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Planting a church can be a challenging and exciting endeavor. With the opportunity to build something new comes the uphill climb to attract new people, gain momentum, and keep moving to new heights.
Launching a new church is not a solo mission—seeking wise counsel, gathering information from others, and spending much time with God in prayer are all necessary.
Church planting books can help inspire, direct, and challenge new or potential church planters. Our team has curated ten excellent church planting books to encourage and equip you for the journey ahead.
In their modern-classic church planting book, Ed Stetzer and Daniel Im draw on decades of church planting experience around the world to provide a practical framework for establishing a missional foundation. This second edition of their book includes new chapters on church multiplication, multisite expansion, spiritual leadership, and more.
“Relevance to the culture should never clash with the power of the gospel.” - Ed Stetzer and Daniel Im, Planting Missional Churches
As with many ministry endeavors, church planters often jump into their work with high expectations and dreams of a bright future. However, the simple truth is that many church plants face tough beginnings that threaten to choke and shrivel up their plant. Before you dive into the world of church planting, getting a dose of brutal honesty regarding the journey ahead can be useful. Tom Bennardo shares his hard-learned lessons in this book.
“This is not a how-to book on church planting. It’s for those toiling in the trenches, those about to bail out, and those considering jumping in. It’s for the brotherhood of church planters laboring and struggling, seeing little movement and wondering what they’re doing wrong or why God is failing them.”—Tom Bennardo, The Honest Guide to Church Planting
In this book, Mike McKinley shares his personal story of revitalizing Guilford Baptist Church. McKinley includes his lessons learned along with encouraging stories from his own experience. Through honest insights, he reminds us that God can use imperfect, weak, and fearful pastors to do amazing things if they’re willing to follow the call to plant a church and follow biblical principles.
“The small victories and slow progress of the gospel in our lives and churches are actually spectacular evidence of God’s grace and exactly the things that make up part of his wonderful story of redemption.” - Mike McKinley, Church Planting is for Wimps
Aubrey Malphurs, author and senior professor at Dallas Theological Seminary for many years, shares a tried-and-true framework for planting a church that any church planter can use and replicate. These include important components such as:
By narrating compelling true stories that illustrate the impact on lives, the authors guide readers in establishing authentic friendships with those in their immediate vicinity. The inclusion of discussion questions in each chapter makes this book well-suited for either individual study or small group engagement.
“Jesus said the most important thing we can do is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” - Jay Pathak, The Art of Neighboring
Tim Keller was one of the leading voices impacting church planters today. In his book, Center Church, he outlines a balanced vision for centering local ministry around three core focuses:
"Between a pastor's doctrinal beliefs and ministry practices should be a well-conceived vision for how to bring the gospel to bear on the particular cultural setting and historical moment. This is something more practical than just doctrine but much more theological than "how-to steps" for carrying out a ministry. Once this vision is in place, it leads church leaders to make good decisions on how to worship, disciple, evangelize, serve, and engage culture in their field of ministry—whether in a city, suburb, or small town." — Tim Keller, Core Church
Generous followers of Christ can make an eternal difference by supporting gospel work with their financial gifts. In this book, John Rinehart relays stories from history about those who’ve served behind the scenes to support and advance the gospel.
“Where philanthropists aim to nourish people’s bodies and train their minds, Gospel Patrons prioritize people’s souls. Gospel Patrons treat symptoms, but ultimately they go after the disease.” - John Rinehart, Gospel Patrons
In this classic book, Alan Hirsch addresses various factors that can lead to “Jesus movements.” This updated text includes new insights and church examples, charts, diagrams, and a system of six keys to these missionally-minded movements.
“The central task of this book is to get under the hood of movements, to look for and to identify the discrete elements—the matrix of theology, ideas, and practices that must come together to both generate and sustain movements that change the world.” - Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways
When the church makes effective disciples, it has a transformational impact on families, the local church, and the world. Pastor Jim Putman and Dr. Bobby Harrington provide practical tips for making disciples and how to shift to a missional focus within a church. They include insights into:
In this book specifically written for individuals seeking to foster genuine faith communities and for those grappling with faith challenges, The Tangible Kingdom provides theological insights and authentic narratives that illustrate how time-tested practices from ancient churches can resurface in contemporary culture. Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, accomplished missional leaders and church planters, present an innovative model for cultivating flourishing grassroots faith communities in this remarkable guide that applies to churches of any size.
While every church planting experience will have twists and turns, reading the best books on church planting can provide insights into your situation. Whether it’s gleaning church planting principles in the book of Acts or diving into a Tim Keller church planting book, you can benefit from lessons learned the hard way as you seek to plant a church in your community.
Subsplash offers support for the ongoing journey of church planting with powerful tools that streamline processes, improve communication, and help reach new people. Subsplash can simplify some church planting responsibilities, from raising money to launching a website.
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