Book review – Planting Churches Changing Communities – David Stroud

There are a number of books on the shelves that deal with church planting, there are on the main very American biased and therefore although they offer some good pointers to those of us outside of the US of A they are not reliable guides to church planting in other contexts. Some of course like Ed Stetzler’s Planting Missional Churches (review here) are fantastic works and have helped many people gain an insight into what it takes to plant a church. However many of us have been crying out for a manual for church planting in the UK or anywhere else other than the USA.

Well David Stroud has produced this new work to fill that gap. “Planting Churches changing communities” is an easy to read “How to” guide for church planting in the UK o a basis for any setting.

It is straight forward and presented in a very readable way. It looks at all aspects of church planting, from the biblical basis for church planting, who should church plant, the call of church planting, how to prepare to church plant, how to gather the team, finances, how to gather new people, how to keep motivation and momentum high through to the legal aspects, what to do when it goes wrong and where to look for help.

It is the best book I have read on this subject, written by someone who has planted a number of churches in the UK and has a lot of experience. In addition there are numerous quotes from those who have planted churches in the NewFrontiers family of churches sharing their trials and successes. It has been great to read about how these people overcome certain obstacles or navigated tricky waters. Also knowing a number of them personally has helped as we know what they have had to do to achieve their God given dream.

This book is also excellent for any church leader to read as it will help you focus on what is really important in the church and show a clear way forward to reach more people with the Gospel.

Go buy it now!

He’s Gay so what……

A friend of mine who is gay and an ex-Christian, he is now a humanist, posted this video clip onto his blog (see here), it shows some of the issues behind people being Gay. It is pointed at the Christian community in general and explodes some of the myths that Christians have placed around the whole “Gay” thing.

Our job is to love them just the same as everyone else, we might not agree with their sexual habits but we must still love them as much as we love our family and friends.

Coffee – A gift from God!

Sometimes outreach can bring its own rewards. As most people who know us realise, Debbie and I can be defined as coffee snobs. We like good coffee, hate instant and will go the extra mile for a good brew. At home we grind our own beans are partial to Starbuck espresso beans as our bean of choice.

We also frequent a local Starbucks on a regular basis, so much so that we know all the staff on first name terms, they know what we drink and how we like it to be made and we know about their lives, hopes and dreams and they know about our faith and church. We do this as a means to bring Gods love into their lives and because we are fond of them!

So today we got a small token of reward for doing so. We had to buy some substandard beans yesterday as our usual supplier had ran out of our usual beans. On first taste this morning it failed quality control, “That’s weak, flavourless and disgusting” and we were wondering where we could get some fresh beans from. We were due to have a coffee over lunch at our Starbuck and off we toddled. While getting served one of the girls asked us what bean we used at homing, knowing we use Starbucks coffee at home, we told her and she produced a free bag of the stuff for us. As we are good friendly customers, she wanted to give us her weekly, free allowance of coffee.

So now I need this to be translated to my other areas of outreach, the local Indian takeaway, my cousin’s pizza shop and a couple of white vans serving unidentifiable pig product at the side of the road……..

See even when life kicks you in the nuts (bad coffee purchase and a horizon of poor brews for a day or so) God comes through with the goods!

(PS I have some of the nasty stuff ground anyone want it? … might make nice errrr no it won’t, I had better throw it out.)