Synopses & Reviews
Viral Churches
Recent years have seen a clear increase in church planting enthusiasm across the globe. As church leaders look for ways to start multiple new congregations that in turn reproduce virally, they need credible information, healthy examples, and reliable guidance.
Based on a national, cross-denominational study commissioned by Leadership Network, Viral Churches outlines the best practices in church multiplication movements and reveals the common threads among them. A hands-on resource, Viral Churches offers the fresh vision and critical perspectives essential as a catalyst fortoday's church planting leaders.
Authors Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird draw from their own experiences, the insights of numerous pioneering leaders, and what was arguably the nation's largest research project on church multiplication. They show leaders how to plant churches that multiply into a movement, and they offer inspiration for the need to do so. Filled with illustrative stories from successful church planters, this important book outlines practical ideas that are essential to the success of church multiplication networks. Each chapter highlights a different point on such issues as keeping the focus on evangelism; recruiting, assessing, and deploying planters; increasing the survivability of new churches; using a multisite strategy effectively; funding; overcoming obstacles; facing challenges ahead; and many more.
Throughout the book, Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird advocate the core belief that "Church planting is good. A vision for a church multiplication movement is better."
Synopsis
Leadership Network commissioned a study by Ed Stetzer (who heads up LifeWay Research) on church planting, i.e., the process of getting a new church started. Leadership Network wanted to find out what the best practices were in church planting and uncover the common threads among them. This book will use research findings to inform, guide, and even catalyze today's many church planting leaders. It will show them how to form a movement and will hopefully also inspire them to do so. It will address their felt needs of what to do next in their church planting strategies, in light of research on what's actually working best.
Synopsis
A groundbreaking guide for multiplying the impact of church plants
Based on a study that was commissioned by the Leadership Network, this book reveals the best practices in church planting and uncovers the common threads among them. A much-needed resource, this book will inform, guide, and even catalyze today's many church planting leaders. The authors clearly show leaders how to plant churches that create a multiplication movement and offer inspiration for them to do so. The book addresses their questions about what to do next in their church planting strategies, in light of research on what's actually working best.
- Author Ed Stetzer heads up LifeWay Research
- Provides reliable, credible information about what church planting strategies work best
- A volume in the Leadership Network Series
Offers a definitive guide for church planting and the burgeoning movement it is part of.
Synopsis
This volume in the Leadership Network Series offers the definitive guide for church planting and the burgeoning movement it is part of, and will inform, guide, and even catalyze today's many church planting leaders.
Synopsis
Praise for Viral Churches
"This book by . . . my dear friends and partners in ministry . . . is pure gold. . . .There is simply no better way to reach, teach, train, and send out disciples than through churches that are planted with the intentionality of planting others."
Rick WarrenSaddleback Church
"This book is for those who want to go from making adent to making a difference."
Mark Driscoll Mars Hill Church (www.marshillchurch.org), Acts 29 Network, The Resurgence
"There is no doubt that the idea of exponentially reproducing church isthe next step, providing us with perhaps the only viable way forward toovercome the current impasse of Christianity in the West. In Viral Churches,Ed and Warren team up to produce a characteristically well researched,missiologically hefty, and definitive book for our times."
Alan Hirschauthor, The Forgotten Ways, and coauthor, Untamed
"Ed Stetzer's experience in planting churches and training pastors makeshim one of today's most experienced and trusted voices. He has an ability to take research and make it applicable to this generation's Christian leaders.I applaud his efforts to build spiritual movements everywhere."
Steve Douglasspresident, Campus Crusade for Christ International
About the Author
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is president of LifeWay Research, visiting professor of research and missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, visiting research professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a contributing editor for Christianity Today, and a columnist for Outreach Magazine and Catalyst Monthly. He has been a church planter and has trained pastors and church planters on five continents. His books include Planting Missional Churches.
Warren Bird, Ph.D., directs the research division at Leadership Network, teaches atAlliance Theological Seminary, and regularly contributes to several magazines. An ordained minister, he has been involved in five church plants. Bird has coauthored twenty-one books including Starting a New Church.
Visit the Leadership Network Website, www.leadnet.org, for more innovative resources and information.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.
2. Church Planting: The New Evangelism.
3. Growth by Addition: Big Contrast to Multiplication.
4. New Players: Aggressive Local Churches and Church Planting Networks.
5. Kingdom Cooperation: Church Planters Learning Together.
6. Predictors of Success: Recruitment, Assessment, and Deployment.
7. Thriving: New Church Survival Rates.
8. House Churches: Separating Reality from Fiction.
9. Multisite Strategy: A Fast-Growing Trend That Affects Planting.
10. Rapid Growth: Still Not Reproduction.
11. Funding: Partnerships Matter.
12. The New Scorecard: Measuring a Church Multiplication Movement.
13. Obstacles to Missional Replication: What Holds Us Back.
14. Conclusion: Solving the Toughest Challenges.
Acknowledgments.
Appendix: List of Churches and Networks Cited.
Notes.
Index.
Annotated Bibliography for Church Multiplication.
The Authors.