Ben Arment Nearly eighty percent of all new churches fail, leaving countless discouraged church planters wondering why. Ben Arment answers their question with Church in the Making by identifying and expanding on three God ordained conditions that make for a successful church plant even before the doors open:

Good Ground – just as Jesus based his ministry on the openness of people’s hearts, we must gauge the spiritual receptivity of our community before planting a church. If the people are not yet open to the Gospel, the first step is to cultivate their hearts.

Rolling Rocks – momentum is also key to the success of new churches. If God truly builds his church, then our job is not to start from scratch, but rather to identify where he is already bringing people, funds, and other resources together for his purposes.

Deep Roots – wherever there’s a church in the making, God provides a group of leaders who can align people and resources in order to achieve and sustain the church’s mission. Lone planters have a much less hope of succeeding, let alone surviving.

John M. Bailey Pursuing the Mission of God in Church Planting is an initial foray by the Church Planting Group of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention into a discussion concerning God's mission, the term missional, and the understanding of a missional church. At the time the authors were selected for this book, none of them realized the depth to which they would go in this pursuit. The authors conclude that their various uses of the term missional does not lessen the value of the book's purpose to address North America's need for more churches to fully embrace God's mission for all peoples. It is to this end that this book is devoted. It is the intent of the authors to inspire and motivate their readers to continue their quest in the pursuit of God's mission through their churches. Each chapter stands on its own; yet, all chapters seek to describe and exemplify obeying God's mission mandate for local churches. In this regard, missional is not the focus of the book. Instead, the focus is on God's glory, as we seek to honor Him with our obedience to further His kingdom among all peoples.

Charles Brock

David T Bunch

Tom Cheyney, J. David Putman, Van Sanders

Tom And J. David Putnam And Van Sanders-General Editors Cheyney

Tom: Putman, J. David; Sanders, Van Cheyney

Michael J. Cox, Joe Samuel Ratliff In this valuable resource, widely regarded church planting authorities Joe Ratliff and Michael Cox ask the question, How did we get all of these black churches in the inner city, anyway? What they uncover is the greatest untold church planting story of the twenty-first century. Their journey of discovery will lead you to a blueprint for church planting including practical, detailed, and invaluable advice for churches and their leaders whether you are either already in the process of sponsoring a church plant or just considering a first step in the adventure of planting a church.

Mark DeYmaz Through personal stories, proven experience and a thorough analysis of the biblical text, Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church illustrates both the biblical mandate for the multi-ethnic church as well as the seven core commitments required to bring it about. Mark DeYmaz, pastor of one of the most proven multi-ethnic churches in the country, writes both from his experience and his extensive study of how to plant, grow, and encourage more ethnically diverse churches. He argues that the "homogenous unit principle" will soon become irrelevant and that the most effective way to spread the Gospel in an increasingly diverse world is through strong and vital multi-ethnic churches.

Hozell C. Francis Specified for the particular needs of the black community, this is a handbook on planting churches.

David Garrison

Stephen Gray It seems like everyone is a church-planting expert nowadays. Many are making pronoucements about what works and what doesn't; few are doing the work necessary to confirm their assumptions. Many church planting books are strong on promises and passion, but offer few facts on what does and what doesn't help church plants succeed.

What are the differences between a successful church plant and a struggling one? You might be surprised! The authors surveyed 112 church plants and found some surprising data in the following areas:

- Leadership ability
- Financial support of the plant
- Conceptual freedom for the planter
- Coaching and Training
- Core group
- Ministries offered at launch

Some of the data confirmed long-held theories. Other findings were quite surprising. This book is a must-read for any church planter.

Rodney Harrison, Tom Cheyney, Don Overstreet The past two decades in Christendom have brought forth a proliferation of books about church planting. One denomination (Southern Baptist) has even set a goal to start fifty thousand new churches over the next twenty year period. But what’s missing toward that end is a solid resource that specifically defines how one established church can successfully sponsor or parent a new church into sustainable existence.   Spin-Off Churches aims to meet that need with contributions from a team of veteran missional church planters whose access to current church sponsorship data through the North American Mission Board is second to none. Their experience and teaching will guide readers through the church sponsorship process from its biblical basis to the nuts, bolts, and resource basics of  implementation and follow through.

Aubrey Malphurs Most books on church planting offer a model for churches to replicate—usually one that is tied to a particular style, generation, or demographic. But what churches really need is a process that is flexible, not bound to a particular time or current fad. In The Nuts and Bolts of Church Planting, trusted author and church-planting expert Aubrey Malphurs shares the basic steps any church planter will need, regardless of his or her generation now or in the future. These steps include

establishing values, mission, vision, and strategyreaching the communitymaking disciplesrecruiting a teamdetermining location and facilitiesraising money for the ministry

With instant practical takeaway based on proven techniques, this book will be invaluable to any church planter.

