Review: Pathways to Partnership: How You and Your Church Can Join the Replanting Movement

Bob Bickford and Mark Hallock
(Acoma Press, 2018)

Anyone who has been involved in replanting a church knows it’s not a ministry any person—or any church— should try alone. It’s intense ministry, not for the faint of heart. In their book, Pathways to Partnership, Bob Bickford and Mark Hallock, provide the tools necessary to make sure no replants need to do that. The book not only lays out a bold and biblical vision for the value of partnership, but it also presents an extremely practical plan for how to make the partnership work.

“More and more churches are choosing to pursue this kind of intentional, kingdom-minded partnership with congregations in need,” Bickford and Hallock write. “As a result, many once-dying churches are now becoming healthy again, engaging their communities and reaching the lost with the power of Christ in new ways. This is the power of partnership!”

Written to both potential partners and replanters, the book centers on four areas of this important relationship: foundations for partnership, defining the relationship, creating thriving partnerships, and developing a roadmap for making the partnership happen. The book is presented in a clear, actionable manner that helps established church leaders and replanters know exactly what to do to make these partnerships work. The book also walks you through developing a covenant to formalize your new partnerships (and includes a template to help you get started).

Pathways to Partnership is an idea-rich book for replanting teams and established church leadership teams to read through together as they work toward developing meaningful partnerships. Each section of the book includes discussion questions for both replanters and established churches. Every replanter and every partner should read and act upon the wisdom of this book before getting started.