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