Planting for the gospel

Finished reading this book this morning, as you can probably tell its not a big book (120 pages). I have to confess to being a little disappointed overall with the book, despite the many helpful things in it. I can't quite put my finger on why I am disappointed maybe the problem was with my expectations and hopes having read quite a bit of Graham's stuff before and heard him preach a number of times.

It is undoubtedly a helpful book for those thinking about church planting it explores the reasons for planting a church, models and how you decide which one to go with, different methods of planting and some of the early issues of planting. Before in the second part giving lots of examples of plants from a wide variety of settings and types.

I guess what I was hoping for was a little more insight on how the problems in planting churches can be overcome or avoided altogether. Whilst Graham does make clear what the problems are I didn't feel he particularly helped us see a way to avoid them beyond the basic communicate well.

It would have also been great to have had a chapter on helping people work out if they are church planters or not. I know Tim Keller's Church Planting Manual has quite a bit on this, but it would have been great to have had some pointers. For example; is there a difference between a church planter and a church founder? How do planters, who I think tend to be entrepreneurial and alpha types, ensure they are accountable (this is mentioned though not explored in any depth)?

However having expressed my reservations it is a useful and stimulating book which hopefully will get churches thinking about sharing the gospel and as a result planting gospel centred churches.