Books in the Exponential Series series

Underground Church is the true story of a ten-year experiment in a new form of church, one that is structured and streamlined for mission. Filled with creative insights, Brian Sanders explains what it means to center the mission of the church around the callings of individuals to ministry and mission.

Over the last thirty years, many influential church leaders and church planters in America have adopted various models for reaching unchurched people. An ';attractional' model will seek to attract people to a local church. Younger leaders may advocate a more ';missional' approach, in which believers live and work among unchurched people and intentionally seek to serve like Christ. While each of these approaches have merit, something is still missing, something even more fundamental to the mission of the church: discipleship. Making discipleshelping people to trust and follow Jesusis the church's God-given mandate. Devoted disciples attract people outside the church because of the change others see in their Christ-like lives. And discipleship empowers Christians to be more like Christ as they intentionally develop relationship with non-believers. DiscipleShift walks you through five key ';shifts' that churches must make to refocus on the biblical mission of discipleship. These intentional changes will attract the world and empower your church members to be salt and light in their communities.

Planting and leading a new church is not easy. There are the inevtiable setbacks and challenges that come with launching anything new. And the process will test and try a leader's faith, as they face discouragment, loneliness, and failure. In this book, pastor and seasoned chuch leader Wayne Cordeiro speaks the truth in love, offering wisdom and insight to prepare leaders as they face the difficulties and hardships of church planting, while providing encouragement and inspiration for the journey. "e;Sifted"e; is based on Jesus' encouragement to Peter in Luke 22 to keep his faith and minister to others from his weakness. An experienced practitioner, Wayne shares the things he wishes he'd known when he was starting a new church. With additional stories from other prominent, seasoned leaders, each chapter includes a thought provoking, challenge question to develop a heart that is surrendered to God, focused on "e;being and becoming"e; versus "e;doing and accomplishing."e; Wayne writes about a healthy integration and balance of personal care and leadership amidst the difficulties of the church planting journey. Loneliness and discouragement are normal in church planting, but God cares more about our journey of faith and who we are becoming than our worldly accomplishments and the churches we build. Church planting is an ongoing process of surrender, personal growth and character development. The book will challenge leaders to persevere and rededicate themselves to their calling, their marriage, and their family. Instead of a "e;how to"e; book on models and methods, this is a combination of a self-assessment book that challenges leaders' scorecards of success, encourages leaders to realize that they are not alone in what they are experiencing, and provides wisdom for the long haul to position younger leaders for a life of ministry and finish strong.

What is happening to the church in America today? By all appearances, it looks like we are "e;doing' church better than we ever have. Our programs are effective, our pastors are relevant, and our buildings are increasing in size. In the past 30 years the number of mega-churches has increased from under 100 to over 7,500. In the past 10 years the number of multi-site churches has increased from under 100 to over 2,000. By the numbers, these church movements enjoy the national platform, the national voice, and the resources to profoundly impact the Kingdom. But to what end? In spite of the rapid growth of these prevailing church movements we are still losing ground, and the church in the west is in massive decline. Numerous studies and books have been written documenting the flight of members from the institutional church. Yet the local church is Jesus' plan for reaching the world. The strength of the mega-church and multi-site models can be found in a strong emphasis on attracting people to the church, where they have an opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ. Yet many younger leaders are rejecting this model in favor of a more incarnational approach to ministry. These missional communities tend to focus their attention on trying to release people into ministry.In recent years a growing schism has emerged between those calling themselves incarnational leaders and those leading the prevailing church models. But what if we were able to incorporate the insights of both models into a cohesive understanding of the church? Can we bring together the very best of the attractional AND missional models for church ministry?What is needed is not is another book about how to do church better. Our focus on the form church is misguided when the vast majority of unchurched Christians and non-believers aren't moving toward any form of church. Beautifully Sent will give permission for leaders to value existing church forms while catalyzing a missional movement of incarnational people into the world.

