EMQ » October–December 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 4
Edited by Len Tang and Charles E. Cotherman
InterVarsity Press
294 pages
USD $35.00
Reviewed by David R. Dunaetz who was a church planter in France for seventeen years and is currently Associate Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Azusa Pacific University.
Neither flourishing as a church planter nor starting a church which flourishes is easy. Members of the faculty and advisory board of Fuller Theological Seminary’s church planting program have put together a somewhat eclectic collection of chapters discussing what will make it more likely that U.S. church planters and their young churches will flourish. Coming from a broad range of theological backgrounds, the authors fit church planting into a wide missio dei framework: Churches should be missional, an instrument for bringing the Kingdom of God to US culture, and they should be a hermeneutic of the gospel, demonstrating what the gospel means in their context.
Sent to Flourish is divided into four parts, (1) A biblical theology of church planting, (2) spiritual formation and health of the church planter, (3) contextualization of the gospel in multicultural America, and (4) developing a church planting strategy with the goal, interestingly, of planting reproducing churches, and not especially of planting a large church.
Church planting in the United States can be quite different than the pioneer church planting with which many missionaries are familiar. For example, several authors consider local churches to be temporary, present in a community and relevant for a limited period of time, typically less than one hundred years (233, 238). Several authors assume that the church planter will be able to recruit a rather substantial launch team with mature believers who are gifted apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. There is an emphasis on finding the most receptive people to the gospel, in contrast to communicating the gospel to those who have the least access to it (249).
Nevertheless, there are several important principles which are thoroughly developed, and which are quite useful to missionaries in less evangelized parts of the world. There is a strong emphasis on getting regular members involved in ministry and leadership and developing spiritually healthy leaders which are necessary for a spiritually healthy church. This is in contrast to focusing on professionally prepared programs which play upon the consumer mentality in order to attract new members, a strategy often seen in megachurches.
A key theme throughout the book is that church planting is difficult and that the church planter is not likely to flourish without a close relationship to God. The spiritual disciplines of solitude, meditation on Scripture, sabbath keeping, physical fitness, and spiritual direction are all encouraged.
An exceptionally important idea often not seen in the literature concerns the importance of experimentation, evaluation, and rapid change in young churches (232). Based on the principles of Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup, such experimentation, learning, and quick adaptation provide a framework that will make young churches more likely to flourish.
Although some evangelicals may not appreciate the theological diversity found in some of the authors, Sent to Flourish is an excellent introduction to understanding contemporary church planting in the United States and some of its principles are relevant to missionaries doing pioneer church planting.
For Further Reading
Ott, Craig, and Gene Wilson. 2011. Global Church Planting: Biblical Principles and Best Practices for Multiplication. Baker Academic.
Stetzer, Ed, and Daniel Im. 2016. Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply. B & H Academic.
EMQ, Volume 56, Issue 4. Copyright © 2020 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
