Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-Up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things (Redesign)

by Mike McKinley

This book tells the story of the revitalization of Guilford Baptist Church in northern Virginia. Weaving together scripture and biblical principles with humor and personal anecdotes, author Michael McKinley asserts that a pastor's faithful exposition of God's Word, passion for sharing the gospel, and care in the training of other godly leaders are more important than the size of his church.

McKinley honestly shares his own fears and rookie mistakes, along with encouraging stories of how God moved at Guilford Baptist. We are reminded that God uses weak and fearful pastors in plants and revitalizations; church planting is indeed for "wimps." For pastors and seminarians considering a church plant and those already struggling in their own fledgling congregations, this book is a thoughtful and encouraging resource.

Genres: Church, Christian, Ecclesiology, Leadership, Theology, Christianity

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2010

About the author

Mike McKinley is the author of Passion, Did the devil make me do it? and Church Planting is for Wimps. Since 2005 he has been pastor of Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia. Before that, he served on the pastoral staff of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC, having received his MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary. Mike is married to Karen, and they have five children.

Reviews

[Cory Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

McKinley balances humor, vulnerability, and pastoral insight as he writes about his own story with “planting” a church. I highly recommend this to anyone aspiring towards pastoral ministry, but especially if you desire to plant or revitalize.

[Josh Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the introduction, McKinley states this, "I have learned that God uses messed-up people like me and you to plant churches that look utterly unremarkable to the world." It's rather refreshing to hear the unvarnished truth from someone in the ministry of church planting/church revitalizing. In one of the last chapters, he opines about the stuggles that church planters and pastors have about being honest about their struggles in tackling church growth. And I believe he puts forth a good solution to this problem (see the quote from page 106 below).

The title is interesting, because the way the author describes the phrase "Church Planting is for Wimps" is because he was planning on starting a church but God directed him to revitalize a church that was nearly dead. Therefore, the phrase came from a friend who gave this statement because in his opinion, a church revitalization was much more difficult. Now, it was said tongue-in-cheek, as I don't believe McKinley believes either of those paths is an easy path to take.

I enjoyed reading about the journey of McKinley's quest to 1) either start a church or 2) revitalize a church (through God's direction, he chose the latter). Here is what is interesting - McKinley writes this book four years after undertaking the revitalization effort. Quite up front & honest about the whole situation, he plainly muses that someone like him with a fairly small church (I think they had about 200 at the time of writing) should NOT be writing a book like this. However, with humility (and a fair bit of humor), he writes from his heart and shares the ups & downs, the good decisions and not-so-good decisions they made along the way.

Anyone considering beginning a church or entertaining the thought of revitalizing a work would benefit from this rather short read. It's not so much a "how-to" book as it is an honest look at one man's (and his family) foray into the world of church planting/revitalizing.

Here are some quotations/paragraphs that jumped out to me as I read the book:

"If God gives you an opportunity to plant a church in a place that has either Christians who need a church to proclaim the gospel to them or non-Christians who need a church to proclaim the gospel to them, you should think long and hard about it." p. 24

"Church planting (starting a congregation from scratch) and church revitalizing (reviving the ministry of an almost dead church) share the same goal: raising up a faithful gospel witness where none exists." p. 30

"Whereas a new church planter can build from scratch, a revitalizer usually has to do some tearing down first...That's why a number of my friends have joked from time to time that church planting is for wimps. There are challenges to setting up a new general store in a dusty cowboy town when none exists, to be sure. But the sheriff who has to ride in and clear out a town's trash before building starts - he's the real man." p. 34

"What Guilford Fellowship (this was the church he revitalized) needed most fundamentally was someone to preach God's Word to them. And friend, if you are a church planter or church revitalizer, this is what your church needs as well." p. 49

"We've grown because the one thing that Christians and non-Christians need is the Word of God. It is alive and powerful, and it's what our churches need. We should preach it with confidence that God will use it in whatever ways will glorify him most." p. 53

"Church membership is really important...whatever form it takes, it's essential to know who belongs and who doesn't...if Christians are supposed to be different from the world, and if the church is meant to be a group of Christians committed to each other for the glory of God, it's essential that we know who 'we' are." p. 58

"As Pastor Phil Newton rightly put it, 'The goal of a church should not be to establish plural eldership at any cost, but rather to elevate the standards of spiritual leadership at any cost.' Yet I do think that many pastors and church planters underestimate the importance and benefit of having plural eldership." p. 69

"By establishing a clear membership list, adopting a concise and solid statement of faith, and establishing biblical leadership, we had laid the groundwork for the church to carry out its mission in healthy ways." p. 70

