I've Finished Reading "Church Planting Landmines"

A book of church planting mistakes not to make in years 2 through 10. Written by Tom Nebel and Gary Rohrmayer, this is a fantastic book full of practical advice on church planting and the authors take years of experience and wisdom gleaned from seeing hundreds of churches planted to give someone like me looking at planting a church the best advice they can on how to do it right.

And I appreciate that, believe me! Some of the nuggets contained within the book include statements like the following:
"Church planters need to engage in the church planting process with their eyes wide open to both the possibilities and potential pitfalls. This book will help the visionary planter maintain a balanced, healthy perspective in the midst of the battle."

They balance their opinions with facts. Theory with practical suggestions that they've given the church planters they've coached. And it's not fluff. It's very real world, practical, helpful suggestions that if executed, can help make a church plant healthier and sustainable.

And at the same time, they don't sell out God in the process. In fact, they build and center it around Him which is refreshing in these days of "pragmatism". It doesn't matter what kind of website or mailings you have, if you're not praying and flat on your face before God, it won't be a church that makes an eternal impact. It may make temporal change possible, and may even create some moralists in the process, but in the end, it won't be a Christ-exalting church.

Their 10 landmines are:

• Ignoring Personal Health And Growth
• Lack Of Leadership Development
• Leadership Backlash
• Personal Evangelism Entropy
• Corporate Evangelism Entropy
• Inadequate Enfolding Strategy
• Fear Of Money
• Underestimating Spiritual Warfare
• Misfiring On Hiring
• Delaying Missions Engagement

It's 140+ pages of great stuff. Most of it is highligted in yellow and it will stay a constant companion over the next 18-24 months. If you're looking at starting a church, thinking of going to be a part of a new church, or just want to "re-energize" your church, this book has very helpful suggestions in doing so.

For further resources, Gary Rohrmayer has a blog called Your Journey at which he provides even more stuff to help us lunatics (I mean visionaries) who want to see a community of believers come together for the glory of God. You need to check his blog out. He also is a teacher at the seminary I'm attending. Wanna guess which class he teaches?