Following the Apostles’ Vision: For Disciple-making, Church-planting Movements
Peter Roennfeldt
Rome—then Spain. The vision of these places filled Paul’s mind during his stay in Corinth. Writing to the believers in Rome, Paul said that there was no place left for him to work in Asia (see Romans 15:23). He was looking ahead, excited to witness the message of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit exploding throughout Europe too.
But what did he mean? Surely, there were still new believers to disciple in Asia, plans to pursue, churches to counsel and strengthen? How could he move on?
Following the Apostles’ Vision examines the mission, message and methods of Paul and his ministry teams to discover more about how they worked. This third book in pastor and church-planter Peter Roennfeldt’s “Following . . .” series is a scholarly but easy-to-read study of the book of Acts and Paul’s epistles. He contends that four factors were important for the explosive growth of the early church: relationship-focused mission, home-based churches, mission hubs and movement vision. The book is broken into 16 study guides that explore these factors from the Bible, with stories from history and churches that are trying to put these principles into practice today.
The implications that Dr Roennfeldt draws from his study are disruptive to our conventional ways of thinking about church, discipleship and mission. However, he is not prescriptive, and questions at the end of each guide prompt the reader to make their own study of the Bible and to reflect on how to apply its principles in their local context.
Following the Apostles’ Vision provides a call to action for those who feel a sense of responsibility for discipleship and church growth to pray, study and wrestle with how to use biblical methods for mission today. After all, there is still work to do and places to go.
Lauren Webb is assistant book editor for Signs Publishing.
