Book Review: Launch by Nelson Searcy & Kerrick Thomas

4 STARS - Launch by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas is a very practical guide for anyone that is planning to start a church or is in the first few years of a church plant.  Nelson and Kerrick speak from experience as they share what they have learned through planting their church The Journey in New York City.

Here is why I give 4 Stars (out of 5 Stars) to this book:

Positives

1. Very Practical - written to be a field manual, it is low on theory and high on practical nuts and bolts that you can take and immediately put to use.
2. Good Balance of Inspiration & How-to - even though it is highly practical, Nelson and Kerrick still cover the important topics of identifying your calling to plant a church, the spiritual preparation and aspect of pastoring a church plant and the spiritual attacks you can expect to experience.  The book also inspires and encourages the reader to plant the church God has called you to and reinforces the point multiple times that God wants His church to grow, expand and multiply.
3. Comprehensive- It covers all the aspects of church planting including the following:  developing a strategy, raising funds, building a staff, planning your first service, gathering a launch team, servant evangelism & reaching people, and systems you need to put in place after launch.

Negatives

1. No Case Studies - while they do refer to their personal experience at The Journey frequently, they don't really incorporate any examples of other churches that have done what they talk about.  Several times they make broad statements about other churches or that their ideas are the norm but don't give many specific examples beyond The Journey.
2. Too Much Promotion of ChurchFromScratch.com - They shamelessly promote a website they setup (it's not even a standalone site, just an extension of Church Leader Insights.)  However, when you go to the site it's difficult to navigate and difficult to find the resources they refer to.  Several times in almost every chapter they refer to this site.  It almost feels like they're just trying to get the reader to stumble across Church Leader Insights without pointing the person directly to that site.
3. Rehash of Other Resources - If you're familiar with the other resources that Nelson Searcy and Church Leader Insights have available then you will already be familiar with most of the information they discuss. 

In closing I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to plant a church or that is in the process.  This book has been added to my library and I'll be recommending it to others. 

On a related note, if you have explored the resources available by Nelson Searcy at Church Leader Insights they are highly practical and very valuable.  We've used many of them at our church.  They are worth the investment.