For The City by Darrin Patrick and Matt Carter

For The City is written by two pastors of two very successful church plants that are involved with the Acts 29 Network. Darrin Patrick is the lead pastor of a multi-site church in St. Louis, Missouri called The Journey, and Matt Carter is the senior pastor of The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, which is also a multi-site church.

The book begins with a forward with Chris Tomlin, who I did not know help start The Austin Stone with Matt Carter, talking about how the cities are full of energy and culture, and that the church was God's plan A to reach our cities for Christ. God does not have any other plan. Then the question was asked in the preface of the book, what makes a great church? This is a question every Christian needs to answer and not just those in leadership position. Good preaching, good music, and well-run programs is not what defines a church, which there is nothing wrong with those, but a successful church is, as defined in the book, one in which Jesus Christ is found in word and deed.

In the first two chapters, each author talks about their call to plant a church that desires to reach their cities. The following chapters talk about how to be that church for the city. Darrin does a wonderful job talking about contextualizing the culture of that city to be an effective church in the city. Matt wrote an amazing chapter on suffering, which caught me by surprised, but I realized that to serve faithfully in the city and for the city, a church has to suffer. My favorite quote in that chapter is, "One of the most important things we as the church can show to our cities and our neighbors is how Christians suffer well, to the glory of God."

The end of the book deals with each pastor talking about the mistakes they have made as church planters. Every church leader, whether in church plant or an already existing church, needs to read that chapter to learn from those mistakes and ask God, which one am I making or where is somewhere I need to grow as a leader.

This was one of my favorite books to read this year. I was excited to be part of this blog tour because Darrin and Matt are two of my favorite Bible teachers. Every church leader needs to read this book, and ask themselves this question, is my church great or is it just there?

Thanks Zondervan for letting me review this book.