Mission-Driven Church Planting

EMQ » Jan – March 2025 » Volume 61 Issue 1

Reviewed by Ryan K. Gimple, PhD, associate professor at Charleston Southern University, having previously served nineteen years in Asia with the International Mission Board.

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Church planting among every people group is at the center of God’s mission. Ken Davis’ book, Foundations for Fruitful Church Planting, connects church planting with global mission. The book’s twelve chapters are divided into six sections that lay biblical, theological, ecclesiological, missiological, spiritual, and practical foundations for church planting.

Some church planting books are written primarily for a North American context, ignoring the wider global church. Although this book is still primarily aimed toward North American church planting, it situates church planting within God’s global mission and gives attention to concepts learned from missionaries in cross-cultural contexts.

The book’s first two sections explore biblical and theological reasons for church planting and discuss what the Bible teaches about the church and its relation to mission and the Kingdom of God. God’s mission to all nations begins in the Old Testament at creation, and Davis highlights missiological themes throughout the Old Testament before focusing on New Testament teachings.

He lays a biblical and theological foundation for the nature of the church, provides applications to church planters, and connects the metaphors of growth and reproduction throughout the New Testament to church planting. Some of the paragraphs in this section have been repurposed from an earlier book Davis co-authored with Roger McNamara, The YBH Handbook of Church Planting. Davis connects theology, missiology, and church planting, stating, “Mission is the church’s fundamental identity” (66).  

In the next section (Ecclesiological Foundations), Davis discusses the definitions of church by Charles Brock, Craig Ott, J.D. Payne, and others. The Missiological Foundations section declares, “Church-planting teams in our own nation must learn to think and act like international missionaries” (155). Davis encourages engaging the unreached, exegeting the culture, and practicing critical contextualization. In these topics, he interacts with the ideas of Tim Keller, Scott Moreau, and Paul Hiebert.

However, Davis alters the order of Hiebert’s steps of critical contextualization in his simplified summary (167). Other principles that he draws from cross-cultural missionaries include the practice of seeking a person of peace and evangelizing an oikos. The church planter’s spiritual foundation is essential, and he gives practical tips for planters to find a coach, develop a prayer team, and have healthy rhythms practicing spiritual disciplines. The last section gets very practical about evaluating readiness to begin church planting, finding training, and building a support network.

This book should be part of the preparation of every church-planter. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and a prayer, making this book ideal to work through with a church planting team. The book has ample footnotes and interaction with top scholars in missiology and church planting. It would fit well into an academic program, though the book is not specifically academic. It is a book meant to be put into action. Rather than being filled with gimmicks, fads, and neologisms that will quickly fade, this book lays a solid foundation for church planting that is both biblical and practical.

For Further Reading

Jesus, the Church and the Mission of God: A Biblical Theology of Church Planting by John Valentine (Apollos, 2023)

Church Planting by the Book by Elbert Smith (CLC Publications, 2015)

Global Church Planting: Biblical Principles and Best Practices for Multiplication by Craig Ott and Gene Wilson (Baker Academic, 2011)

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EMQ, Volume 61, Issue 1. Copyright © 2025 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.