You Can Keep Them If You Care

Helping New Members Stay On Board

About the Author 

James A. Cress, along with his wife, Sharon, served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for many years as leader of the General Conference Ministerial Association. He has written this book from his rich experience in pastoral and evangelistic engagements. 

About the Book 

This 143-page comprehensive manual on membership retention was published in 2000 by the Ministerial Association of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Pastor Cress observes that the way new members are nurtured is as important as winning them to the faith, and that every local church has the solemn responsibility of providing the needed nurture for the new converts before they can become disciple makers themselves. The failure of the local church to adequately nurture new members contribute to the inability of members to do mission. Only well fed members can feed others. 

In four parts and twelve chapters, Cress shows that conversion is a process, not an event; the strategies for keeping new members; lessons that can be learned from the church he pastored; and practical methods and plans that are used in integrating new members. The appendices he provides at the end of the book, and a bibliography, are enriching resources for any pastor and his church. 

What Cress has done in this book is to show that the gospel commission is not just about adding to the numbers but also caring for the numbers that have been added. When the new converts are adequately cared for, they go out caring for others and in the process add them to the congregation. Discovering the power of care is an essential ingredient in soul winning and membership retention. Cress has argued all through the book that this could be the missing link in the witnessing of many Adventist congregations. Therefore, every Adventist church that wishes to see her new members stay should read and apply the principles in this manual. 

Reviewed by John Okpechi