A New Kind of Big: How Churches of Any Size Can Partner to Transform Communities

There's a growing desire among believers to reach beyond the walls of their churches to impact communities for God. But when the average church size hovers around 150 members and the problems of even midsized cities seem insurmountable, how can we hope to make a difference?

A New Kind of Big tells the inspiring story of how Perimeter Church in suburban Atlanta started a partnership called Unite! with other area churches in order to increase its reach in a community that desperately needed God's light and aid. This partnership has grown to a network of nearly 150 churches that are bringing kingdom transformation to Atlanta. For instance, on just one weekend in 2007, 6,000 volunteers from over 60 churches in metro Atlanta gathered to work on 250 service projects inside the ten-mile radius around Perimeter Church. Thirty welcome baskets were delivered to refugees, a dozen homes were repaired, a thousand Bibles were given away, 750 "encourage a teacher" gift bags were distributed. And that's not all: volunteers orchestrated 20 block parties in low-income apartment communities and 65 neighborhood food drives that collected 25,000 pounds of food.

Chip Sweney shows Christian leaders how they too can discover the power of this "new kind of big" to pool their resources, energy, and time to minister to their communities, no matter how long or short their membership rolls.

Chip Sweney (MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is Next Gen and Community Transformation Pastor of Perimeter Church and has been the leader of Perimeter’s Community Outreach since its inception in 2002. He has also given leadership to Unite! since it began in 2003. Chip is a well-known conference speaker and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kitti Murray is a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother. She and her husband, Bill, live in downtown Atlanta, where they are part of a network of urban church planters. Kitti graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1978 with a degree in English/Creative Writing and German.