America’s religious landscape is in flux. New churches are springing up and many older churches are redefining themselves to survive. At the forefront of this denominational free-for-all are evangelical “seeker” churches.

These churches target “seekers”—individuals of any faith or denominational background who seek spiritual fulfillment but are not currently affiliated with any specific church. By focusing on this largely untapped group, seeker churches have become one of the fastest-growing religious movements in the country. In his study, Kimon Sargeant provides a sociological context for the rise of these churches by exploring the rituals, messages, strategies, and denominational functions of this emerging form of American evangelical Protestantism. 

Featuring live bands, professional lighting and sound systems, and multi-media presentations, seeker churches are attracting many people who have “dropped out” of organized religion.  To broaden their appeal, they offer attenders advice on everyday issues ranging from relationships to finance.

Sargeant focuses on the success of the Willow Creek Association, the seeker church association started by the Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago.  With over 5,000 member churches, the seven-year old association has already outdistanced 90 percent of American denominations and is the leader of the seeker church movement.  Through eyewitness accounts and careful research, Sargeant reveals the “seeker” movement to be a “reformation” of American Protestantism.

KIMON HOWLAND SARGEANT is a program associate in religion at The Pew Charitable Trusts.

SargeantÆs thesis is that seeker churches will continue to grow and to conform to cultural trends. . . . A temperate and insightful account, highly readable, and adequately illustrated. It makes a timely contribution to the sociology of religion and of American culture.

In the last two decades, thousands of churches across the U.S. have combined traditional evangelical theology with innovative marketing principles to respond to the contemporary cultural environment. . . . Sargeant provides a sociological mapping of the seeker church movement. He focuses on Willow Creek Community church (a widely recognized suburban Chicago congregation) and the over 5,000 churches that form the Willow Creek Association. SargeantÆs description and analysis give the reader a better understanding of both the American religious context that gave birth to the movement and the practices that make it distinct. . . . Fascinating.

I found this a most insightful and helpful book for anyone who is interested in evangelical church growth. . . . Replete with well-chosen examples, extensive and thought-provoking discussion, Seeker Churches is well written and well edited, ensuring that it will be a useful resource for years to come.

Just about everyone by now has heard of seeker churches, and many Americans have visited or joined them. Thousands of pastors across the country each year flock to seminars to learn more about these churchesÆ approach to ministry and to gain insight into why the movement is rapidly growing. Kimon Howland SargeantÆs sociological analysis of the movement is the first systematic attempt to try to make some sense of it historically and culturally. This nicely written and timely book addresses, in SargeantÆs words, the fundamental question, æWhat does it mean to be religious, especially to be an evangelical, at this moment in history?Æ. . . . Sargeant provides a good introduction to these churches and raises the critical sociological and theological issues.

After a quarter century we have a definitive study of the Seeker Church movement that tells us what these churches do and why they have become so attractive.

After suffering much armchair analysis, the Seeker Church movement has, at last, found a worthy scholar. Kimon Howland Sargeant has produced an excellent study, historically sound and sociologically dexterous.

SargeantÆs book is a clearly written picture of the Seeker church phenomenon. It uses for its main data a survey of Seeker church pastors. . . . A fascinating portrayal of this æmarket niche.Æ It is a truly æpost-denominationalÆ movement that is thoroughly accommodated to a contract-oriented ethos with ænetworks benefitsÆ and bereft, at least for now, of æhierarchies of religious authority.Æ It is, in sum, a quintessential incarnation of American market religion.