Talking about Church Planting

Someone reminded me the other day that they don't understand some of the things I talk and write about, even though it's good to hear from me. It stung just a little - I wondered how often I'm simply not connecting with people, too enthralled with my own voice to realize I'm not making sense. Happens too much!

On the other hand, the ways I'm trying to grow as a research and  missiologist may not be enough to get me into a crowd of academics and experts. Every now and again I test those waters, show up at a conference or something. Sometimes I find more welcome than I expect. Other times, less. My social anxiety tends to increase the chances that whatever comes out of my mouth will sound awkward and come from a place of fear and uncertainty. It would be better, I know, if I learned to relax and listen and adjust a bit more.

And meanwhile, such pursuits may also cost me the opportunity and ability to be make sense to people who walk around more in the "real world," who are more concrete and relational. Hmmm.

Resources on church-planting

With that said, though, here a couple of things you may find interesting, if you're still reading, and interested for some reason in the missiological questions I've been exploring lately.

Church Planting and the Mission of God (article)

Planting Churches and Planting the Gospel | Ed Stetzer

When we talk about church planting it can be a little different than church starting. What's the difference? Well, I think church starting happens a lot of ways. The most popular church starting strategy involves a group of people getting mad, leaving their home church, and starting another church. In most cases I wouldn't advise this strategy.

Church planting, on the other hand, involves an individual, mother church, and/or a group of people going out to start a church for the purpose of engaging a community through gospel proclamation and demonstration.

Church planting, unlike church starting, should/must be mission driven.

Church planting grows in the soil of lostness (hence "planting") where men and women far from God are challenged with the claims of the gospel of Jesus Christ by a group of intentional believers.

Read full article.

Church Planting Movements: Making Disciples and Planting Churches in Hard Place (video)

This video from a webinar explores some of the practices and assumptions that characterize a few common church-planting approaches being attempted in some of the places where there are few followers of Jesus - among the least reached. Production values on the video are a tad low, but the content is significant. Watch it in full-screen mode to view the charts clearly.