Indigenous Church Planting, a Practical Journey

by Charles Brock

Book by Brock, Charles

Paperback

Published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Wyatt Millikin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely fantastic. The ultimate how-to of legitimately Biblically based church planting that’s effective in any culture, supported by sound Biblical doctrine and person experiences. Not only did I learn about church planting but some of my personal theology was challenged and refined as well. This is a must read for anyone feeling called to missions, church planting, or that simply wants to be a better Christian.

[Daniel Alvers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book regarding the scriptural basis for church planting. There were some very helpful warnings regarding things that bog or distract from the mission of a church planter. This book tries to be as reproducible and practical as possible. I feel that at many points it can lack the necessary depth to deal with the truths of the gospel that are revolutionary to life. Many people have serious issues (sin) and this church planting movement tends to try to get you to just skate along and try to get around dealing with hard questions. Don't answer any philosophical questions. Don't imply that you have any knowledge that they don’t have???(This is so you can be reproduces much easier) I understand their reasoning for this and find it flawed. Now in certain cultural contexts where there is lack of education or lack of anything that resembles a Christian influence this may be possible. The problem with North American church planting is that there are too many gospel counterfeits. To many churches who have dived into legalism, self righteousness, and humanism. Helping people see the truth of the gospel in deeply set religious contexts who think they believe in Jesus involves dealing with hard philosophical gospel questions. Now the book does at least give some room for this but wants church planters to avoid those and keep it simple. I agree that gospel can be very simple but it’s not something we take care of one time. It is everything that a church is for the entirety of its existence... Learning to live the gospel correctly should take everything that your church is. You don't finish the gospel or the great commission. I just believe that churches that are a mile wide and inch deep are a dime a dozen and perhaps we should take the gospel a bit more serious. I will say there was a helpful portion of the book that tried to deal with this but some of the practical examples fight their previous comments. If you don't want an easy beleivism gospel don’t attempt to promote it in an easy beleivism way. I found this book in one way talking about needing the power of the gospel and in the other talking about how to find ways to program the power. I understand why they are attempting to do this but this causes them to fall off the great place they were once standing. I think it also puts to many eggs in the basket of starting a church with only lost people and sharing the gospel for seven weeks until they get saved. (It works just like that) Of course I will be taking a class in a week or so and will probably find out I like it better then I do right now. There attempt to be biblical is to be celebrated. I just feel they came up in a few places.