11) The BackPage: Tracking the Growth of Church Planting Movements

Lately, I’ve become interested in learning more about the growth of Church Planting Movements (CPMs). For example, I wrote an acquaintance who does research for one of the largest mission organizations, asking him about the characteristics of one of the church-planting movements I was studying. He had firsthand knowledge. I won’t tell you the country or the exact information, of course, because it’s a sensitive land. But in his response, he included this paragraph:

“CPMs appear to plateau or stall out but not because they actually do. They are like a grass fire. They spead very quickly from where you touch them off and the further out they get, the slower from your perspective they appear to be advancing. Then, when the fire expands beyound your horizon (awareness) you don’t see growth at all. But you may see birds flying and animals running toward you.” (We appreciate you Jim!)

See, this kind of thing is of interest to me because we might be able to use these descriptions to help prepare church planters for various scenarios that they’ll face.

What are the best training tools you’ve found for pulling together these kinds of conclusions and characterizations? Have you come across any “killer” resource that most effectively documented CPM growth and development, through each major life stage? If so, would you be kind enough to go to the web version of this item, found at the link below, then click into the “Comment” line that follows it? Leave links, resources, workshops, books, whatever did the job for you. And thanks in advance for helping advance the cause!