"Bible studies are great, but they are not churches. Every Christian should be part of a specific local congregation...To be a Christian means to be saved from something (sin, God's wrath, death, separation, enmity with God and fellow man) and to be saved unto something (worship, holiness, newness of life for all eternity, community, reconciliation with God and fellow man)." p.74

"Fear of man is one of the worst forms of pride. And pastoring a tiny, fledgling church will give you unending opportunities to fear men...your pride will tempt you to seek out the approval and applause of other people at any cost." p. 87

"Friend, if you plant a church, please do not make the same mistake that I did. Don't believe the lie that God cannot build his church unless you neglect your wife. The God whose church you are serving is the same God who commands you to love your wife as Christ loved the church. Love your wife more than you love the opinions of other people. Prioritize her above your own success. What does it profit you to build a strong, vibrant church but forfeit your wife?" p. 88

"Don't invest all your efforts in bringing in more people before you have done the hard work of cultivating leaders." p. 102

"You will almost never read anyone speak honestly about their struggles. You won't read an honest report about the Sunday when barely anyone showed up. You won't read about a church planter's frustrations with a lack of visible fruit. And if you do read any of these things, you can be pretty sure that he's paving the way for announcing in the not too distant future that he's moving to another church. Why is that so? I think it's because we have wrongly put pressure on ordinary pastors to do the extraordinary. Through books, television, the Internet, and the ever-growing culture of celebrity in evangelicalism, we have essentially defined successful pastor as one who pastors a giant church." p. 106

"Many church planters and revitalizers suffer from a perspective problem. We preach a spiritual message, but functionally we live like materialists. We look around at the things that we can touch, feel, measure, and count, and we calibrate our sense of success on those things alone. But it shouldn't be so." p. 109

[Michael Stilley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edifying and hilarious. This book was my gateway drug to biblical ecclesiology back in 2013.

[Daniel Deurbrouck · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was actually a little shocked at how low-quality this book was--I expected quite a bit more out of a 9Marks book. This books seemed confused about it's purpose, and haphazard.

First, and most fundamentally, this book was undirected. The title of the book demonstrates this best. You would assume that "Church Planting is for Wimps" would be spelled out to mean something significant. Instead, the only context given to this title in the book is in contrasting starting a church from scratch (Church Planting) vs. revitalizing an existing church. In this case, you would think this book would be focused on advocating for Church-revitalization. It is not. In fact, it is really not focused in any meaningful way.

Second, and arguably the main problem with this book, is that the author doesn't seem very useful on the subject he is writing about, because of an argument he himself gives--he has very little experience. His only experience is in Church-revitilization, which arguably, is not Church-planting at all. The other problem is that he wrote the book when he only had four years of experience. He writes as if he is inexperienced on the subject, because he is. He even mentions his inexperience and how uncomfortable he feels writing on the subject, but provides no reason why he should have written a book in the first place.

The only value in this book is as "a memoir of an amateur Church-revitilizer in his first role in ministry". After reading this book, the words of my college English-professor came to mind--"less people should write books".

That being said, skip the book and read the one valuable quote from it: “Young men tend to overestimate what they can accomplish in the short term and underestimate what they can accomplish in the long term.”

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

McKinley uses an easy-to-read, anecdotal style in the book, and much of the book is built on his personal experience revitalizing a church in Sterling, VA. He’s open and honest with the reader and talks plainly about his mistakes that he made along the way. The use of sarcasm at some points was helpful/funny and felt harsh at others, not sure what about it I didn’t like. In my opinion the book’s biggest drawback was the specificity of the book’s context. Clearly written about and for suburban America and often wondered while reading how the book would apply elsewhere. My edition was from 2010, 5 years after their revitalization began. I would be curious to know how McKinley’s thoughts then compare to now (13 years later). Good, thought-provoking book. Plan to reread in the future.

[Dustin Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

An earnest, often funny, and thoughtful reflection on the experiences McKinley had as a church planter. His heart for the Lord and for honoring Him in his endeavors was very clear, as was his love for the lost and the people he shepherds. I really appreciated his outlook and humor.
The book is very heavy on narrative and light on analysis/theological argumentation, which I began to accept as the book went on.
I feel I would have gotten more encouragement or been prompted to think more about the topics in this book if I were currently engaged in Church Planting, but, removed as I am from that personal experience, it did not leave much impact on me.