Tom Mercer Oikos is a simple biblical principle that will impact your life by providing purpose, focus and energy. It can also exponentially grow your church by reaching hundreds, or even thousands of the unchurched for Christ. It gives you and the believers around you a unifying purpose, a common goal and a sharpened focus for doing what Christians are called to do. Discover the simplicity of worldchange, 8-15 people at a time. The beauty of this book is that it actually shows you how to see what you've always wanted...Your World, Delivered.

Roland Muller Roland Muller's latest book includes large parts of the out-of-print books Honor & Shame and Tools for Muslim Evangelism, plus much more. Muller begins by looking at what it takes to be accepted as a 'messenger' with something of value to say. He then moves on to look at the gospel message that we share, and ends up examining the community of believers that we want to gather. The book includes a frank look at shame-based cultures, and also the importance of building a sense of community into a new group of believers. Over 300 study questions.

J.D. Payne Missional House Churches examines the impact and effect that house churches are having in the United States in evangelizing, discipling, and church planting in local communities. Based on the author's first-hand research and interviews with over thirty missional house churches as well as his own experiences, this insightful work offers an inside look at, and analysis of the workings of the missional house church.

Topics addressed include the recent growth in the popularity of house churches in the United States, what defines church, various characteristics of the house churches, methods of evangelism and leadership development which lead to growth, use of financial resources for missions and benevolence, future of house churches in North America and the relationship of church planting movements and house churches. The appendices describe the research methodology and surveys used in the study as well as characteristics of church planting movements.

This book will be of interest to church leaders, mission-minded thinkers, and students who wish to explore, understand, and participate in this phenomenon of the missional house church movement.

Tom Johnston & Mike Chong Perkinson, Dana Adams The Kingdom Quest invites every reader, pastor, and church planter to join in the adventure of rethinking church. The authors contend we have focused too much on the process of "doing" church by developing people who attend church services rather than "being" the church and creating disciples who reflect the love, forgiveness, mercy and grace of Christ on the job, in our homes and in our neighborhoods.

It has been said that the church in the western world has been reduced to being a vendor of spiritual goods and services. Whichever church has the best product and environment is the one who wins the loyal support of its constituency. But is this really what the church is supposed to be?

Jesus came because he cared about establishing two great relationships: loving God with everything we have and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus was not about slick slogans, edgy philosophy or being cool.

The Kingdom Quest will force you to rethink who you are and what kind of church we are becoming. Come join the adventure!

Daniel Sanchez, Ebbie C. Smith, Curtis E. Watke

Ed Stetzer Len Sweet talks about Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age as that "one-stop, one-shop wonder that makes obsolete all the alternatives."

In this book, Ed Stetzer lays out a case for missional church planting and then describes the process to plant healthy new churches. He combines the theological and the practical in one book. The book looks at cultures and how to reach persons in those cultures through the tools within the cultures themselves. It also provides a new look at emerging trends in churches reaching postmoderns. Then, it provides step by step instructions about how to plant churches in today's world.

Sections include "Basics of Church Planting," which explores the biblical and theological basis for planting, "Church Planting Nuts and Bolts" which provides those essential practical tools, and "Understanding Cultures and Models," which provides fresh insights into reaching unchurched people.

Solid experience (from Stetzer and dozens of examples), Biblical roots, and fresh insights into the postmodern world make this a must read for the church planting hoping to make an impact.

Ed Stetzer Planting Missional Churches is an instruction book for planting biblically faithful and culturally relevant churches. It addresses the "how-to" and "why" issues of church planting by providing practical guidance through all the phases of a church plant while taking a missional look at existing and emerging cultures.

Ed Stetzer, David Putman Across North America, many pastors are excited to see churches growing as they achieve their mission to connect the message of the gospel with the community at large. Still others are equally frustrated, following the exact same model for outreach but with lesser results. Indeed, just because a "missional breakthrough" occurs in one place doesn’t mean it will happen the same way elsewhere.

One size does not fit all, but there are cultural codes that must be broken for all churches to grow and remain effective in their specific mission context. Breaking the Missional Code provides expert insight on church culture and church vision casting, plus case studies of successful missional churches impacting their communities.

"We have to recognize there are cultural barriers (in addition to spiritual ones) that blind people from understanding the gospel," the authors write. "Our task is to find the right way to break through those cultural barriers without removing the spiritual and theological ones."

Ron Sylvia In today's changing hi-tech culture a new church has emerged on the scene. It is a High Definition Church; a church with improved clarity and focus. It has a higher resolution than its conventional counterpart and higher resolve to do whatever it takes to present Christ to this generation. We need HD churches using today's technology and language to present the transforming message of Christ with impeccable clarity.

Built on Ron's experience, Starting High Definition Churches shows us how to launch an HD church, taking you through a step-by-step process from the Dream Stage through the Strategic Leadership Stage. Learn why Church Planting is the Extreme Sport of Ministry!

Rad, Ph.D. Zdero