A couple thoughts on Paas’ church planting book. Might write more soon on Substack 1) Paas takes the wind out of the sails of dominant church planting narratives. With sound research and reasoning, he convincingly argues that the reasons Western evangelicals give to plant churches (more conversions, better at evangelism, etc) are myths. For example, church plants only tend to have higher growth rates than established churches when they are in communities experiencing population boom (this maps onto @ryanburge research). Otherwise, established churches tend to have higher growth rates than plants. 2) Paas also convincingly argues that church plants are only justified if they are innovating new models of missions from the margins. They should not merely repeate what is already being done in their community by someone else. 3) However, I think Paas may overstate his case, or at least neglect to consider the full picture. For example, Paas does not sufficiently evaluate whether diverse Christian expressions are actually better for a community. More importantly, he doesn’t acknowledge a standard by which we should discern healthy churches from unhealthy ones. We shouldn’t assume that indigenous or established churches are healthy, nor that they are positioned to reach their community, nor that they could be convinced to begin reaching their community with enough effort. Overall, an important contribution to church planting philosophies. Leaders of church planting movements would be wise to listen to his critiques and adjust narratives accordingly.