[Caleb Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I am saying that preparing and preaching God's Word deserves our best time and energy. In reality, that's the pragmatic thing to do if you want a healthy church." - Mike McKinley

A short, sweet, to-the-point account of the revitalization of Guilford Fellowship. I found this book to be humorous and also enjoyable to read. I didn't really find any new or incredible insights about church planting/revitalizing from McKinley's recounting of events and lessons he learned along the way. But, that's the encouraging part behind it: preach the Word, love people, raise up leaders, don't be seduced by numbers, and work with the long-term goals in mind. I'd love to see a second edition of this since 14 years have gone by since McKinley wrote this; I'd love to see what he might add or tweak!

[Josh Holler · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an aspiring church planter on the cusp of replanting a church (which is really just an aggressive form of revitalization), I found this book to be encouraging, practical, honest, and insightful. I highly recommend it be added to the church replanter's aresenal.

[Will Imfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic read. Not only was it a page turner, I found it immensely practical and thought provoking for anyone who cares about the local church but especially any man aspiring to be an elder.

[Samuel Kassing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Church revitalization happens trhough the faithful leadership and prayer of ordinary pastors.

[Andrew Krom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I've read on planting so far! This book primarily recounts McKinley's story of revitalizing a church coming out of CHBC.

[Ryan Hawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a simple yet helpful book. As I’m soon about to be going to a small church and trying to revitalize and grow, this was encouraging, it got me thinking in a bunch of different ways, and it provided a few insights that I think will be invaluable. For this, I’m very glad this book exists and I’d recommend it to anyone.

However, the reason it is only 4 stars is for a two reasons that couldn’t be ignored. First, his example of church revitalization seemed so extreme that it almost wasn’t relatable (the way the church was, how he found it, etc.). Second, a few times in the book he puts important life-changes on his wife’s hearing from God (not audibly, but still hearing). He says it almost in a joking manner, but still, a couple big decisions in their life came because his wife just knew because God had told her. Seems this shouldn’t be in a book about church planting, especially coming from a solid publisher like 9 Marks.

But besides these two problems, the emphasis on Scripture and preaching, on God building his church, on loving people, and on raising leaders were all excellent. I’ll definitely be reading it again soon.

[Rodrigo Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente livro onde o autor aborda sua experiência na reimplantação de uma igreja, através de sua experiência encontramos varias dicas e conselhos preciosos. Essa é uma leitura importante para todos àqueles que são líderes e estão envolvidos com a igreja.

[Michael Beck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful, especially in how to train up future leaders. The author even gives a good example of how to do that. But the book is more about revitalizing a church than planting a new one, thus is misnamed. The book also falls short on the nuts and bolts of how to plant a church.

[Imani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think this book is the best guide on how to plant a church but it is super helpful to learn from a particular perspective. McKinley doesn't hide behind false successes or trumped up numbers, he's honest. Church planting is hard but God is faithful to complete what he calls us to.

[Scott Guillory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended if you are planting a church from scratch or revitalizing an existing church. Very informative, honest, and humorous.

[Edwin Ramirez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a short but super helpful book for me. If you are looking to plant a church or come along side others who are I highly recommend reading this book.

[Peter Yock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshing, easy, edifying, and entertaing read on the heart of planting a gospel ministry.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good very short introduction to church planting.

[Thomas Duell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful, oftentimes funny read. It was encouraging to see Mike's honesty through his church planting journey. Continually grateful for 9Marks and their resources.

[Jessie Nickell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, simple yet helpful. A great short book to see real life examples of successful church revitalization and planting.

[Bill Pence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to prepare for an event with several seminary students who will also be reading this book, some of who may become church planters. In this book, Mike McKinley shares his story of planting a church. He writes that he has learned that God uses messed-up people like himself to plant churches that look utterly unremarkable to the world, and in His kindness, God does amazing things through those churches.
He hopes that the book will inspire some people to become church planters, encourage others who are in the middle of the church planting journey, spur pastors of existing congregations to invest heavily in church planting, and give all church members a better sense of how they might love and pray for church planting teams.
McKinley tells his story of spending a little over a year on staff at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC), and then planted a church that would be called Guilford Baptist Church with seven other people thirty miles away in Sterling, Virginia.
As he tells his church planting story, he addresses subjects such as diversity (the church was in a location in which there were several Spanish speaking people). He writes that churches that aim at just one demographic ultimately work against that show of God’s wisdom. He goes on to state that it seems like we should intentionally plant churches that will, as much as possible, welcome and engage people who are different and diverse with respect to age, gender, personality, and nationality.
McKinley takes us through the “game plan” that he developed while on staff at CHBC. This would include meeting with members of CHBC who might be interested in church planting. He would also meet with other church planters and pastors in the area where we were going to plant, and become more involved with the public teaching at CHBC. The long-term goal was to start a gospel work about forty-five minutes outside of Washington, D.C.
He looks at both church planting (starting a congregation from scratch) and church revitalizing (reviving the ministry of an almost dead church). They share the same goal: raising up a faithful gospel witness where none exists. He shares advantages and disadvantages of each. In the end, he pursued church revitalization.
He would begin as the pastor of Guilford Fellowship on June 1, 2005. On his first Sunday, they changed the name back to its original name: Guilford Baptist.
He writes that what Guilford Fellowship needed most fundamentally was someone to preach God’s Word to them.
He writes about the importance of church membership, indicating that it is essential to know who belongs and who doesn’t, and who is accountable to whom. So, one of the first things they did was to establish a proper membership roll. He then worked on the church’s existing mission and vision statements, statement of faith, and constitution and by-laws. Overall, they spent about a year and a half cleaning up the church’s organizing documents.
He then addressed the issue of church leadership, deciding to implement, like CHBC, a plural eldership. He discusses training men in the church for small group leaders and new elders (the training outline is included in an appendix).
They would eventually plant a Spanish-speaking church, called Iglesia Bautista Guilford Mission Hispana.
He honestly addresses the problems in his marriage during the time he was planting the church. He states that planting a church can be brutal on your marriage.
This was a helpful quick read about church planting and revitalization.

