Planting by Pastoring: A Vision for Starting a Healthy Church

As churches rapidly expand, Christians risk viewing the church with an entrepreneurial mindset. Church planters can be tempted to fixate on gaining numbers and achieving financial stability as their only metrics for success. They fail to focus on lifting up Christ’s people within the church. In Planting by Pastoring, author Nathan Knight challenges our view of church planting and centers the goal of pastoral ministry on a basic biblical foundation: a church plant is in fact a church, and a planter is in fact a pastor. A healthy church plant is not measured by size, speed, or level of self-sufficiency but by good pastoring that produces faith, fruit, and a flourishing community. Once pastors and church leaders redefine their plant as a church, their ministry will begin to align with Jesus’s mission to shepherd the flock and bring glory to God alone.

Publisher: Crossway
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781433588112

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Nathan Knight (MDiv, Southeastern Theological Seminary) is a pastor of Restoration Church and serves on the lead team for the Treasuring Christ Together church planting network. He and his wife, Andi, live in Washington, DC, with their two sons.

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“This book is a long-expected and theologically compelling wake-up call for future planters and existing pastors to come back to the good old way of starting churches by taking care of souls. Here you’ll find provocative and passionate thoughts that make you value the godly and the biblical before the trendy and the flashy. I can personally attest that Knight’s teachings and stories mentioned here are not only real but heartfelt, as I’ve personally benefited from his living example and his pastoral leadership to treasure Jesus above everyone and everything. I hope you can also be encouraged to do so as you read this masterpiece.” Alejandro Molero, Pastor, Iglesia Biblica Sublime Gracia, Washington, DC