David Sills critiques church planting movements in Chapter 7 of his book Reaching and Teaching: A Call to Great Commission Obedience. He addresses issues of pragmatism and rapidity, but one of his main points is that movements and revivals are acts of God and no one can force them into existence. He ends the section with, "[T]he…
Lance Quinn, an elder at The Anchor Bible Church in Redlands, California, writes a short review of Bob Roberts' book, The Multiplying Church: The New Math for Starting New Churches (2008, Zondervan), on the 9Marks website. While acknowledging a few good points, such as Roberts' strong desire to see society transformed for Christ, Quinn ultimately says that…
Andy Johnson, associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., wrote this excellent article on pragmatism in February 2010. Using David Garrison's CPM book as an example of a "pragmatic approach to missions," Johnson argues that pragmatism ultimately leads to liberalism. He encourages biblical faithfulness over results and raises a number of questions that challenge…
Ed Roberts, a church planter in Central Asia for over twenty years, critiques David Garrison's book Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World (2004, WIGTake). The critique includes issues of rapidity, pragmatism, and ecclesiology. The book review was written on July 25, 2009. Read it here.
In this article, Hoyt Lovelace (PhD, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary) critically examines several controversies over church planting movement (CPM) methodology. These controversies include: a rapidity requirementbiblical controversies:strategic problemsevangelistic problemsecclesiological problemsmissiological problemsa universal solution I'd say that this is one of the top articles critiquing Garrison-defined church planting movements. Perhaps the cheapest and easiest way to read this…
Greg Gilbert is the senior pastor at Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. This review of Garrison's book is one of the first critical resources written about church planting movements. Other resources have linked Gilbert's review to the 9Marks website, but for whatever reason, it is no longer on the 9Marks site. In terms of content,…