Mez McConnell - Church In Hard Places: How The Local Church Brings Life To The Poor And Needy

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Two pastors from opposite sides of the Atlantic come together to share their stories of pastoring people in hard places. Mike McKinley and Mez McConnell care about what the Bible says, they care about people, and they care about the local church. Their stories communicate love, joy, humor, and wisdom. I pray that this convincing and compelling book encourages others to labor for the spread of the gospel where today there is no witness.

Mark Dever, Senior Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, DC; President, 9Marks

Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley have written a book that we need. Church in Hard Places is timely and will instruct a generation serious about taking the gospel to and seeing the church planted in difficult contexts and situations. Those with the highest views of God and grace ought to be most passionate about seeing the church gathered in the hardest places. Mez and Mike spur us on to this task.

J. Ligon Duncan III, Chancellor and CEO, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi

McConnell and McKinley have done us a great service in collaborating to write this accessible, passionate, and important book. Seldom have I read something with such a mixture of gospel ambition and hard-nosed realism. Thats probably because it is written by practitioners rather than theorists. May God grant a plethora of such practitioners to be birthed by this book for the vital task of reaching those neither easily nor often reached.

Steve Timmis, Executive Director, Acts 29 Church Planting Network

Finallya book on this vital aspect of the gospel mission that is Bible-rich, gospel-centered, and church-focused! And its written for the average Christian by two guys with skin in the game. Church in Hard Places is a gift to the church.

Jared C. Wilson, Director of Content Strategy, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

If your heart is moved with compassion for the weak and the suffering in the world, then you will want to pick up this book. But I must warn you, its not the book you think youre getting. Instead, its the very book you need to read. Mike McKinley and Mez McConnell argue that while it is heartless to ignore the needs of the weak and suffering, the greatest need they have is the same need we all haveto turn away from sin, embrace Christ, and grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ in a healthy fellowship of believers committed to one another under the faithful leadership of caring pastors who will equip the church for ongoing ministry. Apart from that, we are merely meeting temporal needs and offering no hope for a changed life now.

Juan R. Sanchez Jr., Senior Pastor, High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin, Texas

Other 9Marks Books

The Compelling Community: Where Gods Power Makes a Church Attractive, Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop (2015)

The Pastor and Counseling: The Basics of Shepherding Members in Need, Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju (2015)

Why Trust the Bible?, Greg Gilbert (2015)

Who Is Jesus?, Greg Gilbert (2015)

Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 3rd edition, Mark Dever (2013)

Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons, Thabiti M. Anyabwile (2012)

Am I Really a Christian?, Mike McKinley (2011)

What Is the Gospel?, Greg Gilbert (2010)

Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry, Michael Lawrence (2010)

ChurchPlanting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-up People to PlantOrdinaryChurches That Do Extraordinary Things, Mike McKinley (2010)

It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement, Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence (2010)

What Does God Want of Us Anyway? A Quick Overview of the Whole Bible, Mark Dever (2010)

The Church and the Surprising Offense of Gods Love: Reintroducing theDoctrinesof Church Membership and Discipline, Jonathan Leeman (2010)

What Is a Healthy Church Member?, Thabiti M. Anyabwile (2008)

12 Challenges Churches Face, Mark Dever (2008)

The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Mark Dever (2007)

What Is a Healthy Church?, Mark Dever (2007)

Building Healthy Churches

Edited by Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman

Church Elders: How to Shepherd Gods People Like Jesus, Jeramie Rinne (2014)

Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus, J. Mack Stiles (2014)

Expositional Preaching: How We Speak Gods Word Today, David R. Helm (2014)

The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ, Ray Ortlund (2014)

Sound Doctrine: How a Church Grows in the Love and Holiness of God, Bobby Jamieson (2013)

Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus, Jonathan Leeman (2012)

Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, Jonathan Leeman (2012)

CHURCH IN HARD PLACES

How the Local Church Brings Life to the Poor and Needy

Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley

Foreword by
Brian Fikkert

Church in Hard Places: How the Local Church Brings Life to the Poor and Needy

Copyright 2016 by Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover Design: Mark Davis

Image Rights: Open Street Maps, Open Street Map contributors, OpenStreetMap.org

First printing 2016

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4904-5
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4907-6
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4905-2
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4906-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McConnell, Mez.

Church in hard places : how the local church brings life to the poor and needy / Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley.

1 online resource. (9Marks Books)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4335-4905-2 (pdf) -- ISBN 978-1-4335-4906-9 (mobi) -- ISBN 978-1-4335-4907-6 (epub) -- ISBN 978-1-4335-4904-5 (tp)

1. Church work with the poor. 2. City churches. I. Title.

BV639.P6

261.8'325dc 23 2015027062