• Stride Toward Freedom and Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King Jr. With his famous passion, clarity, and courage Dr. King tells the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in this first book of his civil rights trilogy. In the second book he makes the case for the urgency of now in the wake of the Birmingham protest. His stern but also inviting analysis of the social structures that created and perpetuated racism will move anyone who is willing to be moved, and no doubt some who imagined they were not. His defense of non-violence in the second book is extremely valuable. I have yet to read Where Do We Go From Here, but I will and am confident that it’s worth recommending now regardless.

• The Great Demographic Illusion by Richard Alba. Alba is the Distinguished Professor of Sociology at CUNY’s Graduate Center. He recognizes–and welcomes–the fact that America is in the midst of a profound demographic shift. Demographers and pundits alike predict we’ll be a “minority majority” nation by 2050. But Alba argues that the equation is more complex than many presume largely, though not exclusively, due to the rise of mix-raced marriages. With a very readable blend of wonky sociologist speak and the gift of explanation, Alba provides his readers with a clarifying, very realistic, but also hopeful analysis of just what seems to be happening in America.

• The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein. This is an essential and difficult book to read that offers leaders a stark, well documented, and detailed review of how Black Americans were the subject of intentional, legal, and administrative injustice during the 20^th Century. It’s a must read for anyone who wants to minister with a clear understanding of our history and our current moment.

• The Color of Compromise by Jamar Tisby. This too is an essential and difficult book, but should be required reading, especially for leaders from dominant cultural church traditions. Tisby’s introduction to the Church’s passive complicity and intentional advocacy over the last 400 years is certainly discouraging, but that’s not on him, of course. It also offers hope for those who want to learn from the past in the hope of a better now and future.

• Reading While Black by Esau McCauley. This wonderful, enlightening treatment of Scripture from the perspective of Black Christians is as engaging as it is educational. McCauley opens eyes to new exegetical vistas from within the historic Christian view of Scripture. Readers will understand the Bible better as well as the urgency of his call to expand our interpretive horizons.

• The Beautiful Community by Irwyn Ince. Although it’s tempting to say that Irwyn’s personal story and faith journey are worth the price of the book, that would sell the work short. Indeed, that covers just enough of the beginning to frame the rest. Ince’s real contribution is his wonderful portrait of what the Church should be, can be, and will be. The fact that Ince is neither naïve nor idealistic makes his vision even more compelling.

• The Great Opportunity by the Pinetops Foundation. This thoughtful, honest, and hopeful aggregation of four well-grounded demographic and socio-graphic studies provides important perspective on the current state and future of the Church in North America. With seventy-five well designed and illustrated pages, it’s a pleasant read and contains good resources for lay people and vocational leaders alike. 

• American Religion by Mark Chaves. This volume summarizes and analyzes data from the “National Congregations Survey” which Chaves directs as part of his work at Duke University. It also draws on the “Association of Religious Data Archive.” The short version of this recommendation is to glean as much of Dr. Chaves’ work as you can and to dig deeply into the data on those sites. Great stuff.

• Exclusion and Embrace by Miraslov Volf. This work’s admirable reputation is as well deserved as it is well established. Volf engages the profound, painful complexities of reconciliation, and justice, hatred, and love. His sociological and historical knowledge is impressive, and his theological acumen, although not fully aligned with my own, brings issues into Christ centered focus.

• Inventing the Individual by Larry Siedentop. This treatment of the ideas and cultural forces that forged the modern understanding of the individual, their relation to society, and the concept as well as foundation for human rights puts the contemporary fight for justice in its historical context. Siedentop’s academic credentials are extensive and cross the Atlantic. He traces the impact of the Christian doctrines of the Incarnation and Justification by Faith as transformational ideas that leavened the West’s vision of the person, family, tribe, kingdom, law, and nation. It’s fascinating and powerfully encouraging. This book is written for an academic or motivated lay audience and is not intended as Christian apologia as much as a simple–well not so simple–examination of the historical philosophy that gave us our idea of who we are.  

On the Theology, History, Context, and Practice of Church Planting and Leadership

• Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission by David J. Bosch. This is probably the most important work on mission written in the last 100 years. There is very little specifically about church planting in this tome, but his sweeping analysis of 2,000 years of mission is essential reading for anyone who wants to be better at the mission of the Gospel.

