Understanding Church Planting
These resources include introductory and detailed materials about church planting: methods, practices, and perseverance.
Foundations of Prayer – Audio
the following historical accounts are audio lectures by J. Edwin Orr and give us a key understanding to what precedes church planting movement activity. That is churches that are movements of disciples of Jesus who pray, seek and train disciples who continue to multiply themselves over multiple generations. Appreciation of prayer is foundational to all other suggested reading.
The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: And the Causes That Hinder It by Roland Allen
This book is a classic work of the last century setting the backdrop for how traditional institutional church planting ideas were frustrating the natural flow of the gospel in unreached communities. Roland Allen lived from 1868-1947.
Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? by Roland Allen
A deep dive into Paul’s method of sharing the Gospel and a discussion on how some of his practices might be beneficial today.
Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery by David Watson & Paul Watson
This book looks into how disciples can spark the spreading of the Gospel, here and internationally. This book includes engagement tools and practical techniques to use in equipping others for the sake of Christ.
The Kingdom Unleashed: How Jesus’ 1st-Century Kingdom Values are Transforming Thousands of Cultures and Awakening His Church by Jerry Trousdale & Glenn Sunshine
Introductory summary of how some disciple movements have gotten started and continue to grow. The authors explain what those principles were in discipleship practices and discuss why those were important.
In Search of Persons of Peace: Inspirational Stories of How Ordinary People Influence Multitudes for Christ by Carolyn Leslie Knight
A key overview and testimonies on the “Person of Peace” mindset and how it differs from how traditional western churches were established.
From Seed to Fruit: Global Trends, Fruitful Practices, and Emerging Issues among Muslims by J. Dudley Woodberry (2nd Ed)
This is a more comprehensive overview of different cross cultural church planting practices for team leaders and teams so you can see what key values you can put in place based on what other practitioners have found fruitful.
Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples by Thom Rainer
Another paradigm of church planting movements which contain most of the key DNA common in all the resources presented. This is helpful if you want to take movement ideas from another perspective that God had given to others who had a heart to see disciples grow and be fruitful.
Stubborn Perseverance: How to launch multiplying movements of disciples and churches among Muslims and others by James Nyman (2nd Ed)
Very comprehensive and thorough overview of some the key DNA of fruitful movements of disciples. This is a good book for teams in early stages of decision making on how their ministry values will fulfill their vision God has given them.
Making Your Partnership Work by Daniel Rickett
This book (and there’s an accompanying workbook) are very helpful in thinking through partnership decisions and ways you can inadvertently cause unhealthy dependencies especially when you partner with those of more humble means. Church planting for fruitful movements of disciples usually leads to making strategic partnerships with those of like-minded vision. But we need to avoid partnership practices that lead to unhealthy dependencies which will thwart the gospel thriving. Instead we need to empower leaders who can empower those they disciple in a reproducible manner.