A 2006 Gallup Poll showed Pentecostals top the list of people who attend church on a weekly basis.

Book written by Hozell Francis. Provides both the theory and practice for raising up a church in today’s black community.

The Rev. Joe Samuel Ratliff is pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston. He is co-author of Church Planting in the African American Community. Contact him through his executive assistant, Vernastene J. Davis.

Ed Stetzer holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as executive director of the school’s Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He was formerly the executive director of Lifeway Research, a division of Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. He blogs on a variety of subjects […]

Author and researcher C. Kirk Hadaway is director of research for the Episcopal Church Center. He has written widely on the subject of church growth and also worked with the United Church of Christ and Southern Baptist denominations.

Van Kicklighter is associate executive director of the church planting team for the Illinois Baptist State Association. He previously worked in church planting with the North American Baptist Conference.

Oversees church planting for the Souther Baptist Convention. The web site has information in two areas: The church-planting group, which trains, plans, supports and mentors church planters, and the church-planting “village,” an online resource area. 

Has offices in Lombard, Ill. and Roseville, Cali. Family of churches in the U.S. and Canada. Church planting is an emphasis.

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is an umbrella organization of 15 Baptist bodies that work to promote religious liberty. They advise member denominations on religious liberties issues. It is based in Washington, D.C. Its executive director is Amanda Tyler, with J. Brent Walker serving as a consultant to the organization.