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Over the next several days I’ll be posting a series on Church Planting with Small Groups. These posts are drawn from a research paper I wrote last semester, and as such, they represent a shotgun approach to the diverse (and sometimes ambiguous) world of “best practices” in church planting.

However, I made a concerted attempt to combine missional, incarnational thinking with advice that pertains to all or most “small group” church plants (which I define). You’ll also notice that I weighted statistical research from guys like Ed Stetzer and Stephen Gray fairly highly–but I tried to cull the findings for insights that had special relevance for plants that begin with small groups.

As a disclaimer, I should also admit that I wrote the original paper near the end of the semester, when I was running on espresso fumes and would have hired someone to write the paper for me…if I’d been able to find a qualified ghost writer…and if that person had been willing to work for about $2. Just kidding, but you get the gist. I’m very invested in this topic, since it likely represents the nuts & bolts of what I’ll be doing in a few months–but I also know that my findings represent a humble and overly caffeinated perspective, and I hope to learn a lot more.

With the intro out of the way, look out tomorrow for Part 1 in Church Planting that Starts with Small Groups.

Related posts

• Church Planting that Starts with Small Groups, Part 1: Background (6)
• Church Plants that Start with Small Groups, Part 2: Cast a Tough, Hopeful Vision (3)
• Church Planting that Starts with Small Groups (Part 3): Timely Core Group (2)
• Church Planting that Starts w/ Small Groups (Part 8): Find Training & Support (0)
• Church Planting that Starts w/ Small Groups (Part 7): Connect the Dots (2)