New Book Release Announcement

The book will be released in January 2021. It is a manual of sorts. Freedom Church Movement (FCM) is a church planting ministry that has a desire to start a Free Grace Church Planting Movement nationwide. We are starting a network of Free Grace churches and church planters to start new churches. I have written a book that will be “The Manual” so to speak for our church planters. Eric Smith and Dr. Stephen R. Lewis have helped with editing. Dr. Lewis has written the foreword for the book. and Eric Smith is helping to develop a coaching format.

The book is called "Reproducing Grace: Starting a Free Grace Movement in Your Region." The book walks a church or church planter through planting a church. The church planting plan laid out in the book follows the 10 stages Paul used in the book of Acts. It's organic and definitely not a “one-size-fits-all” approach. The 10 stages walk you through planting in your region, and asks questions to get the planter to think about their culture.

FCM Church Planting Network will include Coaching and Training at no cost (other then the cost of the book , which is set at $10 per copy. Special pricing for bulk orders available) as we are missionaries and raise financial support so, we can offer this service free to our network churches and church planters.

What People Are Saying About Reproducing Grace: Starting a Free Grace Movement In Your Region

"Joe Filer has put together an extremely practical book on how to plant a church. In fact, this book could be titled: All You Ever Wanted to Know about Planting a Church but been Afraid to Ask. Joe leaves no stone unturned. Best of all, he has modeled church planting in his own ministry, so this is not an academic exercise written by an arm-chair theologian. His wisdom comes from the crack-back blocks of experience in the trenches. I highly recommend this work as a guide and workbook for anyone who engages in church-planting."

Dr. David R. Anderson President

Grace School of Theology

"This book is a helpful guide for church multiplication, based on models in the Book of Acts. It also contains some helpful tools that grace-oriented pastors can use in the process of multiplying churches in their areas. "

Joe Wall Emeritus Equipping Strategist East West Ministries Int.

"For those who are passionate about helping people –men, women, boys and girls—come to know the Gospel, that free and gracious gift of our God through Jesus Christ that offers eternal life to all who would receive it, then this book is for you. For those who have a spark that is beginning to burn for healthy home and traditional churches, or to those who want to ignite such a spark, this book is for you. For those who are concerned that modern church-planting has removed itself from local churches and has gone “Lone Ranger” with little accountability to the Body of Christ, this book is for you. Based on a free-grace interpretation of the Gospel and a priority of the local church as the tool God uses to spread this Gospel, this book provides a healthy ten-step plan to starting reproducing free-grace movements across the United States. I like this book because it is logical (it makes sense!), theological (it is built on a consistent interpretation of Scripture), and methodological (it provides an easy to understand road-map). I’m praying it is used to start a movement!"

Dr. Randy White

Randy White Ministries

“This book is absolutely essential if Free Grace (the only true gospel) is going to abound. Get it, implement it, and stay the course. The only hope for America and the world is personal faith in Jesus Christ for everlasting life and then a vibrant and consistent walk by those who believe in Him.”

Anthony B. Badger, Th.D.

“In the ruthlessly competitive church planting culture this book offers the weary church planting shepherd a refreshing path following Jesus’ simple plan to build grace-based communities of faith.” 

Ed Underwood, Recentered Group,

Author of When God Breaks Your Heart and Reborn to Be Wild

“Reproducing Grace: Starting a Free Grace Movement in Your Region is not only a comprehensive, practical handbook; it is a workbook. Rather than telling us what to do and how to do it, Joseph Filer walks us through the whole process. That process, based on Paul’s example in the book of Acts, flows from your heart’s first desire to spread the Gospel in a new region to establishing a church plant of discipled believers, ready to begin the process to another needy region.

Joe includes practical steps and helpful worksheets, as well as his personal experiences to show how this can be done. His intensive focus on prayer in response to spiritual warfare tells us what to pray for at each step in the process. He suggests a variety of methods and approaches to allow for the character of the area as well as one’s own preferences.

Joe’s passion is for a Free Grace Movement of reproducing churches in every state. This book can be the catalyst God will use to accomplish that biblical goal.”

Ken Hornok, Utah pastor for 39 years, Bible teacher and discipler.

