Proving that you can learn from someone else’s mistakes, ‘Jesus Killed My Church’, by church planter and leader, Randy Bohlender, teaches you the lessons hard learnt from a church plant that should have succeeded, but failed. As you read the book you understand what he means by the surprising title; it wasn’t that Jesus actually did anything to kill Randy’s attempt to grow a new church, it was really the church that killed itself because it never really included Jesus in the first place.

It was the absence of Jesus that meant the church was always going to die. Randy Boehlender shares what he’s learnt about making certain that what you’re doing ‘for the Kingdom’ is actually for that purpose and within God’s will, rather than despite it. He has comfort and reassurance for those who have seen their plans fall apart - despite their best endeavours, letting you know that God’s plan is still in progress and you’re still part of it.

Interpreting his story in retrospect, he finds wisdom he could never have seen at the time when things seemed to be going so badly. Now his journey has perspective and he can share that hard wisdom with you: “I’d missed what God was doing directly,” he reflects. In the opening chapter, Randy looks back on the experience with new resolve: “If the hand of God was at work in all things, then I wanted to learn to see the hand day by day. I wanted to train myself to live with a grateful heart, knowing that the summary of my life would not be what I did, but rather what he did in me, which I could neither cause nor thwart.’

‘Jesus Killed My Church’ is the essential primer for anyone setting out on a new church plant, struggling to maintain a church community or recovering from a painful experience in church leadership.

• RANDY BOHLENDER, author of the controversially titled 'Jesus Killed My Church' has served in Christian ministry service for more than twenty years. Married to, and working alongside his wife, Kelsey, their varied experience includes church planting, directing ‘The Call’ - a series of stadium-sized prayer meetings with Lou Engle, and sharing the leadership of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri. In addition, Randy heads up The Zoe Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping to fund the cost of adoption, by providing quality care for mothers who choose to offer their babies for adoption, and by educating the church about the redemptive power of adoption.