City Shaped Churches
Planting Churches in a Global Era
Linda Bergquist & Michael D. Crane
Urban Loft Publishers | Skyforest, CA
City Shaped Churches: Planting Churches in a Global Era
Copyright 2018 by Linda Bergquist & Michael D. Crane.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of the book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher.
Urban Loft Publishers
P. O. Box 6
Skyforest, CA 92385
www.urbanloftpublishers.com
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.
Senior Editors: Kendi Howells Douglas & Stephen Burris
Cover Design: Elisabeth Arnold
Track Editor: Randy Lovejoy
Copy Editors: Reta Beall, Marla Black & Melissa Seng
ISBN: 978-0-9989177-8-8
Made in the U.S.
Dedications
To my sons, Jaden and Ian, who are part of the next generation to carry the torch.
--Michael D. Crane
To Francis Dubose who spent a lifetime breathing Christ into my city. See his poem, I Choose the City, on the following page.
--Linda Bergquist
I CHOOSE THE CITY
by Francis DuBose
I choose the city...
Not simply to live in it,
to see it,
to hear it;
But to touch it;
yes, to embrace it,
to hold it,
To feel the wild glory of its
pulsating soul,
To move over its wide,
hurried broadways,
To stand stilled and sobered
at the nowhere of its dead-end streets,
To be trapped with it in its
pain and problems,
To be at once chilled by its ill
and covered with its confetti.
I choose the city because I choose God,
Because I choose humanity,
Because I choose the divine-human
struggle--
The struggle which will be won
Not in the serene path through
meadow and wood,
among the bees and birds, and flowers,
But in the city street
Made by the hand of man
Through the gift of God--
Main Street: the final battle field,
The scene of the ultimate struggle,
Where man chooses right
Because he is free to choose wrong.
Babylon, dirty and daring--
Babylon, yes--
Babylon today--
Tomorrow...
The New Jerusalem!
From: Mystic on Main Street , Chapel Hill, NC: Professional Press, 1993, pp. 78-9.
Endorsements
With the decline of a Constantinian religious footprint in the West, many Christian leaders have resorted to a defensive posture of a familiar yet decreasingly effective missiology. As the West grows more urban and diverse, missionary-planters are finding that they cannot maintain ecclesiological constructs of a former era while honestly following Jesus in his heroic effort of rescuing lost sheep. Bergquist and Crane, from unique perspectives, challenge Christian leaders to reconsider their ideas of church by driving our Christology into the messiness of mission before we derive an ecclesiastical conclusion. This book will make you think, will make you uncomfortable, and hopefully will make you malleable for a missionary God who loves the city.
Jeff Christopherson, Chief Missiologist for North American
Mission Board & Co- Executive Director of the Send Institute,
Author of Kingdom First: Starting Churches that Shape Movements , and Kingdom Matrix: Designing Churches for the Kingdom of God .
Cities have always been an important aspect of human history. Today, however, they are much more than large population centers; they are strategic global hubs of information, finance, education, and technology. In their latest book, Linda Bergquist & Michael Crane provide an excellent resource to maneuver the complexity of today's cities. They not only present a solid theological foundation for the importance of cities, but they give the reader a helpful framework along with practical tools to engage in urban church planting. If you desire to plant a church in the context of a city, read this book before taking another step.
Brad Brisco, coauthor of Missional Essentials and
Next Door as It Is in Heaven
City Shaped Churches is an absolutely fascinating panoramic view of the world of church planting in diverse settings. A critical guidebook for both scholars & practitioners!
Zarat Y. Boyd, PhD, co-founder, Vertical Church Atlanta and
president, Vertical City, Inc.
Finally. A comprehensive study on all the ways that the city shapes church planting, and how church planting needs to be approached differently in light of the city context. Highly informative, yet practical, Linda and Michael have found an optimal balance between information and practice.
Daniel Im, author of No Silver Bullets and
Planting Missional Churches , Director of Church Multiplication
at NewChurches.com, and teaching pastor
Today, huge populations are moving into the world's cities. Some estimate that by 2050, 64% of people living in the Majority World will live in cities, and 86% of people living in the West. This opens tremendous challenges and opportunities. An obvious area of opportunity is church planting. The global church needs church planters who are passionate about cities, who love those who live in cities, and who have a vision for urban church planting. City Shaped Churches is the most thrilling book I've ever read on church panting. It offers an extraordinary vision, theology, and road map for planting churches in a global era.
Rev Dr Graham Hill, Provost, Morling College, Sydney,
Author of GlobalChurch
City Shaped Churches is written with Gods passion for cities. Reading it made me see again the importance of cities in Gods redemptive plan and the urgency for church-planting in the ever-growing cities of our world. The book is very well-researched and it is theologically so convincing and convicting, you come away seeing your city through new biblical lenses. The practical insights the book provides for potential and current church-planters are invaluable. It is a great manual for training and equipping.
Guna Raman , CEO of City to City Asia
Pacific. www.citytocityasiapacific.com,
Senior Pastor, Agape Baptist Church, Singapore
"Linda Bergquist is a living legend. She doesn't just read about people groups, she immerses herself among them, and the result is an intimate knowledge of the urban context. Bergquist shares the rare insights gained from an even rarer combination of being both scholar and explorer."
Peyton Jones, Author of Reaching the Unreached:
Becoming Raiders of the Lost Art, Church Zero: Raising 1st Century Churches out of the Ashes of the 21st Century Church , and The Ninja Church Planter: Rediscovering 1st Century Serial Church Planting in the 21st Century .
One of my church planting coaches once said, God didnt die for clear air and pine trees. He died for people, and most of them live in cities these days. Want to change the world? Move to the city! Linda Bergquist and Michael Crane gave up on good air and green trees long ago - and we are the better for it. To plant in urban areas is tough work. Success is a statistical long shot. These two know about facing the odds with an urban plant then finishing with success.
