Together for the City: How Collaborative Church Planting Leads to Citywide Movements

by Neil Powell

We need a bigger vision for the city.

It's not enough to plant individual churches in isolation from each other. The spiritual need and opportunity of our cities is too big for any one church to meet alone. Pastors Neil Powell and John James contend that to truly transform a city, the gospel compels us to create localized, collaborative church planting movements. They share lessons learned and principles discovered from their experiences leading a successful citywide movement. The more willing we are to collaborate across denominations and networks, the more effectively we will reach our communities--whatever their size--for Jesus.

Come discover what God can do in our cities when we work together.

Genres: Church, Christian, Christianity, Religion

1 pages, Audio CD

First published August 27, 2019

Reviews

[Josh Jackson]

I knew I was going to enjoy this book - because it’s about churches working together to plant more churches in Birmingham - but oh boy, I didn’t expect to love it quite this much! Not only is it insightful and inspiring, it’s also warm, full of wisdom, and superbly written.

[Jonathan Thomas]

This book tells the story and theology behind 2020Birmingham. It is an amazing story of grace and growth. Some of the ‘box C’ stuff scares me, but the book helpfully explores it.
An important read for church planters and leaders alike.
I’d love to see something similar on a national level in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[Matty Lavelle]

Such a joy to read all about what God has been doing in my city! And a really great challenge and encouragement to pursue unity and collaboration for His glory!

[Savio Sebastian]

The gospel allows us to keep our personal differences aside and work collaboratively and sacrificially towards building the body of Christ and impacting more with the gospel. Being a part of a City to City Church, I have loved seeing how the gospel changes and calls people to repentance and how the church impacts the city.

I think I read this book at a good time when my church is thinking of becoming a church planting church so we can see the gospel have an impact in our city and the world at large.

One key point that I gleaned from the book: we are not building our own kingdoms, we are all working together in God's mission. So we don't have to fear working collaboratively and supporting and giving to a new church plant. We are to look at doing our work as servants of Christ and not working at building our own small kingdoms.

[Samuel Kassing]

A humble plea for churches to collaborate. I appreciated the wisdom, practicality, common sense, and basic thought process.

I’d highly recommend this book if you are working in city and have a heart for planting churches.

[Caleb]

Neil Powell and John James are ministers and church planters in Birmingham (England). They are heavily influenced by Timothy Keller, famed church planter in the United States. The book is written with the authors speaking as one, with occasional stories in each chapter told from their viewpoint (i.e. "One day, I (Neil) met with other ministers for coffee). They cover what church planting collaborative movements are, why you should care, and how to go about doing it, with an additional chapter where they interview 5 ministers in various cultures - Asian, Latin American, African, European, and North American - about how they have each gone about their church collaboration movements.
The book is extremely practical and deeply theological. It is clear neither Neil nor James would advocate a church technique or practice at the cost of neglecting Scripture or commitment to the gospel. They earnestly make a case for the urgency of church planting and the extreme benefits of collaborating outside one's denomination/tribe. The best question they raise, and one that all ministers should raise, is "What does it mean for me to be in Christ in the twenty-first century in this city?" (page 106). To any and all church leaders looking for ways to impact your city for Christ, this is a worthwhile read!

[Tyler Brown]

This book summarized the story and methods behind a church planting movement called Birmingham 2020. What I love about this concept is that they explore an approach to church planting that is painfully local. They consider partnerships on three tiers. First we have those that are denominational. These share similar stories, theology, and culture, but they tend not to learn from the strengths of other traditions. Second, we have cross denominational global movements. These are more diverse, but some ideas don't translate from place to place. This leaves space for a third tier: a cross-denominational, but local partnership.

The authors comment on the need for a shared core (belief in the gospel), cause (shared vision for a city reached), and code (something like Tim Keller's concept of theological vision). In practice, I think drawing these boundaries are frustrating and arbitrary. It returns us to the debates where either everyone is an "evangelical" or no one is an "evangelical." And I'm not currently convinced that is a debate worth having.

[Michal Šubert]

What a masterpiece. First time I heard about the concept of collaborative church-planting movement in the urban cities and it consumed my mind for last few months. Loved the book from the start to the finish. Based on the story of 2020birmingham movement Neil and John are advocating that we shouldn't think about just our church or planting churches only in our denomination, but to widen our sight towards the gospel-centered collaborative church-planting in the city. Full of real stories and testimonies from all across the world. Churches that would be considered far away on theological spectrum united under same purpose - side-by-side planting churches in a city for and with Christ. I'm amazed.

[Amma Addae]

This book has helped me see and appreciate God’s work across the globe. It was interesting to read the story of Birmingham and other cities. I would have given this a 5 star except that, I was eager to read some challenges the 2020Birmingham team faced or even failures. Unfortunately that wasn’t highlighted. I look forward to seeing a gospel collaboration for my own city in a few months!

[Steve Cummings]

YES! We CAN all get along!

This book inspired my heart that we as Christians CAN cause Jesus’ prayer in John 17 to come alive. No matter our evangelical tribe - if we want to win the world for Christ, city by city, we must seek unity. There’s no other choice. Nothing else is working. Let’s be another Dunkirk!

[Horace]

A reread. For those who are building, or hope to build, a collaborative church planting network in their area, this is an excellent resource. It gives both Why and How. Based on the work of the authors, who are pastors in Birmingham, UK.

[Ben Connelly]

Helpful & practical for questions we're asking as churches work together in Ft Worth. A few editing/layout bumps, but overall, thorough & needed.

[John]

Felt like this was more of a report of what 2020birmingham had done. Ok if that is what you enjoy reading, but I personally found it hard to read at times.

[Ted Newell]

Inspiring story of God at work from the small insignificant event of a shared cup of coffee. Gideon and co. live! 20 new works by 2020 was their prayer.

[John Rakshith Prabhakar]

An exciting and inspiring book for citywide collaborative movements!

[Loren]

Great look at how collaborative work between Gospel-centered Christians can yeild new churches in a city. Very insightful and inspiring for those whom God has called to reaxh their city.

[Amy Jacobsen]

Loved the vision and models provided in this book. Still wrestling with the application in my context

[Phil Whittall]

A solid, straightforward but occasionally laborious case for local churches across denominational lines working together in a church planting partnership.

[Tim Cox]

Holy moly this book is phenomenal. If you work at a church and read this you will be promoted immediately.

What a vision for churches working together for the good of cities everywhere.