Planting a Garden: Growing the Church Beyond Traditional Models
by Linda S. McCoy, Abingdon Press, 2005

Reviewed by Ann A. Michel, Associate Director, Lewis Center for Church Leadership

A decade ago, Linda S. McCoy, one of the pastors of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, set out to create a non-traditional worship experience to reach those turned off or turned out by traditional church. Her new book, Planting a Garden: Growing the Church Beyond Traditional Models, describes the process of forming an off-site satellite congregation. This ministry, called “The Garden,” attracts an average of six to seven hundred worshippers weekly to four services held in a dinner theater and a banquet facility. Autonomous in many ways, “The Garden” remains connected with its “mother church,” St. Luke’s.

Suggesting the need for a paradigm shift in congregational development, McCoy has much to say about a low threshold, “no prior experience necessary” approach to worship that intentionally incorporates the music, language, and symbols of popular culture. Those interested in the satellite or “church within a church” models of growth will also find much of interest. But Planting a Garden is less about the mechanics of these approaches than it is about what it takes to launch and sustain a new ministry. The book is a thoughtful, candid, first-hand reflection on a journey that began with inspiration but followed a deliberate course of research, collaborative planning, team building, marketing, communication, experimentation, evaluation, and readjustment.

The book does not convey the expectation that others could or should replicate “The Garden.” To succeed, says McCoy, new ministries must be authentic, adaptive, indigenously rooted, and flexible. But it would behoove any leader setting out on a similar journey to reap “The Garden’s” harvest and start at the same point -- a clear understanding of core theology and basic values.

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