A New Kind of Big

How Churches of Any Size Can Partner to Transform Communities

Chip Sweney, Kitti Murray

• Publisher: Baker Books
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN:
  9781441214607
• Topic: Theology & Religion

There's a growing desire among believers to reach beyond the walls of their churches to impact communities for God. But when the average church size hovers around 150 members and the problems of even midsized cities seem insurmountable, how can we hope to make a difference?

A New Kind of Big tells the inspiring story of how Perimeter Church in suburban Atlanta started a partnership called Unite! with other area churches in order to increase its reach in a community that desperately needed God's light and aid. This partnership has grown to a network of nearly 150 churches that are bringing kingdom transformation to Atlanta. For instance, on just one weekend in 2007, 6,000 volunteers from over 60 churches in metro Atlanta gathered to work on 250 service projects inside the ten-mile radius around Perimeter Church. Thirty welcome baskets were delivered to refugees, a dozen homes were repaired, a thousand Bibles were given away, 750 "encourage a teacher" gift bags were distributed. And that's not all: volunteers orchestrated 20 block parties in low-income apartment communities and 65 neighborhood food drives that collected 25,000 pounds of food.

Chip Sweney shows Christian leaders how they too can discover the power of this "new kind of big" to pool their resources, energy, and time to minister to their communities, no matter how long or short their membership rolls.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• 1 A New Kind of Big Are You Ready to Dream Big Again?
• 2 Turning Our Hearts Inside Out First Steps toward Becoming a Church of Influence
• CITYSCAPE Community Transformation on the Horizon
• 3 Big Questions with Big Answers Where Are We Going?
• CITYSCAPE New York City: Lessons about Prayer from the Big Apple
• 4 Diagram of a Dream Inventing the Wheel
• CITYSCAPE A Boundaryless City: The Friendship Factor
• 5 The Epic Becomes Us Education, Poverty, Family, Justice
• 6 The Human Chain Developing Community Partnerships
• CITYSCAPE Long Beach: The Church as a Catalyst
• 7 Transformation It Works Both Ways
• CITYSCAPE Little Rock: New Paradigms in Structure
• 8 Unity But First We Experienced a Split
• 9 We Have Liftoff The First Compassion in Action Weekend
• CITYSCAPE Knoxville: Doing Our Homework
• 10 Orbit Launching Christians into Channels of Influence
• CITYSCAPE Atlanta: Big Starts Small
• 11 Measuring Success Preparing the Thanksgiving Feast
• 12 Making Music The Song Swells as We Partner with Others
• Appendix 1 Community Outreach How Perimeter Church Developed Its Community Outreach Department (2002)
• Appendix 2 Unite! Creating an Ongoing Movement
• Appendix 3 A Study of Duluth Project Overview
• Appendix 4 Community Research A Relational, Asset-Based Approach
• Notes
• About the Author