Two experienced, well-connected, and theologically grounded church planters translate cutting-edge design strategies from the world of business for churches of any size, factoring in big-picture issues like culture and vision, along with practical realities like budget and space constraints.
CHURCH TURNED INSIDE OUT applies leading edge insights from the business world on the importance of design as a process in starting or running a church and in developing leaders. Linda Bergquist and Allan Karr are both experienced and influential church planters and mentors/teachers with wide and diverse connections among evangelical leaders and thinkers.
Too often church planters start with an existing model--perhaps following the lead of a nationally visible, trend-setting church, or simply relying on what worked in their last church--without taking into account the unique factors specific to any new ministry endeavor (ranging from the skills and passions of the leadership team to the precise needs of whoever the church hopes to serve, to the particular culture within which the new church will start to grow). Church planters strive for innovation, when they should be striving for transformation. Churches cannot follow a one-size-fits-all design strategy. Regardless of scope (a simple home church to a network of cell churches to a teeming urban megachurch) church planters need to rethink their assumptions about design and start with basic but substantive questions about who they are and what God is calling them to do (and for whom), before they begin to envision external design considerations. Thriving churches of the 21st Century will need to develop flexible, out-of-the box structures that enable them to accomplish God's purposes in a variety of contexts, cultures, and communities.
- A new volume in the Leadership Network Series: Will receive extensive ongoing marketing support through our partnership with Leadership Network--an increasingly important global organization reaching tens of thousands of church leaders worldwide.
- Expert authors with excellent connections: Both authors are well-known in missional church/church planting circles (both in the US and overseas), have excellent connections in Baptist and other evangelical organizations and denominations and with influential writers and thinkers, and have tested their ideas for several years in Colorado and California.
- Forward by Alan Hirsch, coauthor of the bestselling The Shaping of Things to Come and author of The Forgotten Ways, both influential books in the missional church movement.
Clergy, lay leaders, denominational leaders, church planting and mission organizations; readers of Alan Hirsch, Reggie McNeal, Ed Stetzer.
