book-reviews-section-emq, EMQ, Section, Volume 61 - Issue 2

Impacting Eternity: A Practitioner’s Guide for Sustained Movement Expansion

EMQ » April – July 2025 » Volume 61 Issue 2

Impacting Eternity: A Practitioner’s Guide for Sustained Movement Expansion

By Robert M. Reach

William Carey Publishing, 2023
190 pages
US$12.75

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Review by Richard Evans, lecturer-tutor at All Nations Christian College in Ware, England, and PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

The literature addressing Jesus movements is narrow, crowded, and prone to repetition. However, Robert M. Reach’s latest volume attempts to move beyond compelling testimony and lists of multiplication factors to consider the overlooked issues of movement structure and sustainability.

Drawing from his own “5-5-5 methodology” – where a handful of convert disciples each reach a handful more, who in turn reach a handful more – Reach’s analysis reflects on the resulting networks, typically comprising approximately 150 believers gathered in 25 house churches (101). Equating the sustainability of these with effective organization, he offers seven new “Leadership Best Practices” for movement longevity.

Building toward their introduction in the second half of the book, Reach opens with the promotion of “indigenous” church and leadership as necessary movement “fruit” (11–12) before associating their familial composition and exponential growth with “New Testament teachings” (15). For all, he regards underlying but unexplored “systemic dynamics” (14) and “complex organic organization” (24) as crucial for expansion.

To strengthen his case, Reach combines Roland Allen and Donald McGavran’s missiological principles with his conclusions from previous chapters to construct an arboreal “movement system” (53). Here, the fruit is “Movement Growth” (54), the leaves, “Movement Traits” (55), the branches, “Movement Leadership Practices” (58), and the roots, “Movement Principles” (56).

As the last of these was the subject matter of his previous volume, Reach only summarizes his root “principles” here before elaborating his seven “best-practice” branches. These branches require movement leaders who rely on “the Presence and Power” of God (76), combine centralized and decentralizing structures (skewed toward the latter) (99), and establish leader-generating “Learning Communities” (105).

In addition to these fundamentals are the call to “Obedience-based discipleship” (124), the need to empower rather than permit God’s people to minister (135), working to ensure the house churches are financially independent (142), and the development of reproducible processes (158). The concluding chapter includes an overview of useful training resources.

While Reach’s attempt to construct a cohesive movement model is novel, considerable overlap exists between his roots and branches (e.g., Root Principle #5 and Best Practice #1; Root Principle #2 and Best Practice #4). Perhaps the distinction between principles and practice would be clearer if the two were separated, yet joined, by a trunk describing “movement values.”

His aim to involve every believer in discipleship is admirable (80, 98, 163). However, repeated use of the term “average [Indigenous] Christians” (12, 43, 157) may come across as patronizing. Likewise, limited interaction with sources written by women and Global South authors reduces the volume’s depth and impact.

Reach points toward creative engagement with Social Network Analysis (24), experiential learning (109), and even epidemiology (160). Movement theoretician-practitioners will rightly appreciate this book and build upon its insights.