local church must ensure visitors and members alike a good and lasting impression of their experience in church, especially the worship service.
"You must get the first impression right!" Hornsby insists. From the website, Facebook page, Twitter accounts, leadership blogs, and parking lot to the worship facility and worship the total church experience must speak to people's emotions and be relational and relevant.
THE ATTRACTIONAL CHURCH is both motivational and practical with guidance on how to accomplish this transformation, and also presents case studies of some of the fastest-growing and most innovative churches in America. Here is a fresh vision for what the church can be.
"You must get the first impression right!" Hornsby insists. From the website, Facebook page, Twitter accounts, leadership blogs, and parking lot to the worship facility and worship the total church experience must speak to people's emotions and be relational and relevant.
THE ATTRACTIONAL CHURCH is both motivational and practical with guidance on how to accomplish this transformation, and also presents case studies of some of the fastest-growing and most innovative churches in America. Here is a fresh vision for what the church can be.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published February 16, 2011
17 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Billy Hornsby
14 books1 followerBilly Hornsby has worked for more than thirty years with national and international church leaders. Billy is an assisting pastor and staff coach for Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. Billy and his wife, Charlene, have been married for more than forty years.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 22, 2025
The good: Author Billy Hornsby has a heart for those who do not know Jesus. His desire is to see all churches effectively engaging the Great Commission and experiencing the satisfying fruit of the gospel.
The bad: At one point I looked up from my reading and said, "I hate this book." My biggest disagreement is with Billy's ecclesiology. For Billy, the Sunday morning worship service is first-and-foremost, an evangelistic opportunity. I disagree. The primary function of Sunday morning worship is for believers to give God what He deserves: worship in spirit and in truth. I recently read that giving God worship is giving Him "worth-ship." Certainly everyone is welcome to Sunday morning worship, and we pray that people are vicariously evangelized by the service, but God is the ultimate recipient and ends of Sunday morning worship, not us.
Although Billy contends that "we need all ships (churches) big and small for the plan of God's church," it becomes clear that numbers of attendees in worship is the primary metric of effectiveness in Billy's mind. Though numbers are a datapoint, have we not learned from the failures of the church growth movement that the 3 "B"s metric (butts, bucks, buildings) was a colossal mistake? Shouldn't our metrics all along, whether during Christendom or now in post-post-Christendom been obedience and faithfulness?
Billy's visit to a Rolls Royce showroom becomes a controlling metaphor throughout. He frequently uses words like "customers" to describe people coming to the church and he likens Sunday morning worship to "the showroom floor." I hope others are as nauseous as I am with these comparisons. Somehow reducing the glory of our incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and one-day-returning Lord Jesus to a sales pitch for a consumeristic society doesn't feel like the Great Commission.
The book also lifts up the example of the big box church that becomes a one-stop-shop for all spiritual goods and services: dynamic, engaging Sunday morning worship; healing ministries; service ministries; teaching; classes; evangelism; deeds ministries; word ministries etc. What's not mentioned is the, to use Driscoll's apt language, "pile of dead bodies behind the bus" of a church that wears people out at best and abuses people at worst in its striving to raise its profile. Jesus valued people over projects. Again, have we not seen from the failures of the church growth movement how many people were used up, burnt out, and abused in the church's supposed "work for the Kingdom?"
***Update after finishing***
I've now finished the book and I revile it even more than when I started writing this review. This book is not only terrible, but I believe that if one follows its advice, one will be trading the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25). If you follow this book, you will be trading the church, Jesus' hope for the world that He died to save, for a manipulative sales pitch to entice consumeristic America to buy your product because "Don't you want it!"
The ecclesiology of this book exchanges the authority of her true Head, Jesus, for the customer (the prospective new person.) Everything is dictated by what someone new would like, rather than what Jesus wants. This is encapsulated by Billy's eagerness to implement what visitors write on comment cards.
Lastly, and I don't say this lightly, author Hornsby has some alarming narcissistic tendencies. In almost every story (it could be as much as every story but I wasn't tracking this dynamic until the latter half of the book) he tells, he is the hero of that story. He is the one dedicating his life to making churches attractional. He is the one sharing the gospel with everyone including in the back of a pickup truck with a guy who had been shot. He is the one taking boring churches and making them exciting. He is the one readying the church for this modern age.
