There is a culture shift taking place around the way people are approaching church planting.

The author Stuart Robinson refers to the term "fresh expressions". The term is used to describe new ways of reaching the community with the gospel. New church communities are now gathering together in coffee shops, on the beach, in playgroups, in parks, in pubs, in homes, or on sporting fields.

This book will challenge your thinking of what it means to meet with the local church. It is a work book that will guide you to establish goals and determine how to build bridges with the local community.

When setting out to begin a new church community the author believes it is vital to have a "core team". The core team are long-time Christians who will become partners in establishing the new church plant. They will share the burden of growing the church through prayer, outreach and shepherding the new community of God's people. Stuart Robinson gives his own list of the qualities to look for when approaching people to join your core team.

There are so many opportunities for sharing the gospel in the local community that it is easy to become overwhelmed. In order to provide the church planting team a clear direction it is wise to have goals with purpose. This workbook will take you step by step to achieve this. Each chapter has a series of questions to challenge the church plant team as they picture their new church community.

By the end of this book the core team will have written a Ministry Profile and developed a Mission Action Plan.

The Ministry Profile is a paragraph that describes what kinds of people the church plant hopes to reach and how it will go about achieving this. The work book will guide your core team towards developing concrete answers for why they seek to meet, who they want to reach and how they will achieve their goals.

The Ministry Action Plan is a map for the future. It provides direction and keeps people working together with a common purpose. It helps the core team to bond together as a united people moving together in the same direction.

Church planting is largely experimental. Each one is unique. Some church plants don't last. Stuart Robinson gives a warning that church planting is "hard exacting work." This is why it is important for each core team to have a strong support base.

It can be rewarding if you go into it prepared. This book will help an enthusiastic core of people to prepare well for the journey ahead.

The author states that a church plant is more likely to work well if the pioneer minister has the following types of support:

- Prayer support (and accountability) from a sending body.

- Has been trained in disciple making, recruiting/deploying leaders and the formulation of a mission plan.

- Receive ongoing "coaching' from a senior "planter' or an external consultant.

- Have themselves experienced a church plant in action and have some sense of what to expect

- Have initial financial support from the sending body or from a support base such as friends and relatives.

- Have demonstrated resilience and creativity in ministry.

Of course all of the above may be desirable, however, I am certain there has been many a church plant that began its ministry without all of the above factors.

Some may think setting goals squashes enthusiasm. I think the book guides a team to be responsible to the people they plan to minister to. If there isn't a plan there is a risk there will be conflicting goals. A strategy as outlined in this book helps keep people travelling in the same direction.

When I first got hold of this book I was looking forward to reading all about the author's experiences in church planting. There is very little shared on this topic. Instead he provides brief accounts of other innovative church plants in Australia. These stories give the reader a taste of what is possible. To think more broadly than just starting a Sunday morning meeting. The reader is encouraged to discover their own unique entry point into their local community.

At times I felt that some chapters of the book were too short. There could have been more substance and explanations given. For those who have prepared mission statements before this won't detract from achieving your task. For those who haven't it will seem quite a difficult task to complete.

As much as this book is about setting goals it is also heavily steeped in the need for prayer to allow God to inform all choices made. As a result it is recommended that people don't rush into starting their new church plant. Only after the team know exactly whom they are trying to reach and have all the structures in place should the new church community be launched. This could mean spending between 6 months to 2 years just in planning.

On finishing this book I was left wanting more. I wanted to know:  how to grow the church plant and keep the community of believers focussed; how to grow the family of God's people now that they are established; how to inspire new Christians to want to continue the mission of the church plant.

The author doesn't cover any of his own experiences in church planting, nor any details of the difficulties ahead. The only hint given is the comment that church planting is hard work. Maybe he doesn't wish to deter people from the mission of sharing the gospel so early on.

I would recommend this book to both those wishing to start a church plant and for existing church plants that may need to redefine their goals. Working through this book will build an atmosphere of excitement as the team talk through positive strategies of reaching people with the good news of the gospel.

This book makes starting a new church community manageable and is a great tool for those passionate about starting a fresh expression of church in their community.