My Top 5 Recommendations for CPM reading

One of the things that has characterized my life is reading. One of WME's missionaries, Michael Goodnight, was here at our office this month, and we were talking about hobbies etc. I told him that my only hobby was reading. I am an inveterate reader.

But until fairly recently, there were not many books that would really explain CPM strategy, results, and theory. That is probably because most people involved in CPMs are active practitioners rather than academics. Thankfully, the dearth of literature about cpm is beginning to change and here are my top 5 recommendations for those who want to know more.

1. David Watson's blog: www.davidlwatson.org I want to start here because there is such a wealth of information here that you can launch from here to learn almost everything you want to know. David Watson is, I think, the leading practitioner, trainer, and mentor in CPM. His work 20 years ago with the Budjpuri in India was really foundational to CPM as we are working with it today.

2. David Garrison's blog: www.churchplantingmovements.com This website may actually be a better introductory portal for the person who knows nothing or next to nothing about what CPM is. Garrison is the author of both the booklet, "Church Planting Movements" 1999 (available for free download at his website) and the more extensive "Church Planting Movements" 2004 (available for purchase at his website). This website will cover a bit of a broader spectrum in terms of CPM. You may start here, but please go further.

3. Dave Hunt's 2009 doctoral dissertation: "A Revolution in Church Multiplication in East Africa". It is available for download at: http://www.davidlwatson.org/2010/07/23/a-revolution-in-church-multiplication-in-east-africa/

This is perhaps the most in depth study of cpm principles available. Highly recommended.

4. Neil Cole's books: Neil talks of Church Multiplication Movements. Some differences in approach from the above will be found, but this is very valuable reading. Here are the books I recommend: Organic Church, Organic Leadership, Church 3.0

5. Alan Hirsh books: Especially "The Forgotten Ways" Hirsch is a fascinating thinker and this book gives a larger Historical context for CPM and Missional movements. More properly belonging to the "Missional" category, it has much to say to the cpm strategy.

I challenge the readers of this blog, and the supporters of WME and the HCPM project to dig into these books and online resources. Doing so will give you a greater understanding of what we are doing in Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Comments

andrew said…
Having read all of the materials you recommended I totally agree with everything you said. I re-read Dave Hunt's dissertation today and it is BRILLIANT!! The principles and inspiration is all here. Now we just need to keep putting it into practice.

Andrew
Perth, Australia
November 4, 2010 at 5:06 AM
David Parish said…
Hi Andrew,
Sorry it took me so long to post your comments. I have been in Honduras the last week and just now getting back to blog work. I'd love to connect with you on facebook. Look for David Parish and my email dparish9@cs.com
November 18, 2010 at 10:43 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 Stages of a Disciple Making Movement

In this blog post, I want to introduce the reader to the 7 stages of a developing disciple making movement. Then in my next teaching post on this blog, I want to specifically focus on 1 of the stages that seems to be challenging to many practitioners of the dmm/cpm strategy.   These 7 stages are broad categories that encapsulate several of the Critical Elements of disciple making movements. If you check out several of my older posts from several years ago (especially from the first year of the blog 2008) you will find several blogposts that describe what we call Critical Elements.  (This series of blogposts from 2008 are entitled  "The Critical Elements","Critical Elements of a Church Planting Movement", "Passionate Extraordinary Prayer", "Authority of Scripture and Obedience", "Rain and the Holy Spirit", "Miracles", "The 1:8 Factor", "The Strategic Critical Elements", and finally "The Discipleship E
Read more

The Holy Spirit and Disciple Making Movements

Recently at the Disciple Making Movement leadership meeting in California, one of the main topics that we focused on was the Role of the Holy Spirit.  A key leader from West Africa led the discussion of this topic.  I remember being especially challenged by this study and by interactions with this leader.  He is a special friend who I have known since 2006, and his influence has touched me greatly.  In the last few weeks since the meeting, I have reflected, prayed, and begun to seek the influence of the Holy Spirit more than I had been doing in recent years.  Now I want to share some reflections on the role of the Holy Spirit in Disciple Making Movements (which may or may not reflect the discussions we had in California).  Regardless of where one stands theologically, it cannot be denied that those who focus attention on the Holy Spirit's activity have seen the launching of some of the largest "Movements" in the history of the Church.  Think of the Pentecostal/Charism
Read more

Non-Cessationist Sola Scriptura: The Theology of CPM

I believe in a theological position that I call Non-Cessationist Sola Scriptura. Sola Scriptura refers to the Reformation doctrine that means "Scripture Alone" and that asserts that the Bible alone, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are the only inspired Word of God and that they are the sole authority for God's people, flawlessly communicating God's will to mankind. The "Sola" or "Only" part asserts that nothing else does this or has this authority....Not Tradition, Magisterium, Hierarchy, Leaders, or Experiences from whatever source....ONLY SCRIPTURE! Non-Cessationist refers to the concept that God still is active in the world and in the lives of people today in overtly supernatural ways. It says that no activity of God, described in the Bible, has ceased just because that the Bible is now complete. It asserts that all of the gifts, operations, and manifestations of the Holy Spirit described in the Bible may continue to happen to the en
Read more