Grow Where You're Planted: Collected Stories on the Hallmarks of Maturing Church

by Daniel Steigerwald, Kelly Crull (Editor)

Missional communities, whatever form they take, face the challenge of growing up. But too often leaders either invest too little in ecclesial development, or they try to copy the growth metrics of other churches or communities that are “successful.” In Grow Where You’re Planted, the authors describe a set of hallmarks common to maturing churches that can be used by any missional community to discern their unique plan for growth. And the book is actually based around individual stories of how various Christian Associates’ projects and partner churches are each wrestling around a given hallmark to aid their own maturing. It takes discernment and intentionality to foster church health and maturing, and this book provides some rails on which those can ride to help missional communities grow up to be all that God intends them to be.

302 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2013

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle is ‘Collected stories on the hallmarks of maturing church’ - and that’s essentially what it is. It begins by being - I felt - a little too prescriptive about what church leaders should expect to see if their congregation is not to drift. But this is explained in a reasonable enough way, with anecdotes and Biblical wisdom, as an important way of helping believers grow both as individuals and as a body.

Each chapter then looks at one of the broad aspects of maturing church which are outlined at the beginning, so as to give a flavour of what is meant. Examples are: being rooted and connected for growth, cultivating missional hearts, living in communal generosity, discipleship as sacramental living. There are several more. They all seem to be a good idea, in general terms, and something which most thinking bodies of believers would probably strive towards, and I’m always leery of anything ‘measurable’.

Still, each chapter contained some interesting insights and anecdotes which brought the principles alive, even though, after reading, I didn’t always distinguish the supposed different hallmarks. I learned about a wide variety of Christian communities, from small groups meeting in homes to explore a vision through to long-standing larger church bodies. There was little about the structure of the weekly services, much about principles of leadership and guidance.

At times I found it a bit over-wordy and general, and could not read more than a few pages at a time without having to pause to think. However, I’m not the target audience: I’m neither a church planter nor a leader, and have no aspirations towards either. I could see that there were some good ideas in the book, and that it would be good for church leaders to ponder and discuss some of the ideas expounded.