Jesus challenges us to heal the hurting, feed the hungry, include the lonely, and help people find their way back to God. Most people listen to the missional challenge of Jesus as if it were a good motivational talk-something to inspire us, but not something we can actually achieve. Others hear the challenge of Jesus and become frustrated with how little they've done. The mission Jesus gave us was not just meant to inspire us, nor was it intended to frustrate us. Jesus gave us this mission because he wants us to actually do it! Within each person lies a potential movement that could change the world. The beginning of such a movement is simple: you living a life as a Christ follower that is worth reproducing. You will reproduce what you say. You will reproduce what you do. You will reproduce what you don't do. You will reproduce who you are. Each of us has the ability to catalyze a movement that can accomplish the mission of Jesus. Some of us have the ability to impact 10 people; some of us have influence over hundreds, while others have the potential to reach thousands. The Rapidly Reproducing Church will present a Biblical strategy that explains how every Christ follower can successfully "e;reproduce"e; himself and maximize his impact for the kingdom of God. The purpose of this book is to communicate a simple strategy that will engage every Christ follower and challenge every leader to become a reproducing leader. Our hope is that every church will become a reproducing church. This book will lay out a brief, but solid theology for a reproducing strategy and then give very practical "e;how-to's"e; for reproducing Christ followers, leaders, artists, groups/teams, venues, sites, churches and networks of churches. Weaved throughout this book will be the amazing story of Community Christian Church, started by five friends who used these reproducing strategies to grow one of the most influential churches in the U.S and develop a network of reproducing churches.

People are hungry to make a difference in their community, yet most don't know where to start. In fact, "e;serving the least"e; is often one of the most neglected biblical mandates in the church. Barefoot Church shows readers how today's church can be a catalyst for individual, collective, and social renewal in any context. Whether pastors or laypeople, readers will discover practical ideas that end up being as much about the Gospel and personal transformation as they are about serving the poor. Here they will see how the organizational structure of the church can be created or redesigned for mission in any context. Drawing from his own journey, Brandon Hatmaker proves to readers that serving the least is not a trendy act of benevolence but a lifestyle of authentic community and spiritual transformation. As Hatmaker writes, "e;My hope is that God would open our eyes more and more to the needs of our community. And that we would see it as the church's responsibility to lead the charge."e;

Children have always been close to the heart of God and as followers of Jesus it is our responsibility to protect, nurture, and pass our faith to children. In Small Matters: Why Children are Such a Big Deal, authors Greg Nettle and Santiago ';Jimmy' Mellado offer a model of discipleship that encourages parents to raise up the next generation to be deeply committed to and in love with Jesus.When we awaken to the fact that children between the ages of four and fourteen are the most likely to make a decision to follow Jesus, and that the discipleship that children receive forms their future, it will transform the way we view children, invest in them, reach out to them, teach them and ultimately, empower them to be disciples of Jesus.In recent history the church has embraced a model of discipleship that encourages parents to ';Bring your children to us and we will disciple them. And, by the way, we would love it if you would help.' This model is ineffective as much as it is unbiblical. It is imperative that the church today shifts to a new model of discipleship that encourages parents to ';Disciple your children as your primary responsibility. And, we (the church) would love to help.'Because our world is becoming more and more sensitive to the needs of children, a reflection of the heart of God, it provides those of us who follow Jesus with an unprecedented opportunity to disciple children in our homes, in our churches, in our communities and throughout the world. Now more than ever people are willing to invest in the cause of children through new church planting, equipping children's ministries, child sponsorshipall of which are committed to holistic child development.

El lector aprenderá a generar un cambio real en su iglesia y comunidad mediante el desarrollo de habilidades prácticas para ayudar a otros a alcanzar su potencial de liderazgo. Descubra cómo activar los dones, ayudar a las personas a apropiarse de ellos y desarrollar un registro de logros simple para medir el progreso en la edificación del Reino.

Author and pastor Bob Roberts Jr. is one of the architects of what church and Christian community can become in this new century. His unique approach to Christianity is based on what he calls T-Life (transformed life), which leads to a T-World (transformed world). Drawing inspiration from early church history and the emerging church in the developing world, Roberts envisions a new way of engaging the local church to achieve common goals. He calls for building a church culture rather than a church program. Glocal churches create disciples who, transformed by the Holy Spirit, are infiltrating today's culture on a global and local scale. In Roberts's terms, when we establish a relationship with Jesus Christ and begin applying his principles, we experience T-Life (transformed life). Transformation begins with a growing, interactive relationship with God that includes personal and corporate worship. This, in turn, results in community. As community serves others, transformation has both a global and local (glocal) impact and creates T-World. Transformation redefines the focus and practice of the church, not from external bells and whistles, but from the internal transformation of the very character of its people.

People are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that's exactly how he wants it to be.When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn't how many people you can gather. It's about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity.But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God's.In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church's priorities around God's mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don't need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.

Leveraging the metaphor Ori Brafman popularized in his NYT best-selling book, The Starfish and the Spider, Wegner, Ford, and Hirsch show why the distributed structures of starfish organizations are uniquely fit to the church. Seeding starfish networks inside today's churches will prepare the church of tomorrow to be agile and effective.