Reading Steve Addison's Book on Movements That Change the Word

August 22,

I am presently enjoying the reading of Steve Addison's book Movements that Change the World (Missional Press, 2009) and he lists 5 major qualities of a dynamic movement.

White-hot faith

Commitment to a Cause

Contagious relationships

Rapid mobilization

Adaptive methods

I am comparing his thinking about this with David Hesselgrave's previous study on Dynamic Religious Movements (Baker 1978) where Hesselgrave lists a number of factors in the last chapter called "What Causes Religious Movements to Grow?"

His first thought is "To be successful, any religious movement must be simultaneously 'of the culture' and 'not of the culture.'... By 'of the culture' I mean that to be widely accepted, a religious movement must be meaningful in terms of indigenous world views and values and traditional ways."

Then he further explains, "At the same time, each successful religious movement seems to represent some significant parting with that which is commonly believed and practiced within its culture." (p. 304).

I have discovered this to be true in effective church planting and above all in church planting movements.

Let's dialogue on this subject and see what you think...