I have (participated in) planting a church (Life on the Vine)and I have recently finished a book. I can witness to everyone that there is simply no contest as to which is more difficult. Planting a church among the post-Christian cultures of N America (New York, East Coast, North Pacific Coast, big parts of Chicago, large parts of Canada) is so much harder than writing a book. It takes all the patience, discernment, diverse leadership, humility, perseverance one can possibly have and an ability to do it for other purposes and motives than financial reward. As I wrote in the Great Giveaway, Church planting requires many skills including the habits of prayer, loving people, and faith. Sometimes you can get away without these in the academy, but rarely can you get away without them in the task of church planting(p.26).Of course all this is not possible except out of the daily work of prayer, yielding and submission of one’s work to Christ for his empowerment of the Holy Spirit.So all of this leads me to the question, How is it we glorify writers and the accomplishment of a book but so rarely hear about the real soldiers, the church planters. I wish we could change that! I am open to hear from anyone on this. That is if anyone has found this blog yet.For the furtherance of Christ’s mission, DF