Dr. Joel Rainey has written a new book, Planting Churches in the Real World, that is a fantastic find if you are planting a church of thinking of planting a church. What’s more, if you are in a traditional church I am convinced that much of the material in the book can be helpful to you as well. Rainey has helped plant over 30 churches and is currently the Director of the Mid-Maryland Baptist Association outside of Washington D.C.

I first began to read some of Rainey’s writings over the past few years online through various blogs and found his writing to be very thoughtful as well as insightful. This past February, however, I finally had the privilege of meeting Joel in person and found him to be even more enjoyable in person than he is online. Joel forwarded a copy of this book to read through and review.

What makes this book particularly unique is that Rainey makes no attempt to mislead planters by highlighting the exciting, but statistically rare, church plant which skyrockets in attendance right from the beginning. Instead he considers what is the vast majority of church plants, that being plants that grow slowly, yet consistently, but who will probably never grow to “supersize” church status. What also sets this book apart is that it is extremely practical. Rather than give abstract, ethereal wisdom or advice, Rainey sticks to practical wisdom supported by real life experience which lends itself to simple application on the part of the church planter.

If you are a church planter, or a wannabe church planter, I would really encourage you to spend the few dollars and pick up this book. It’s simple, easy to read, practical advice from someone who has been there and done it when it comes to church planting and I think it could be priceless for your ministry.

You can purchase a copy using the links found by clicking here.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Church planting is not for the easily discouraged. The average new church is less than 100 attenders after four years, but most conference speakers and book writers tell stories of hundreds after the first year– a reality few church planters experience. Rainey paints a picture of reality, including both the difficulties involved in starting a new church, and the evidence that planting a church is worth enduring those difficulties. If you are a planter drunk with vision, this will sober you up. But, it is more than that. It also shows that church plants make a difference whether they are thousands or dozens after the first year. I’ve known Joel for years, and he tells the stories from his own journey– telling lessons he learned the hard way. It’s real world church planting and it is worth your time.
Dr. Ed Stetzer, author of Planting Missional Churches. Director of Research, Lifeway Christian Resources, Nashville, TN

“Dr. Rainey amuses the reader with countless stories of life on the field. His “lessons learned” approach to the book serves as a clear warning for future church planters: “The Kingdom of Heaven is near you, but this won’t be easy!”
Dr. Jack Allen, Director, The Day Center for Church Planting. New Orleans, LA

“Candid, winsome, thoroughly biblical, keenly missional, and sensibly linked to the real world. Don’t be fooled. The weightiness of this little book is inversely proportional to its size, and its wise counsel will help point a safe way through the tangle of neglected assumptions, misguided strategies, ill-founded hopes, and unintentional blunders that accosts the unwary planter on the way to church. Well done!”
B. Spencer Haygood, Senior Pastor, Orange Hill Baptist Church. Marietta, GA

“Born in the ward of real world experience, Planting Churches in the Real World is theologically sound, theoretically tenable, and practically accessible. During a time when starting a church can be faddish, Rainey’s work is a dose of both Biblical wisdom and common sense that will stop many would-be church planters before a frustrating failure, and direct many others onward toward biblical success.”
Marty Duren, co-author of Journeys: Transitioning Churches to Relevance. Lead Pastor, New Bethany Church. Buford, GA

“Reality bites, as the saying goes. Yet in the age of incredible lostness in America, we must see church planting for what it is . . . a way to spread Gospel influence to every, man, woman and child. High birth weight churches, although fun and influential for the Kingdom, are not the norm, nor are they the answer. Joel Rainey has captured the reality and yet the incredible potential of church planting. New churches running less than 100 are key players in the Kingdom. Small does not have to mean ineffective. Small groups of missionary Christians are critical to our mission and our future. Way to go!
Dr. Dino Senesi. Church Planting Movement Leader, Columbia, SC

Over the past few months I have not written much original material for the blog. To be honest, school has been a bit of a load and my workload at the church has been pretty high. While the church workload will continue to remain high, school is out now and I’ve got a couple of things in the hopper that I wanted to let you know about.

First, I’ve known of Joel Rainey for quite some time through the blog world. Thankfully, however, I got to meet him in person not too long ago. Joel forwarded me a copy of his new book, Planting Churches in the Real World. I’m excited about reviewing it and hopefully should have that review posted within the next week.

