A New Kind of Big: How Churches of Any Size Can Partner to Transform Communities.
By Chip Sweney and Kitti Murray. Baker Books, 192 pp., $16.99.
Reviewed by Sally Carlson (FASTEN staff)
Atlanta sits ranked as one of the tops cities in the nation for sex trafficking. This staggering fact,
along with many others, was one of the realities that Chip Sweney and his home congregation
considered as they pondered the ways that their church could address needs in its local
community. How does one church tackle a gargantuan problem such as sex trafficking – not to
mention the many other issues plaguing the city? Chip Sweney’s answer: one church doesn’t.
In A New Kind of Big, Chip Sweney and Kitti Murray chronicle the story of how Perimeter
Church near Atlanta, Georgia took its focus outward and began a movement of transformation in
the city of Atlanta by partnering with other churches and organizations in the area. The authors
propose that this book is for ministry leaders who began their work with big dreams that have
since dwindled. In this call to churches, Chip and Kitti attempt to reignite a vision for dreaming
big and transforming our communities through the power of the body of Christ in the local
church. In twelve chapters, Sweney and Murray outline some of the key lessons that Perimeter
Church and the greater body of churches in Atlanta learned as they partnered together to bring the
Kingdom of God to the “least and lost” of their communities.
This book follows the development of Perimeter Church’s Community Outreach department and
Unite!, the partnership of local churches in Atlanta focused on community outreach. Perimeter
Church was ignited with passion for its local community when the head pastor, Randy Pope,
presented the congregation with the equation of a healthy church: “head (theology) + heart
(passion) + hand (external ministry).” Pope, already encouraged by his church’s theology and
passion, urged his congregation to begin taking steps to make sustainable change in areas of need
in their local communities. The congregation, led by individuals such as Sweney, took this
charge seriously and developed a Mercy Ministry Task Force, which eventually led to a
Community Development department in the church. This passion also led members to start
Unite!, a partnership of churches in Atlanta, as they realized that the issues in the city were too
large and extensive to be addressed by one church, even if it is a megachurch.
The key ideas in the book boil down to a few main points. As Sweney and Murray demonstrate,
the stories of Perimeter Church and Unite! display the importance of devoting a portion of the
church’s resources to community efforts, developing and executing a dream, building
relationships and partnering with other churches and organization, and realizing and measuring
effective transformation. And though these are some of the main points that readers can take
away from the book, it also notes many other useful details within its pages.
One of the first major lessons within the pages of this book is that no matter how large a church is
the leaders and congregation must be willing to devote resources to the cause of the local
community. For some large churches, like Perimeter, this means creating an entire department
devoted to community engagement; for other churches, this might mean gathering a group of layleaders to head up the effort. The specific decisions are particular to each individual church and
its situation, but the general principle is important for any church wishing to engage its local
community.
Another key lesson presented in the story of Perimeter is that of developing and executing a
dream. Sweney and Murray emphasize the need to decide where you are going first, and then to
figure out the necessary steps one needs to take to get there. As is the case for Perimeter, this
process can take time, but is important for being effective leaders in community transformation.
Throughout the book, Sweney and Murray stress one point most often: one church cannot do it
alone, so the effort of community engagement must be done in relationship and in partnership
with other churches and organizations in the area. The importance of this point is emphasized in
several ways in the book, but the authors’ main argument is that a church, no matter how big or
small, can dream big dreams if it is willing to partner with others to accomplish the goal. The
book demonstrates how Unite! is a working manifestation of this principle. “On just one
weekend in 2007, six thousand volunteers from over sixty churches gathered to work on 250
service projects inside the twelve-mile radius around Perimeter Church. Thirty welcome baskets
were delivered to refugees, a dozen homes were repaired, a thousand Bible were given away, 750
‘encourage a teacher’ gift bags were distributed. And that’s not all. Volunteers orchestrated
twenty block parties in low-income apartment communities and sixty-five neighborhood food
drives that collected twenty-five-thousand pounds of food. The drama is in the impossibility of
the task.” Unite! calls this annual weekend Compassion in Action Weekend, and participation in
this project has continued to grow since its inception in 2003. One church cannot accomplish this
impact on its own, but through the partnership of many churches and organizations, dramatic
transformation can occur in response to even the most impossible problems.
Lastly, the book also highlights the specific ways in which community transformation actually
occurs, and it encourages churches to attempt to measure their impact. Sweney and Murray
explain that transformation in the community occurs when the church makes itself present in
many areas of culture including education, government, business, healthcare, etc. But the authors
also insist that when a church devotes itself to transformation of the community, its members
themselves will also be transformed. In one of the final chapters, the authors insist that
measuring the outcomes of one’s project is essential to having an effective vision.
This book is marked by its practicality and relevance, as problems in our communities seem to
increase and our perceived ability to address them decreases. Perimeter Church’s example is
inspirational and the authors help the reader to see how this situation is not unique to Atlanta.
After many of the chapters, Sweney and Murray insert profiles of other cities where the local
church has stepped outside of itself in order to transform its surrounding area for Christ.
Additionally, they end each chapter with questions based on the chapter topic for the readers to
ponder 1) their own church’s current situation, 2) a vision for what could be, 3) ideas for the first
steps for implementation, and 4) details of Perimeter’s experience. These highly practical chapter
conclusions help guide readers into a vision for how their church could also dream big and impact
their local communities.
The timely message presented in this book challenges the reader to think beyond the four walls of
one’s own church, and to begin envisioning ways in which local churches and organizations can
partner together to put an end to suffering and injustice. The book, though highly practical, came
to feel slightly redundant by the twelfth chapter. Many of the “take-away” points seemed to
reiterate the same point with little variation. However, despite its redundancy, A New Kind of
Big should encourage leaders and churches that dreaming big and envisioning dramatic
community transformation are not archaic practices.