7 Books To Fuel A Movement Paradigm Shift

It was early 2008 when I was first introduced to movement thinking at a world wide gathering for the mission agency I was working with at the time.  I was new to the mission field, to church planting and so the week long seminar I attended rocked my world.  There were so many paradigm shifts in what I was hearing, so much that was counter intuitive to what I'd done my entire church life in the U.S.  It was disorientating at first but it struck a chord deep in my soul.  

Church planting movments (CPM), disciple making movements (DMM), the spontaneous expansion of the church - all of it seemed born in the pages of  scripture.    Reading the case studies of movements happening in Asian and Africa looked like the book of Acts far more than my own church experience.  And we we living in a country that was less than 0.01% Christian. 

Doing what we'd always done was just not an option.

Over the next several years, we got some great training, had a great coach and dove into our own personal journey of rewriting the paradigms of church that had been embedded in us by a lifetime of North American church culture.  I also began reading everything I could get my hands on in order to help me  grow in my understanding and practice of all that it would take to see a church planting movement birthed where we were.

The first book that I read over and over again was the book of Acts.  It is where everyone should start.  But after that I began to find other books that helped me learn what God was doing in the book of Acts.

And so here are seven books that I found helpful on that journey.

Church Planting Movements by David Garrison

This was the first book I ever read that dealt with church planting movements and multiplication. The first half of the book was filled with case studies of movements around the world. The second half taught about the Biblical principles that were found in movements around the world.

You can find out more about the book, including free pdf files of the book in many languages at the CPM website.
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http://www.churchplantingmovements.com/  

T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution by Steve Smith with Ying Kai

T4T follows the story of an unfolding church planting movement that grew up in China.  This book shares that story but then goes into detail unpacking the Biblical principles, strategies and methods that allowed Ying Kai to be used by God to catalyze a movement that saw over 1.7 million baptisms and 150,000 new churches in a ten year period.

What Jesus Started by Steve Addison

Steve Addison is a long time researcher of and practitioner of movement thinking.  With What Jesus Started, he begins with the character, strategies and methods of Jesus.  He then walk through the apostle's work in the book of Acts, focusing on the Apostle Paul.  Laying a clear Biblical foundation for movment principles and strategies, Addison then moves into case studies from the last 2,000 years where movements happened across the globe.  

Addison's website and podcast are exceptionally helpful as well.

https://www.movements.net/​

There's a Sheep in my Bathtub by Brian Hogan

This book tells the story of a movement that Hogan and others helped catalyze in Mongolia.  It is a riveting story that unpacks movement principles through the on the ground lessons learned in the cauldron of ministry.  

Giving Up Control by A. J. DeJonge

Giving Up Control follows the journey into multiplication and movement principles by a group of Cru staff working on college campuses in Australia.  As they apply the counter intuitive principles they learn valuable lessons that they share as ten coaching proverbs .  This is a super helpful book and is just $0.99 as an ebook at Amazon.  

Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale

Miraculous Movements tells the powerful stories of movements spreading among highly resistant Muslim tribes in East and North Africa.  These stories are interspersed with chapters teaching movement and multiplication principles.  It is both an inspiring and helpful book.

Contagious Disciple Making by David Watson and Paul Watson

David Watson was one of the early pioneers of catalyzing movements in the modern missions era.  The lessons he learned in northern India have been invaluable in helping others apply Biblical principles to gospel work around the world.  In this book he unpacks those principles in applicable lessons.  

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These seven books will do much to help anyone interested in multiplication and movement.  The paradigm shifts needed to begin to apply the Biblical principles of multiplication are enormous.  These books will help you make those shifts.

A few other helpful books:

• The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Rolland  Allen
• Spent Matches by Roy Moran
• From Megachurch to Multiplication by Chris Galanos
• Stubborn Perseverance by James Nyman

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