Next, speaking of new books, coming up on June 10th I will have a interview with Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation dealing with their new book, Compelled by Love. I’m part way through the book and it is outstanding so far. I’m looking forward to that post. Since that date happens to fall while we are all three going to be in Indy for the SBC Annual Meeting I am also attempting to arrange an audio interview. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we can arrange that.

Finally I’m beginning to work on a series of posts entitled “Mission Dei”. I find that a large number of SBC churches have no actual strategy in respect to missions methodology. A lack of strategic planning, in my opinion, leads to a lack of long term impact and allows for an unfortunate overexpenditure in regards to missions money. I want to help lay out a few principles that guide my thinking in regards to a comprehensive missions strategy for a local church. If you are from another church besides Frederick Boulevard, hopefully this will challenge you to think through your own missions efforts. If you read this from Frederick Boulevard hopefully this will help you to understand where we are going as a church in respect to our missions efforts. It should be an exciting series!

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a Weekend Worship video. It’s been a while since I’ve posted one but I recently ran across this new song from Chris Tomlin, City of God, and I’ve fallen in love with it. I wanted to share it with you as well. I hope you enjoy it this weekend.

We’re into the next session now and we are enjoying Kevin Bussey speak about church planting. Kevin is a friend who is an incredible blogger and who has a passion for church planting. Kevin is currently working as an Associate Pastor at a new church in the Charlotte area.

I had to post a picture or two of Kevin in his suit and tie.

This week, in lieu of music, I want to post a video that was uploaded today to the IMB’s new site, CommissionStories.com. The creator of this video emailed me today and alerted me to it and after watching it, I wanted to pass it on to you. It is a remarkable testimony of God’s grace in a very, very dark place. I hope it encourages you this weekend.   

For some reason, however, I am not able at this point to resize the video and make it fit here on MicahFries.com. So, it’s not posted here on my blog but I’d still like you to take a look at it. You can view it by clicking here.

I continue to get a variety of questions from people who ask whether we should like or dislike the Emerging Church movement. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time you will know that I don’t believe there is much of an answer to that question. I believe that the EC movement is too diverse and too large to be labeled as simply “good” or “bad”. We’ve essentially got to consider each church on an individual basis.

Pastor Mark Driscoll, of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA preached a message this past Sunday dealing with the topic of the EC movement. It wasn’t new material for me but enough of you have asked about it that I think it would be good to post it so that you can consider it.  

In a recent post I pointed you each to the writings of an IMB missionary to Ecuador, Guy Muse. Guy and his wife, Linda have been featured in a Baptist Press article today. BP particularly looks at some exciting church planting efforts that they are leading. I would encourage you each to run over and take a look at what God is doing through their efforts. It’s encouraging! 

Click here to read the article.

The title of this post is the remarkable quote from J.P Lipscomb as he spoke about his wife, Linda, who died on Valentine’s Day after a bus accident while serving in Asia with the IMB. As I read this article on Baptist Press today I was forced to be still for a moment and think through his words. The whole quote was actually: “Linda knew she was dying, we never had any respect for death. Death is given too much respect. … The only way you can get to heaven is to die.” I wonder how many of us have that kind of attitude when it comes to living for Christ? Throwing caution to the wind, racing towards the Kingdom, aggressively promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of the cost.

I’ll be honest with you,  I often struggle with having this kind of attitude.  Scripture is so clear to us in 1 Corinthians 15 when it says, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Too many of us struggle with living in fear of death. We live in terror of pain. We walk around worried that someone won’t like us or that something might bother us when reality tells us that all that anyone can do, at most, is kill us and what kind of punishment is that? It’s the gateway to eternity! Why do we fear the greatest hope that we have? 

I would encourage you to read the story of Linda Lipscomb and her death. I hope it challenges you like it has me.  

I continue to do research for my current sermon series, The Bible & The Bush, and as I do I come across amazing content that I really love to share. The video below is actually a combination of interviews and pictures some of my sister’s former co-workers from when she worked with the IMB and their “One Story” partnership. She lived in Niger, rather than Mali which is highlighted a great deal in the video, but the images portray a village very similar to the one she lived in, as well as the one that Tracy and I lived in while in Burkina Faso. The video is wonderful at revealing life in the West African bush. The references to malaria and “toe” still bring back bad, bad memories for me. I hope the video is enlightening and encouraging to you.