REQUIRED READING
Three books for movement-minded readers.

PLANTING NEW CHURCHES IN A POSTMODERN AGE
By Ed Stetzler
Broadman and Holman 2002

"Eat your Wheaties before you begin [this book]" says one reviewer. Part cultural analysis, part practical application, Stetzler has produced a deep, thoughtful guide for church planters swimming in postmodernism. One section takes a new look at emerging trends in churches reaching out to postmodern people, while others provide step by step guidelines for planting churches in contemporary society. Stetzler currently recruits and trains pastors for the North American Mission Board.

COMMUNITY OF KINDNESS - a Refreshing New Approach to Planting and Growing a Church
By Steve Sjogren & Bob Lewin
Regal 2003

Short, smart, and easy to read, Sjogren and Lewin's book is 106 bite-size lessons culled from their own successful, but often painful, church planting efforts. Ranging from the personal (Anger is your number one enemy. p. 92) to the strategic (Understand there is a delay between when leaders show up and when they are effectively serving. p. 132) to the very practical (Sheep puke if they eat to much. p. 141), Kindness will help cushion the blow when the unexpected comes up in a church plant. One section includes what Sjogren "wished" he had done at every stage of his church plants. One should end this book both inspired and better prepared. (Get a good therapist-now. p. 110).

THE NEXT CHRISTENDOM - The Coming of Global Christianity
By Phillip Jenkins
Oxford University Press 2002

Books and Culture's Mark Noll says, "If the times demand nothing less than a major rethinking of contemporary global history from a Christian perspective, Philip Jenkins's The Next Christendom will be one of the significant landmarks pointing the way." Jenkins' widely anticipated book analyzes the shift in the center of Christian Influence from the Northern to Southern hemisphere.

The publisher explains: "Jenkins asserts that by the year 2050 only one Christian in five will be a non-Latino white person and that the center of gravity of the Christian world will have shifted firmly to the Southern hemisphere. Moreover, Jenkins shows that the churches that have grown most rapidly in the global south are far more traditional, morally conservative, evangelical, and apocalyptic than their northern counterparts. Mysticism, puritanism, belief in prophecy, faith-healing, exorcism, and dream-visions--concepts which more liberal western churches have traded in for progressive political and social concerns--are basic to the newer churches in the south. And the effects of such beliefs on global politics, Jenkins argues, will be enormous, as religious identification begins to take precedence over allegiance to secular nation-states."