Mark Lau Branson and Nicholas Warnes, editors
InterVarsity Press, Downer’s Grove, Ill. 192 pages
At the recent General Assembly, commissioners in the Congregational Vitality Committee were sent into the neighborhood to listen and watch for God “out there.” They went two-by-two into Detroit neighborhoods, striking up conversations and taking notice of what was happening. The premise is that this is increasingly the way new congregations will begin to emerge: from the streets. And that is the premise of this set of essays edited by two seasoned church planters and consultants, describing various worshipping communities around the country. The essays are seven stories by seven pastors of new and diverse congregations coming into being. They point out that an estimated 3,700 American congregations will stop functioning while 4,000 new congregations will be formed. That is not a pace to keep up with the population. If the church is to remain vital and connected to communities, there has to be a new energy to form missional congregations of people that may have never seen the inside of a traditional church. This is our calling and this book will be a good guide for those in the 1,001 congregations movement as well as the rest of us.
