Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that believes selling too many books can cause memory loss. I read that on page 57 in a medical journal on October 3, 1997 at 6:05pm.
Last week, I wrote about the way God raises up workers. If you didn’t read that article, you can access it at the end of this one.
One of the most revolutionary aspects of restoring God’s eternal purpose in our time is related to the matter of church planting. That is, the raising up of kingdom communities.
Some years ago I wrote a book on the subject of how organic expressions of the church – another term for the kinds of churches we see in our New Testament – begin, how they’re maintained, the diseases they face along with the treatments, etc.
The book (which was entitled Finding Organic Church) wasn’t arm-chair philosophy. All that I wrote came out decades of experience.
The first part of the book, however, was dedicated exclusively to the four ways in which ekklesias (kingdom communities) were raised up in the first century and how those four ways can be recovered today.
The book also contains a table comparing “restoration” vs. “revolution.”
Since the book released in 2009, it has ignited the hearts of many young people who are called to God’s work, including those currently serving as pastors, giving them a different path forward.
For the first time, the publisher took the first part of the book which deals specifically with organic church planting, that is, apostolic ministry, and turned it into a stand-alone work.
The stand-alone work is called Organic Church Planting.
It could have just as easily been entitled Restoring Apostolic Ministry.
And I’m giving it to all of my readers gratis in PDF.
GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD ORGANIC CHURCH PLANTING (GRATIS)
By the way, if you are someone who is 40 or older, please share it with any leaders you know in their 20s and 30s, including those who you believe have the call of God on their lives. I wrote this book for ALL Christians who are interested in New Testament church life, but especially for the next generation of Christian workers.
The future of the revolution hangs on that generation.
See also (related):
When Giants Walked the Earth (The Real Apostolic Succession)
Rethinking Church Planting and Apostles
P.S. If someone wanted to change your life and zealously forced this blog post on you, you can appease them and subscribe here. It’s gratis and comes with a dozen Super Fire Hot Wings … the kind you can only eat after you sign a set of release forms. (No lemon suckers please. They won’t understand the humor.)
MIC FULLER
Hi Frank, I just finished reading this and found it very helpful, but I was wondering where to find “part 3” that is mentioned in the last chapter of it. Also, I noticed that it jumped from chapter 6 to chapter 24 at the end. I’m thankful every day for your insights and heart for Christ!
Frank Viola
Hmmm … It’s Part 3 of an entire book. I’m pretty sure that’s stated in the PDF and on the article page itself. The whole book can be purchased at frankviola.org/foc
Also, the target audience of both the book and the free PDG are gifted Christians in their 20s and 30s. So please pass it on to those in that age range whom you know. It’s for the next generation of those who called to God’s work.
Grace
Thank you so much for this! Writing like this really helps me to appreciate the hard work that you and others like you go through to build the Body of Christ up and makes the Bible read less like a fairy tale and more like the breathing reality it is. All of your work helps me in that way, actually. I will definitely buy and read the rest of this book when I get a chance! Thanks again!
Steve Pokorny
Hi Frank, thank you for all of the great books and emails. Just wanted to let you know that I could not download the PDF from your email, I got a scary security warning not to allow the download. Since I was on this page to let you know about this, I was able to download the book, without the warning, from this page. Sincerely, SteveP.
Frank Viola
Ignore that. It’s on your end. Everyone else has downloaded it fine. The site is perfectly safe.
Craig
Thank you for providing this free resource. I’m 35 and feel called. I just finished the book and it’s amazing.
Jeremy
Lead pastor here in my 30s. I really appreciate this. Read the first two chapters and wow! Loved last week’s article on workers.
Landon
This is revolutionary! Thanks so much!
Linda L Hoenigsberg
Thanks for this pdf! I’m going to send it to my grandson, who desires to go to a Christian Bible College and follow a traditional route.