Tag Archives: Case studies

The lost history of Christianity

Philip Jenkins of Next Christendom fame has a new book coming next October.
Here’s a preview. . .
The Lost History of Christianity will change how we understand Christian and world history. Philip Jenkins reveals a vast Christian world to the east of the Roman Empire and how the earliest, most influential churches of the East—those that [...]

Ministry training at Hope Chapel

There’s a board at Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay that lists just some of the churches that have been planted out of that church. How do they do it?
Ralph Moore uses a baseball image to describe the difference between success and failure. Success requires:
1. A willingness to learn from mistakes.
2. Lots of chances to swing the [...]

Where it all began. . .

Ralph Moore was 25 years old when he planted the first Hope Chapel in Manhattan Beach, California. It was 1972. He had no guaranteed income, a car with 154,000 miles on the clock, a wife and infant son. He had short hair and wore a three piece suit at a time where everyone else had [...]

Lessons from a church planting movement

All we know how to do is make disciples but now we have 700 churches.
Ralph Moore
There is a scarcity of dynamic church planting movements in the Western world. That’s why Ralph Moore and the Hope Chapel movement got my attention. Not only have they planted around 700 churches in since 1972, but many of [...]

The fundamentalist delusion

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser;
a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Here’s Richard Dawkins, sword flailing, mowing down his foes — [...]

Wilson Carlile and the Church Army

This week I’m in Sydney speaking at the national conference of the Church Army Australia on movements.
I did some research on the Church Army and their founder Wilson Carlile. An inspiring tale.
Carlile left school at fourteen to make his fortune which he did by the time he was twenty six. Then came the depression of [...]

First there was the pdf, then the book, now the movie. . .

The remarkable story of how the Southern Baptists are fueling indigenous church planting movements around the world.

Make sure you get the free pdf and buy the book here.

Christianity moves southChurch Planting Movements

10 questions for Gary Hourigan

Recently caught up with Gary Hourigan at the next1000 Summit. Gary’s learning about church planting movements by doing it. So he seemed a good candidate for 10 Questions. . .

1. What’s your background?

Back in 1983 my wife Terri and I were feeling the pressures of life. She met an old friend who invited her to [...]

A church planting movement stalls

Martin Robinson’s account of the rise and fall of a national church planting movement in Britain: What happened? and Why?.
BTW no photo of Martin this time as I’m sure it’s bad luck to have three bald guys in a row. Four counting Bozo the clown.

Church Planting MovementsMartin Robinson

Trouble in the Chapel

Christianity Today is carrying a disturbing report of deep rooted and systemic problems within the Calvary Chapel movement founded by Chuck Smith.
See: Day of Reckoning: Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel face an uncertain future.
According to CT a once dynamic church planting movement of over 1000 churches is in serious trouble. Why? Sounds like the misuse [...]