A Word Before We Begin
The neighborhood became background.
"A setting, not a calling. A place they happened to lead a church, not a place they had been sent to love." [cite: 11]
"There is a kind of fog that settles over pastoral ministry... it's a fog of proximity. You are so close to the people inside your church that the people outside it have become invisible." [cite: 27]
"It happens slowly. In the early years, you probably noticed everything... Then the work caught up with you. The meetings multiplied. The Sunday preparation cycle became relentless." [cite: 28, 31, 32]
"This book is about clearing that fog." [cite: 35]
"Communities change in the slow, deep way that an oak tree changes a yard."
Planted is not a program. It is a practice of 13 chapters designed to move you through three actions: seeing your place, reading your community, and acting from where you've been planted. [cite: 24, 67]
Walk your neighborhood [cite: 25, 68]
Audit your congregation [cite: 25, 68]
Launch a 90-day experiment [cite: 25, 68]
Become a Founding Reader.
I wrote this book because I believe deep change is possible for you and your ordinary ZIP code. [cite: 65, 66] I’m looking for 500 leaders to read the first draft and tell me what clears the fog for them.
Only 88 founding reader slots remain.