The Honest Guide to Church Planting

What No One Ever Tells You about Planting and Leading a New Church

By: Tom Bennardo, Larry Osborne - introduction

Narrated by: Tom Bennardo, Gabe Wicks

Church planting has become a cottage industry. National conferences, hip planting organizations, and all-in-one resource kits celebrate the thrill of pioneering a church and inspire visions of glorious victories. Yet few who respond to the call are warned what they’ll actually encounter: the relentless opposition they’ll endure; the eventual scattering of their entire core group; the failure of their tried-and-true, field-tested system.

Here’s the dirty little secret of church planting: the roadside is strewn with casualties. Many have closed their churches. Some left ministry permanently. Others abandoned the faith altogether.

Church planting is at once the greatest and most grueling ministry work on earth. This audiobook is for those toiling in the trenches, those about to bail out, and those considering jumping in. It’s for the church planters laboring and struggling, seeing little movement, and wondering what they’re doing wrong or why God is failing them. It’s also for mother churches, planting organizations, and denominations, as a challenge to rethink and re-calibrate the way they approach and measure planting endeavors.

The Honest Guide to Church Planting is a fresh and candid conversation about the challenges and joys of planting new churches. Tom Bennardo speaks the truth so that those involved in church planting can embrace a more accurate and realistic picture of what planting a church is really like; one that not only enables them to survive, but to thrive in this wondrous work.

Best book I’ve read on Church Planting!

Wow! I wish I had this book when I had started church planting 10 years ago. So good!

Bold and Eye-opening Read!

This has to be one of my favorite reads, not so much for church planting as is for leadership period! I love the bold and unashamed in-your-facedness of the author to relay such foundational truths to the reader! Thank you and God bless!

I appreciate the author's candidness on the topic

like I said I appreciate the author's candidness on the topic, but there was little information more of his story and opinion

Authentic

It is refreshing to hear someone be honest about church planting. The most important thing that Tom mentions is know your heart and for who and what you are doing this for. While other books map out an overgeneralized "plan, Tom is able to address the emotions (highs and lows) and the need to create a network outside your circle to provide a footing when things will assuredly go different than you expect. If church planing is on your heart, read this. If you are in the trenches already, read this. It will strengthen your resolve while affirming your fears and hurts.

Not “Pie in the sky” but needed Honesty

I thought this book was excellent. It doubled down on being authentic but also gives needed encouragement and realism to those who are planting churches or who are considering it. Church planting can sometimes be presented in a very idealistic manner. I think this book balances vision with maturity. I believe this book could serve as a helpful reminder if we read once yearly