God commands Christians to be in fellowship with a local church. As a free grace missionary, people around the world frequently ask me to recommend a local church in their area. It is a joy when I can connect them, but often there is not a free grace church within a drivable distance. My standard response in such situations is, “Find a free grace church, leave your job, sell your home, and move there.” But this is not always possible, especially when there are no free grace churches in an entire country!
Filer’s new book, Reproducing Grace, prescribes an alternative: start a free grace movement in your area. The goal is not simply to start a free grace church, but rather to start a movement of free grace churches that plant new free grace churches. This is not an easy task, but Filer breaks it down into reasonable steps that are practical and, more importantly, follow the Apostle Paul’s biblical precedent.
This is a book that I am going to start recommending when people ask for church recommendations.

  Dr. Paul Miles, Executive Director, Grace Abroad Ministries

November 29, 2020

“Anyone can start a Free Grace Movement in their region with little to no money. I am here to walk with you through the process. "This is the opening to Joe Filer’s new book, Reproducing Grace: Starting a Free Grace Movement in Your Region. It is also an introduction to verbiage and perhaps even a new mindset that could be pivotal in bringing positive change to a movement. Note that Filer does not speak of “the Free Grace Movement” as a greater movement that either does or does not have a presence in your locality, but rather he speaks of “a Free Grace Movement” as something that could potentially begin anywhere. ­But I’m getting ahead of myself.

A bit about the author

Joe Filer is a spiritual entrepreneur. He has started several ministries, including: a youth group in New Jersey, an evangelism ministry across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, two church plants in Utah, an outreach to the AUB polygamy cult, three youth ministries in Utah, Washington, and Texas, a youth center, several children’s programs, and an outdoor ministry program. He is also a member of IFCA, so you can count on him to be a consistent dispensationalist who holds to inerrancy and grammatical-historical hermeneutics.

A bit about the book

The book is written in informal language and lays out a ten-stage process for church planting. Each chapter is dedicated to a stage and is broken into four parts: 1) Paul’s Precedent 2) Modern Implementation 3) Prayer and Spiritual Warfare 4) Planning and Action Steps. Each of the ten stages has a chapter and they are listed as follows: Stage One: Cultivating a Heart for a Free Grace Movement Stage Two: Commissioning Stage Three: Planning – Goals and Demographics Stage Four: Confirming Your Target Area Stage Five: Making Contacts Stage Six: Communicating the Gospel Stage Seven: Strengthening New Believers Stage Eight: Gathering Believers Into Fellowship Stage Nine: Developing Leaders, Continuing Outreach Stage Ten: Organizing, Reproducing, and Coaching

Features that set this book apart

The structure of each chapter is excellent. Filer begins with the Pauline precedent. He pulls from several examples from Paul’s ministry, but he basically sticks with Paul. I bring this up because some books on church management appeal to some story from the Old Testament that has nothing to do with churches outside of tangent applications, or if the authors are feeling extra holy, then they might use Jesus instead. Paul was a church planter, so Filer is wise to stick to Paul’s example. Then he moves on to the modern implementation, but only after looking at Paul’s example. Filer also has a list of things to be praying about at each stage and then provides a checklist that gives this book the manual feel.The chapter on Stage Nine (Developing Leaders, Continuing Outreach) has a noteworthy discourse on spiritual discipline. This is a topic that I have seen abused far too often, either by tyrant pastors who weaponize spiritual discipline or by others who neglect spiritual discipline altogether. Filer brings a good balance to the doctrine by giving the biblical reasoning for the “who,” “why,” and “how.” Discipline is relevant in the leadership development stage, as well-meaning church plant movements can become overly ambitious and send those who are not yet spiritually mature to do work that is outside of their league. Another thing that can’t be overlooked is that Filer shares our Free Grace soteriological background. Since salvation is entirely by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, one would anticipate that a local Free Grace Movement would have some philosophical differences from other church planting movements. A proper Free Grace understanding of Christian maturity should be one of a grown and growing fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Some non-Free Grace churches might have a more achievement-salvation system wherein once a member is involved in x many ministries throughout the week, he is officially ‘converted’ and the church can now focus on getting new butts in the pew (such churches would certainly word it differently, but that is what it boils down to). It is evident in Filer’s system that grown and growing Christians can and should pour into church plants, rather than becoming a settled consumer.

Rating

If you want to plant a new church or if you want to get your church thinking about church planting, then this is a good book for you. It doesn’t claim to be a one-size-fits-all, but it is bound to have some wisdom for the guy who is thinking about starting a church or, better yet, a church planting movement. The book is scheduled for release in January, 2021 and will be available on the Freedom Church Movement website and Amazon for $10.Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Apostle Andrews By Dr. Paul Miles from Grace Abroad Ministries