Ed Olsworth-Peter and Dwight J. Zscheile (eds), The Starter’s Way: Leading New Contextual Christian Communities (New York: Church Publishing, 2025)

reviewed by James Butler

The Starter’s Way is written for those starting what the editors, Olsworth-Peters and Zscheile, have called “new contextual Christian communities”. While this name doesn’t roll off the tongue, I understand it to be an attempt to speak to a wide range of people who have a similar sense of calling. Focusing on the desire to respond to context when starting a new Christian community is a helpful way to encourage people to identify through what they have in common rather than through their differences, whether church planters, pioneers, leaders of fresh expressions or new monastics etc. Continuing this approach, the contributors to the book also represent a diversity of voices working with a variety of practices and approaches.

The book presents 15 principles which have been discerned as common across the practices of leading contextual churches, and are clustered in three groups. The first group, “Spiritual Foundations” identifies principles of Jesus-centred, life of prayer, calling, bicultural identity and responsive obedience. There are five inward qualities named in the second group as discerning, self-giving, playful, hospitable and resilient. Finally, five outwards practices of noticing, adapting, experimenting, co-creating and persisting make up the third group. Each of these principles forms a chapter in the book, written by a different contributor. The book is then topped and tailed by chapters introducing the book, and then drawing the ideas together in further thoughts and a conclusion.

The fact that many of the writers are practitioners gives an energy to the book, where ideas flow, and stories draw one’s attention. I found myself particularly enjoying the final section, where chapters on noticing and adapting offered some helpful wisdom developed in practice, and the chapters on experimenting and co-creating were both inspiring and practical. Each chapter ends with “five things to consider” which helps the reader to identify ways to think about the principle more deeply, to put the principle into practice and to reflect on their current practice in light of the principle. There was some gold within these “five things”, and I wondered whether some chapters would benefit from being much more focused towards them. The 15 principles are offered as a helpful framework, rather than any sort of model or approach. This is particularly drawn out in the introduction, final thoughts and conclusion which do a reasonable job of drawing together a huge variety of approaches, ideas and insights.

As might be expected from a volume such as this, some chapters work better than others, and the framing given by Olsworth-Peter and Zscheile isn’t always easy to hang onto when reading through the book. My biggest issue with the book is that there are almost too many ideas, suggestions, quotes and stories. While this is real plus, providing plenty of ideas to inspire and help one’s own practice, the negative is that it doesn’t always flow when reading it. I can’t help wondering whether it has slightly fallen in a gap between a theological account of these principles and a practical handbook. I realise that my perspective as a teacher and trainer before I’m a pioneer practitioner might shape the way I read this book, and I would certainly be interested to hear how those involved in pioneering and church planting day in, day out find it. I do wonder whether there is a way this could be streamlined to really play into that strength of its practical perspective. That being said, I can still happily recommend it as a book which has offered a helpful framework which I’m sure I will return to. There is a wealth of ideas and practices, and some really helpful chapters opening up ideas which are less commonly encouraged and reflected on. (Harvey Kwiyani’s chapter on bicultural identity particularly comes to mind.) What I can really get on board with about this book, and why I think it is a valuable contribution to reflections on pioneering and church planting, is the way it moves away from presenting particular modules towards encouraging principles focused on practices, postures and spirituality – in the words of the book, moving from a focus on doing to a focus on being.

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