[Jake Baur · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not know that this book was actually a mystery book. The problem is, the mystery never gets resolved. The mystery is this: what is the book about?

The title and subtitle point to the idea that the book is about church planting. I assumed that the title was a joke, making the point that even wimps are able to church plant. This, however, is not the case. The title is explained within the book to be a quip against church planting, making the point that church revitalization is much harder than church planting. So the mystery begins. Is this book about church planting or church revitalization? The mystery is amplified by the fact that the author has never planted a church, but has only church revitalized. Throughout the book both church planting and church revitalization are used almost interchangeably, adding to the confusion

To its credit, it is an interesting and easy read. It is mostly a long journal reflection about the author’s church revitalization journey. There are some great points of wisdom and some encouraging quotes. It just seems to lack overall direction and purpose.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every pastor or preacher needs to read this book. Of those, especially the young preacher/pastor should read it. The older, experienced preacher/pastor should read it. The middle aged pastor/preacher should read it. Church members should read it to.

McKinley gives a view through his own eyes of the work of church revitalization. I don't know the stats, probably most churches in this country are in a state of decline. Some recognize it and are happy to change things, just as long as the church continues doing everything the way it's always been done and adding nothing new. Some don't recognize it and will committedly go down with the ship. Others recognize but don't know what to do or how to do it. As a young preacher who will eventually become a pastor, you will get one of those churches. This book will be a help to you.

[James Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional
"Church Planting Is for Wimps" is a funny, but honest look at the serious work of church revitalization. Mike McKinley starts out with the task of planting a church in Washington DC. However, he soon shifts to church revitalization landing at Guilford Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia. McKinley stresses that revitalization will establish a new Gospel presence while removing a bad witness. Further, he believes that the saints in the dead congregation will be encouraged and the resources from the dead congregation can be harnessed. The book details a series of ups and downs, mainly downs, before he has some success in the ministry at Guilford. His story is a real, down to earth, story about church growth. It is a very encouraging book, especially for those in church ministry.

[Ethan Moehn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably closer to 3.5. This feels like necessary reading, but nothing revolutionary if you’ve read 9marks before. The book definitely has a dated feel to it. Many of the references and even some of the practical aspects are clearly rooted in the
weird church plant frenzy of the 2010s.

McKinley is a good writer, witty, and clear. I would recommend Nathan Knight’s Planting By Pastoring as a more up-to-date, practical book though.

[Preston Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book challenged me to think differently about church planting with a clean slate, and to think about revitalizing a 'dying' church. Although that is more challenging. 'Church planting is for wimps', so revitalize a church. The best part about the book was seeing how God uses broken people to carry out his perfect mission. What an encouragement that was to me in the season I am in.

[Reagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful, insightful. I enjoyed it for what it is, not trying to be impressive while explaining from personal experiences the pros and cons, the joys and woes of church planting and revitalization. However, I’ll probably be looking to another resource if I have the privilege of planting/revitalizing. I would include this book with the batch along with counsel from other pastors and elders.

[Dan Cogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an encouraging account!

Every church plant is like a child—unique in both design and delivery. I don’t anticipate planting in the same way as McKinley, but much of his experience contains principles which translate. I was very encouraged by this little book!

[Jessica Cogar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relatable, humorous, easy read. The small church he revitalized with its 1970s wood paneling reminds me of my church. This was gospel-focused and practical advice to those trying to revive or plant a new church.