Two more alarming examples occur toward the end of the book. In the context of illustrating forgiveness, he tells a story about cutting off one of his daughter's friendships. The parents of his daughter's friend were incredibly hurt by Billy cutting off this friendship. At this point you think Billy is going to say, "And when I found out how hurt they were, I asked for their forgiveness." But you would be wrong. No, instead Billy says, "That family that was so hurt by my actions that they harbored unforgiveness for years." The narcissm strikes again! It's not Billy's fault for overreacting, it's this family's fault for harboring unforgiveness. You start to get the impression that, whereas the early church gathered in Acts 2:42 to celebrate, proclaim, and live out Jesus' death and resurrection, the modern church gathers to celebrate Billy Hornsby's books and ideas.
The other narcissistic example is in a story Billy tells about being frustrated when his grandson didn't give his all at a baseball game. Not to worry though, the all-knowing, all-powerful, infinitely-wise savior, Billy took his grandson to lunch at Wendy's to teach him how to have the right S.T.U.F.F. Basically this acronym amounts to bringing excellence to every situation. I'm not opposed to excellence, but the whole point of the gospel is that we are not excellent, we are sinful, fallen, and headed toward death. The gospel is that we are not excellent; rather, Jesus is excellent, the perfect Son of the Father full of grace and truth who came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And His excellence becomes our salvation when we embrace Him by faith.
But no need for that true gospel in Billy's book though. It's all "Do what I say and you'll succeed too." One of the last paragraphs reads, "Read and reread this book. Each time you do, ideas will come to you. Call some attractional church pastors and get their input. Implement those ideas and you will regain momentum." In other words, follow the formula of our lord and savior Billy Hornsby, and you will succeed as well.
This book is truly terrible. It is not just bad, I would go so far as to say it is harmful. This is not the true gospel of Jesus, this is corporate, consumeristic America packaged as Consumer Reports for the church.
The bad: At one point I looked up from my reading and said, "I hate this book." My biggest disagreement is with Billy's ecclesiology. For Billy, the Sunday morning worship service is first-and-foremost, an evangelistic opportunity. I disagree. The primary function of Sunday morning worship is for believers to give God what He deserves: worship in spirit and in truth. I recently read that giving God worship is giving Him "worth-ship." Certainly everyone is welcome to Sunday morning worship, and we pray that people are vicariously evangelized by the service, but God is the ultimate recipient and ends of Sunday morning worship, not us.
Although Billy contends that "we need all ships (churches) big and small for the plan of God's church," it becomes clear that numbers of attendees in worship is the primary metric of effectiveness in Billy's mind. Though numbers are a datapoint, have we not learned from the failures of the church growth movement that the 3 "B"s metric (butts, bucks, buildings) was a colossal mistake? Shouldn't our metrics all along, whether during Christendom or now in post-post-Christendom been obedience and faithfulness?
Billy's visit to a Rolls Royce showroom becomes a controlling metaphor throughout. He frequently uses words like "customers" to describe people coming to the church and he likens Sunday morning worship to "the showroom floor." I hope others are as nauseous as I am with these comparisons. Somehow reducing the glory of our incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and one-day-returning Lord Jesus to a sales pitch for a consumeristic society doesn't feel like the Great Commission.
The book also lifts up the example of the big box church that becomes a one-stop-shop for all spiritual goods and services: dynamic, engaging Sunday morning worship; healing ministries; service ministries; teaching; classes; evangelism; deeds ministries; word ministries etc. What's not mentioned is the, to use Driscoll's apt language, "pile of dead bodies behind the bus" of a church that wears people out at best and abuses people at worst in its striving to raise its profile. Jesus valued people over projects. Again, have we not seen from the failures of the church growth movement how many people were used up, burnt out, and abused in the church's supposed "work for the Kingdom?"
***Update after finishing***
I've now finished the book and I revile it even more than when I started writing this review. This book is not only terrible, but I believe that if one follows its advice, one will be trading the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25). If you follow this book, you will be trading the church, Jesus' hope for the world that He died to save, for a manipulative sales pitch to entice consumeristic America to buy your product because "Don't you want it!"
The ecclesiology of this book exchanges the authority of her true Head, Jesus, for the customer (the prospective new person.) Everything is dictated by what someone new would like, rather than what Jesus wants. This is encapsulated by Billy's eagerness to implement what visitors write on comment cards.
