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This issue of Leadership Network Advance is dedicated to resources for church planters. We interviewed the authors of the following four books, which will all debut April 2010 at the Exponential Conference in Orlando, FL.
Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement
by Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson
"Exponential tells our story of how God brought a handful of friends together to start a missional church movement and how others could do the same. The principles we share come from the very message that Jesus communicated to His first followers when he said, "Come follow me." So, there may be very little that is actually new about this book, but it is the one book you can read if you want to reproduce yourself, your ministry and your church.
"It doesn't matter if you're leading a small group or the lead pastor of a very large church, you need to be asking the question, "Who is walking beside you? Who are you equipping to do what you are doing?" That is absolutely foundational to developing a reproducing culture in any church. We are really excited…"
AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church
by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
"We wrote the AND at the request of a respected group of network leaders who felt that someone needed to call the church past the "missional/attractional" divide that has grown over the last 5-7 years. The message was confirmed at an informal gathering of mega and micro church leaders in Denver, where we saw the exact same passion for the explosion and expansion of God's missional church across a wide range of forms. No one cared about "how" we were doing church. Everyone just wanted God's church to re-emerge from the ashes of irrelevance.
"Early on, people assumed we were organic purists because our church started from scratch with most of our stories in homes, pubs, coffee shops, etc. As our story grew we felt uncomfortable being labeled by someone else's "form" of church. We never tried to claim any type of church, but we were learning that there is a natural struggle to find a balance of scattering people into incarnational mission but that there is also a significant beauty and meaning in corporate gatherings..."
Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers
by Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird
"It was our desire to write a book that would assist those involved or interested in church planting so that they might move beyond simply starting one church, toward the planting of movements. As such this book is intended for everyone involved in the church planting process: denominations, networks, local churches and church planters. Our ultimate hope is that we'll move from addition to multiplication. We need to see true church multiplication movements take place.
"One of the first things we need to do is give more people permission to plant churches. There are marks of the biblical church and those always need to be central to what we do, but we have "clergified" church planting. In other words, we have made it necessary to be a certain class of person in order to plant a church..."
Ethnic Blends: Mixing Diversity into Your Local Church
by Mark DeYmaz, with Harry Li
"Ethnic Blends is for the growing numbers of pastors, church planters, and ministry leaders, indeed, entire staff teams who are seeking to promote greater ethnic/economic diversity within the local church or ministry they lead.
"Intentionality is both an attitude and an action when it comes to mixing diversity into your otherwise healthy, homogeneous context. Yes, intentionality must permeate and inform every corridor of a multi-ethnic church. For instance, I have no doubt that people mean well when they say that they would gladly welcome others of varying ethnic or economic backgrounds to come be a part of "their" church. However, in practice, what they really mean is "… as long as 'they' like things the way we do them." Therefore, you should recognize that a healthy multi-ethnic church is not established by assimilation but rather…" |
