New Website and Book—Church Still Works!

By Cary Schmidt | June 23, 2009

One of the Most Important Books I’ve Ever Read!

Striving Together Publications is happy to announce the new book Church Still Works from Paul Chappell and Clay Reed—available July 13! (And sooner for Amazon Kindle.)

This is one book every Christian and local church leader should read and re-read. It is fascinating, encouraging, biblical, and challenging. Clay Reed, from Global Church Planters, teamed up with Dr. Paul Chappell to outsource a nationwide survey of independent Baptist churches. The survey was unbiased, covered all groups of independent Baptists, and was conducted by an independent organization. The results were amazing!

When I clicked open the first draft of this book on an airplane several months ago, I was riveted in the first few moments. It literally held me hostage. It has three sections which you can read about on the website listed below. (Or click on the photo above.) From the first page to the last, it is encouraging, enlightening, and practical. It was a great privilege to work with Pastor Chappell and Clay Reed on the development of this project, and the early feedback we received from our review team was overwhelmingly positive.

Personally, I feel that this is one of the most important and exciting projects that Striving Together has ever released. It presents a powerful reminder that the Local Church still works just as God intends. It is a clarion call to return to church planting and local church ministry, with the solid data to substantiate the title. It is written with a spirit of encouragement and a solid philosophy of ministry. And it clearly refutes the doomsday evangelical authors who claim that the local church (as an institution) is a dying proposition. This book will be tough to put down! And with every page, you will fall more in love with God’s original plan for the local church.

My favorite aspect of the book is the “Spotlighting Success” sections where we interviewed and highlighted young, healthy churches and church plants. The more amazing part of the story is that we could have filled the book with many more of these same stories from many other churches.

Now for the details: The book will be available in hardcover July 13. It’s up for pre-order now, and you will want to view the interview videos with the authors and see the website: www.churchstillworks.com. On the website you can read much more about the project, see sample graphs, and download a portion to read. The book will also be available for the Amazon Kindle very soon.

It is our prayer that this project will challenge a generation to reignite a fervor for planting and establishing healthy churches in America!

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