I just finished Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch. My goal was to have this read by this past Tuesday so I could be one of the first to post a review of it (a review of the published copy, I’m not cool enough to get pre-pub copies for viewing).

For someone in my shoes getting ready to launch a church I think this book is very helpful. In my estimation Searcy’s great strength is systematically thinking and presenting step-by-step processes. But I’d also say this book is merely rehashing things I have mostly heard in his teaching seminars, etc. So if you have listened to his teaching for any length of time this will be very familiar stuff. But that said, this is a one stop shop that will prove extremely helpful.

So what’s in the book? Launch essentially sets out to present the logical flow from pre-launch to launch day to first year systems. But in my estimation there is probably value in the book even for those who are well into their plant and those in existing ministries.

The strengths of the book are it’s practical nuts-and-bolts approach. The authors describe their desire in this book to answer the “what would we have liked to have known when we started” question. And in an extremely accessible way they have done just that. It is chalked full of personal methods and systems that worked (and didn’t work) for them early on. This is surely one of the biggest strengths.

Another great strength is that it walks through those early days as if you are actually going to launch. It isn’t just a book of theories and arguments for the great need for Church Planting (and those books are important too). But for someone who is set on launching this book will serve as a tremendous resource that should be on every planters shelf and passed on and on to others.

There were some glaring weaknesses in the book. The biggest first, too often their particular methodological practice was presented as a norm and not just a description. That is, oftentimes things that worked for them were presented as the way to do things. One instance was their description of what should and should not be included on a website (there were many but I was more focused on learning from the book than chronicling shortcomings so I didn’t keep track). While their advice is helpful to frame it as a normative principle is a bit far reaching.

The other shortcoming that just ticks me off, I think because it was in Planting Missional Churches was having a link that didn’t actually have the resources it was supposed to. The biggest here was the constant and incessant placement of www.churchfromscratch.com which is, first off merely a tack on to their site church leader insights (that’s just annoying) but secondly the content promised (worksheets, and whatnot) are not actually present there. Or to say it differently, they are at the very least not easy to find once you are there (but my hunch is this is too generous and they just aren’t present).

What is the deal with books like this pulling this? If you are going to put a website in your book make sure the thing is active and the content promised is actually there. The good news, I guess, is it didn’t give you error messages like Stetzer’s book. Maybe I’m just being picky here, but this is unacceptable in my estimation. Create a stand alone site, plant the resources where you tell me they are going to be, and then whatever else you do to the site leave the resources there. If it’s your site you have control over this. For error messages to appear is unacceptable (this was Stetzer’s issue not Launch).

All in all this was a very handy book. I have bought into many of the ideas presented in the book. I will recommend it to others. If you’re a “church launcher” then run to the SM Amazon Store to purchase a copy.

Jason Allen blogs at Subverting Mediocrity.