Church Planting is for Wimps | Book Review

—PJ King

Earlier this year, 9 Marks released Church Planting is for Wimps, by Mike McKinley. It’s an $8, 113 page book which I impulsively bought a few weeks ago.

About the book

The first questions I had when I saw the book were “What does the title mean?” and “Who is Mike McKinley?”; I’ll begin with the latter.

Michael McKinley has been the Lead Pastor at Guilford Baptist Church since 2005. He was sent by Capitol Hill Baptist to revitalize the church, which had 12 members and no pastor at the time. This book is his story of that replant.

The title, “Church Planting is for Wimps”, is an out-of-context phrase from a chapter comparing and contrasting church planting (starting brand new churches) and church revitalization (reviving spiritually dying churches). While I think McKinley has only a slight preference for revitalizing, the phrase was part of a joke describing the added difficulty in revitalization of cleaning up the bad parts of the church in addition to the expected building up. If you read the chapter, “So, How Does One Plant a Church?”, you will find that both paths have significant, unique challenges.

This book is as much a story as it is an advisory book for church (re)planting. Each chapter follows one story arc covering the revitalization of Guilford Baptist Church, from Capitol Hill’s desire to plant a church in the surrounding area, to the discovery of Guilford in Sterling, Virginia, to the actual work of replanting. Throughout the story, McKinley explains what he did and, sometimes, what he should have done and offers relevant advice.

McKinley has hidden some important teaching nuggets within this short book. In the first chapter, “Church Planting – Slightly Preferable to Unemployment”, McKinley, a self-described punk-rock fan who has a host of (hidden) tattoos, points out that having a church where everyone is of the same sub-culture (such as tattooed punk rockers) is guaranteed to not be a healthy church.

In John 13:35, Jesus tells us that the world will know we are his disciples because of our love for each other. But if we only hang out with people who are the same age, who like the same kind of music, and who share our taste and politics and preferences, how are we different from the world? Doesn’t every non-Christian you’ve ever known hang out with people who are just like him or her (Matt. 5:47)? (p 19)

Another teaching point dealt with his first course of action upon arrival. The state of the church building was devastating (described below). However, as he was advised by other pastors, he made it his first priority to preach the Word and shepherd the flock, and then dealt with the building. What the church needed most, as the book suggests, was not plumbing, but preaching.

McKinley included a chapter of utmost importance to all (married) church planters, “How to Ruin Everything.” In it, he describes the little troubles of his marriage which were exacerbated by stress of church planting. In confessional form, he calls all planters to actively guard their marriages.

In perhaps the greatest-named chapter of the book, “No Offense, but You’re Doing Everything Wrong,” McKinley teaches the importance of building up strong men, as the church grows, so that some can come on as elders and others can lead in other capacities. This, perhaps, is the most important teaching of the book because a solitary church planter will never be able to sustain a growing church alone.

My take on it

For someone who has an interest in church planting, I found the story quite engaging. I knew, obviously, it was going to be a success story, but I was intrigued to know just how things were going to work out.

The description of Guilford’s dying condition was astounding! Obviously, the spiritual decline was striking, but the building itself sounded like a terror. McKinley described it this way:

We then pulled into the church’s gravel parking lot with no gravel but only knee-high weeds… The carpet in the nursery area had an ominous brown stain, which went well with the cracked windows and mildewed walls… Someone had covered [the chapel’s] windows with dark red fiberglass inserts… [which] made the chapel look boarded-up from the outside and glow dark red on the inside, causing it to look just a little bit like hell. (pp 41-42)

I was surprised people were still meeting there!

The teaching interlaced throughout the book was helpful. What I most appreciated was the presentation of the material, every time, McKinley would bring the story to a crux and then demonstrate how a given teaching applied directly to his church’s situation.

Should you read it?

Probably.

If you are looking for a (purely) doctrinal book on church planting, or church health, then I do not recommend starting here. If you are seeking a how-to for church planting, then I’m sure there are better resources.

However, if you want to learn about healthy churches or church planting, but don’t yet have the level-of-interest required to read something like Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, then I definitely recommend this book. The interlacing of the story with teaching makes very readable for anyone. My mom, who’s not much of a reader, has even started reading it.

Either way, at 113 pages, I can assure you that it’s worth your time.

---

If my review has piqued your interest, you might enjoy this interview with Mike McKinley on the book:

TGC Reviews: "Church Planting is for Wimps" by Mike McKinley (from Crossway on Vimeo).