Church Planter

Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission by Darrin Patrick

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The worst thing about this book is the title. "Church Planter" is about much more than church planting, or what qualifies one to plant. It's a book that all kinds of church leaders should read, and churches in all stages (pre-planting, new plant, established church, church revitalization) can benefit from.

Darrin Patrick is the pastor of The Journey in St. Louis, a multi-campus, growing church in the Acts 29 Network. Most folks familiar with the reformed church planting culture will find that most of Patrick's ideas in this book can be found elsewhere (especially in Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, and Richard Lovelace). But even so, "Church Planter" is helpful because of the way Patrick distills and communicates information.

The book is divided into three main categories: The Man, the Message, and the Mission. The chapter breakdown looks like this:

1 - A Rescued Man
2 - A Called Man
3 - A Qualified Man
4 - A Dependent Man
5 - A Skilled Man
6 - A Shepherding Man
7 - A Determined Man
8 - A Historical Message
9 - Salvation-Accomplishing
10 - Christ-Centered
11 - Sin-Exposing
12 - Idol-Shattering
13 - The Heart of Mission: Compassion
14 - The House of Mission: The Church
15 - The How of Mission: Contextualization
16 - The Hands of Mission: Care
17 - The Hope of Mission: City Transformation

A big hurdle for some will be Patrick's complementarian understanding of manhood and womanhood - particularly his conviction that the office of elder should be reserved for men alone. He anticipates this and provides an excellent defense in the Preface. Still some will be turned off, but my hope is that wherever you stand on this issue, you'd still give the book a hearing. It's worth it. And certain chapters are worth copying and getting everyone in your church leadership to read (esp chapter 3 - the best succinct exegesis of Biblical texts on qualifications for church leaders I have read).

Read this if you are a church leader of any kind - especially if you are involved in church planting.

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