• Church Planter Field Manual three book series by Dr. Tom Wood. Dr. Wood is an experienced church planter, network leader, and coach who provides focused, practical next steps and how-to help for practitioners.

• Church Planting: Laying Foundations by Stuart Murray. Murray’s examination of the biblical and historical foundations of church planting provides essential context for a very useful series of chapters that address the full array of practical issues planters face.

• Center Church by Tim Keller. This is the most comprehensive, contemporary text on mission available. Extremely helpful theological, cultural, and philosophical insights as well as practical helps.

• Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas. While I do not believe that Searcy and Thomas appreciate the factors that made their work an outlier, this book does the service of providing a counter-point to the prevailing approach of extended, slow burn networking.

• 1776 by David McCullough. There is not a single word about church planting in this book.  However, it provides one example after another of agile and courageous decisions made by imperfect, overwhelmed, often frightened, always under-resourced leaders reacting to impossible situations. Sounds like church planting to me.

• David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell studies the unique advantages that the under-dog takes into every fight. This book is very helpful for men who lead a church that doesn’t actually exist anywhere but their website (yet).

• Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and its Fashionable Enemies by David Bentley Hart. A brilliant answer to fundamentalist atheist evangelists and so helpful on many levels. For our purpose, his defense of the Church in history is very useful.

• Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World by Dr. David Garrison. A compelling survey with analysis of dozens of amazing missional movements across the globe. This is a hopeful, challenging, thought provoking work.

• Bad Religion by Ross Douthat. Again, nothing here on church planting, but Douthat’s survey and analysis of the current American religious culture will help church leaders see their people and places more clearly.

• On Paradise Drive by David Brooks. Brooks delivers trenchant insights into contemporary American life that will help ministers and elders care for and lead the flock. As the pastor of a church in the city of Seattle for nearly 20 years, I understand the importance of reaching urbanites. However, it is clearly more difficult and at the very least equally important to plant churches in the American suburb.

• Church In the Making by Ben Ament. This books offers accessible, helpful insights on the why and how of church planting.

• The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church: And the Causes That Hinder It by Roland Allen. Although this work can be overly idealistic at times, Allen gives us a forceful—and all too often accurate—analysis of the problems associated with institutionalized mission as well as provocative challenges to overcome them.

On Caring for the People Who Plant Churches (with selections by Sandy Kelly)

• Dangerous Calling by Paul D. Tripp. The best book on identifying and addressing the tensions, pitfalls, and sins that distract, diminish, and destroy ministers, their families, and their churches. 

• Beyond Duct Tape: Holding the Heart Together in a Life of Ministry by Shari Thomas and Tami Resch. This very helpful work draws from extensive research on church planting wives around the world and then documents, analyzes, and applies it to the life and heart of women in ministry. The researching authors have over 50 years of experience at the center of church planting ministry. 

• Gospel Coach by Scott Thomas and Tom Wood (mentioned above). This is a well-integrated application of the biblical foundations of leadership development and contemporary coaching theory with a clear Gospel-centered focus.

• Resilient Ministry by Bob Burns, Tasha Chapman, and Donald Guthrie. Based on work made possible by a substantial Lily Foundation Grant this book codifies, analyzes, and applies the authors’ research into the lives of hundreds of ministers and their families over a 6 year time-frame. The insights and applications they cull from this long-range project can help renew and sustain the health of ministers, ministry families, and their churches.

• Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero. I prefer this to his earlier work The Emotionally Healthy Church. They cover the same material, but this book focuses on the hearts of members and pastors which lay the foundation for the culture of the congregation.

• The Church Planting Wife by Christine Hoover. This book offers helpful insights and biblical perspectives about the heart as well as the practical challenges church planting wives face.

• High Privilege, High Calling by Gail MacDonald is rich with the long-term perspective of a leader who has faced deep challenges. She provides counsel and concrete direction for women in formal or informal positions of leadership in the church. First published in 1981 and revised in 1998, MacDonald’s approach is mildly “old school” at times, which we think makes it particularly helpful for contemporary leaders, both men and women.