AND

The Gathered and Scattered Church

AND, by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, asks and provides an answer for one of the most important questions for church leaders today: What is happening to the church in America? By all appearances, it looks like we are ‘doing’ church better than we ever have. In the past thirty years the number of mega-churches has increased from under 100 to over 7,500. In the past ten years the number of multi-site churches has increased from under 100 to over 2,000. By the numbers, these church movements enjoy the national platform, the national voice, and the resources to profoundly impact the Kingdom. In spite of the rapid growth of these prevailing church movements, why is the Western church still in massive decline? Numerous books have been written documenting the flight of members from the institutional church. This is not another book about how to do church better or how to just get people back into the pews. AND helps you—whether you are a mega-church, traditional, contemporary, or organic church leader—focus on the vast majority of unchurched Christians and non-believers who are not moving toward any form of church. You will learn how to value existing church forms—attracting people to a physical church and releasing people into hands-on ministry … bringing together the very best of the attractional and missional models for church ministry. AND will equip you and all church leaders to value existing church forms while catalyzing a missional movement of incarnational people into the world for Jesus Christ. AND is the second book in the Exponential Series—a partnership between Exponential Network, Leadership Network, and Zondervan featuring several signature books each year to tell the reproducing church story, celebrate the diversity of models and approaches God is using to reproduce healthy congregations, and highlight the innovative practices of healthy reproducing churches.

Hugh Halter
Hugh Halter and Cheryl, as well as their children and truckload of grandchildren, all live in Alton, Illinois. They have been missionaries in North America for more than 30 years. They’ve planted two churches and, in 2016, founded Lantern Network in Alton, Illinois. Lantern Network is a kingdom ecosystem committed to incubating good works and benevolent businesses to bless the city. Hugh speaks extensively across the globe, encouraging innovative forms of church and, when home, loves to help Cheryl run Rí Beag Refuge, an equine therapy farm. Hugh is a leading missional voice, authoring such books as The Tangible Kingdom, AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church, Flesh, and, most recently, the Life as Mission Series, which seeks to equip Christians to live the missionary life of Jesus in their everyday context. His mission is to encourage the church to be less churchy and instead work on creating social, personal, and spiritual ventures that serve our cities in ways that make God smile. Hugh also co-founded Brave Cities, a consulting agency that catalyzes the building of kingdom ecosystems as a new form of church. You can find Hugh and these resources at hughhalter.com or bravecities.com.
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Matt Smay
Matt Smay is the co-director of Missio, a ministry team committed to training, developing and apprenticing incarnational leaders for the church. Within Missio, Matt directs the MCAP, an online collaborative training environment for incarnational leaders, pastors and church planters. As co-author of The Tangible Kingdom and the accompanying Tangible Kingdom Primer, Matt balances his time and energy between leading Adullum, a local movement of missional communities in Denver, Colorado, and working directly with church planters and existing pastors as a mentor, coach and consultant.
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