Lastly, and I don't say this lightly, author Hornsby has some alarming narcissistic tendencies. In almost every story (it could be as much as every story but I wasn't tracking this dynamic until the latter half of the book) he tells, he is the hero of that story. He is the one dedicating his life to making churches attractional. He is the one sharing the gospel with everyone including in the back of a pickup truck with a guy who had been shot. He is the one taking boring churches and making them exciting. He is the one readying the church for this modern age.
Two more alarming examples occur toward the end of the book. In the context of illustrating forgiveness, he tells a story about cutting off one of his daughter's friendships. The parents of his daughter's friend were incredibly hurt by Billy cutting off this friendship. At this point you think Billy is going to say, "And when I found out how hurt they were, I asked for their forgiveness." But you would be wrong. No, instead Billy says, "That family that was so hurt by my actions that they harbored unforgiveness for years." The narcissm strikes again! It's not Billy's fault for overreacting, it's this family's fault for harboring unforgiveness. You start to get the impression that, whereas the early church gathered in Acts 2:42 to celebrate, proclaim, and live out Jesus' death and resurrection, the modern church gathers to celebrate Billy Hornsby's books and ideas.
The other narcissistic example is in a story Billy tells about being frustrated when his grandson didn't give his all at a baseball game. Not to worry though, the all-knowing, all-powerful, infinitely-wise savior, Billy took his grandson to lunch at Wendy's to teach him how to have the right S.T.U.F.F. Basically this acronym amounts to bringing excellence to every situation. I'm not opposed to excellence, but the whole point of the gospel is that we are not excellent, we are sinful, fallen, and headed toward death. The gospel is that we are not excellent; rather, Jesus is excellent, the perfect Son of the Father full of grace and truth who came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And His excellence becomes our salvation when we embrace Him by faith.
But no need for that true gospel in Billy's book though. It's all "Do what I say and you'll succeed too." One of the last paragraphs reads, "Read and reread this book. Each time you do, ideas will come to you. Call some attractional church pastors and get their input. Implement those ideas and you will regain momentum." In other words, follow the formula of our lord and savior Billy Hornsby, and you will succeed as well.
This book is truly terrible. It is not just bad, I would go so far as to say it is harmful. This is not the true gospel of Jesus, this is corporate, consumeristic America packaged as Consumer Reports for the church.
March 25, 2013
It was eye-opening to read a book about an attractional church because I had not realized how attractional the church is that I am going to. Elevate Life Church in Frisco, TX is in the 90th percentile of adopting most of the processes described in in Attractional Church. For a rapidly growing church, this book explains why we are having such a phenomenal attraction rate.
September 30, 2024
2.5. Beware of these churches. They sound good, but are quite far from a true gospel-driven church.
February 1, 2011
The Attractional Church is a must-read for all laypersons, clergy people and those who wish to see their church flourish. It offers insight, motivation and encouragement to those who are seeing their parish numbers dwindle and continue to fail in their efforts to bring the worshipers back to the Glory of God's word.
It offers you ways to think "outside" of the box in delivering the word to the people. Old church dogmas are not working in today's fast-paced world and Billy Hornsby has written a refreshing outlook on how to bring those numbers back...with quotes from the bible to back his thoughts, this book is a definite step in the correct direction to reaching out to the "under-churched" and bringing the message to their hearts.
It offers you ways to think "outside" of the box in delivering the word to the people. Old church dogmas are not working in today's fast-paced world and Billy Hornsby has written a refreshing outlook on how to bring those numbers back...with quotes from the bible to back his thoughts, this book is a definite step in the correct direction to reaching out to the "under-churched" and bringing the message to their hearts.
May 31, 2015
absolutely Outstanding
I'm actually pretty lenient on books in my rating, so five stars might seem like much for you. But I can tell you that this books value is not found in what is written on the pages. The real valuable content is found in the ideas that this book sparks into your mind about all the ways that you can really create the church that attracts people to Jesus.
I'm actually pretty lenient on books in my rating, so five stars might seem like much for you. But I can tell you that this books value is not found in what is written on the pages. The real valuable content is found in the ideas that this book sparks into your mind about all the ways that you can really create the church that attracts people to Jesus.
October 21, 2011
WOW!!! So insightful. A must-read for any existing Pastor or future church-planter.
January 4, 2012
Overall this was a decent book but the appendix is great. It's basically the ARC's best practices for church planting.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews