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Culture and Church Planting  |  Textbooks | Website Resources | Location Research

Understanding Neighbourhoods, Networks and Communities

Here are some starting points for reflecting on how relationships might develop in the Western world:

Cole, N. (2005). Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass. Based on the experience of a “simple church” planting movement started in southern California, it makes a compelling argument for starting churches among somewhat hidden marginalized groups and being out in the community.

Gladwell, M. (2002). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Boston, MA, Little Brown.
Offers an explanation of "social epidemics" (i.e., ideas, behaviors or products that quickly become exponentially influential as compared to the intentional investment in their propagation) from a journalist for the New Yorker (who is originally from Canada).

Hirsch, A. (2006). The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church. Grand Rapids, MI, Brazos Press. From Australian experience, advocates several concepts to ground a multiplication movement of churches that are engaging networks of people that are relationally distant from the established church.

Oldenburg, R. (1997). The Great Good Place. New York, NY: Marlowe.
About the third place where relationships are developed (after home and work). This has challenged church planters to find or create third places.

Wellman, B. [www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman] provides his research on network analysis with a number of free articles available regarding the network nature of our relationships in communities and how communication systems (e.g., internet) facilitates our relationships.

Culture and Church Planting

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Culture and the church is such a huge topic … here is just an initial list of some interesting resources.

Adams, M. (2004) Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values. Toronto, ON: Penguin Canada.
A lot of church resources comes from The US. This book by the Canadian president of Environics points to differences in values between Canadians and Americans.

Seim, B. (2005). Reaching the World at Our Doorstep. Discipling Our Nation. M. Moerman. Delta, BC, Church Leadership Library.
Laden with stories of immigrant church leaders and intercultural church leaders ministering in Canadian cities.

Sheffield, D. R. (2005). The Multicultural Leader. Toronto, ON, Clements Pub.
A primer on how Christians can become more multicultural (and why they should from a biblical perspective) written by a Canadian mission leader.

Murray, Stuart. (2009) Planting Churches: A Framework for Practitioners. Paternoster Press.
Provides an excellent overview of a collection of church planting practices. Well grounded in theological concepts of mission.

Church Planting Textbooks

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Here are a few of the excellent church planting texts that are currently being written and used in church planting courses:

Browning, D. (2006). Deliberate Simplicity: A New Equation for Church Development: Less is More, More is Better. Lincoln, NE, iUniverse. Adovcates a high touch/minimal complexity approach to sustainable multiplication of churches based on a personal case study from the US suburban and semi-rural contexts.

Garrison, V. D. (2004). Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World. Midlothian, VA, WIGTake Resources.
Based on focus group sessions held by the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention. The focus group was composed of IMB missionaries who had catalytic leadership responsibilities with church planting movements around the world. Besides the case studies of these movements, the book contains a summary of primary issues that the focus group recommended.

Hesselgrave, D. J. (2000). Planting Churches Cross-Culturally: North America and Beyond. Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books. Presents a phase of development model (based on an exegetical/thematic summary of the ministry of Paul) for church planters in cross-cultural situations that illustrates the cyclical nature of church planting.

Hiebert, P. G. and E. Hiebert Meneses (1995). Incarnational Ministry: Planting Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant and Urban Societies. Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Publishing House.
Provides an anthropological summary for band, tribal, peasant and urban societies while arguing for an incarnational approach to planting. The definition of incarnational ministry focuses on mission being the work of God ("first and foremost") with an appropriate appreciation and understanding of the social contexts and worldviews of people in order to facilitate the transformational process.

Logan, R. E., N. Cole, et al. (2005). Beyond Church Planting: Pathways for Emerging Churches. St. Charles, IL, ChurchSmart Resources.
A manual in a binder with worksheets and CDs of the authors (key US trainers) teaching church planting classes.

Malphurs, A. (2004). Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century: A Comprehensive Guide for New Churches and Those Desiring Renewal. Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Books.
Provides the general developmental process following the metaphor of the human reproduction/development cycle.

Moerman, M., Ed. (2005). Discipling Our Nation. Delta, BC, Church Leadership Library.
A collection of chapters based on the tracks of the previous National Evangelism Partnerships through the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The issues covered are church planting, city transformation, newcomer impact on Canada, evangelism, and global mission.

Murray, S. (2001). Church Planting: Laying Foundations. Scottdale, PA, Herald Press. Provides some theological reflection on the mission theology that can be “foundational” for church planting. Written from urban planting and teaching experience in England.

Roberts, B. (2006). Transformation: How Glocal Churches Transform Lives and the World. Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan.
Presents a church planting approach based largely on a community development approach with a global perspective.

Robinson, M. (2006). Planting Mission-Shaped Churches Today. Grand Rapids, MI, Monarch.
Instead of providing a process for starting a new church, this book provides concepts and stories in roughly the progression of typical church planting process and is written from a British perspective.
Romo, O. I. (1993). American Mosaic: Church Planting in Ethnic America. Nashville, TN, Broadman Press.
Based on years of experience facilitating church planting among minority cultural/language groups in the US, it provides some helpful advice in cross-cultural church planting that can be translated to the Canadian context.

Shenk, D. W. and E. R. Stutzman (1988). Creating Communities of the Kingdom: New Testament Models of Church Planting. Scottdale, PA, Herald Press.
A study of Acts that links biblical reflection to modern theories of leadership and planting (based on US and international observations). Provides a somewhat unique chapter on wrestling with the “powers” as part of church planting experience.

Sjogren, S. and R. Lewin (2003). Community of Kindness. Ventura, CA, Regal Books.
Literally a collection of ideas on church planting (each one is numbered) intentionally listed without an attempt to avoid overlap or gaps in the ideas presented. A sort of "contrarians guide to church planting" from leaders with US and European experience.

Stetzer, Ed. (2006). Planting Missional Churches. Nashville, TN, Broadman & Holman.
Emphasizes "missional church" (defined as biblically grounded and culturally relevant) as the main theme. It covers a wide range of contemporary issues from an American perspective. His previous text (Stetzer, E. (2003). Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age. Nashville, TN, Broadman and Holman Publishers.) had a number of Canadian references.

Wagner, C. P. (1990). Church Planting for a Greater Harvest: A Comprehensive Guide. Ventura, CA, Regal Books.
Provides a number of categories for different approaches to church planting.

Community Research

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Research can give you both a bird’s eye view of the people around you (demographics) or a good reason to ask people questions (surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.). Through our researcher, Hartley Goldenthal, The Salvation Army has access to census data and expertise in survey design. Think carefully about what might be accomplished by asking some strategic questions, talk to a few people with a bit of experience and connect with some people in your community.

A guide for church based community research is currently available through Outreach Canada [www.outreach.ca] and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada [www.evangelicalfellowship.ca].

Understanding Neighbourhoods/Networks/Communities
Because church planting is such a highly relational ministry it is valuable to spend some time reflecting on your own experience of relationship building and hearing from some of the “gurus” who have spent time and effort trying to understand what is happening in our part of the world.