Will a Real Church Planter stand up !

[Phil Saunders]

Judging by the large number of responses to the thread initiated by Gordon Cheng, there is considerable interest in the concept of `church planting'. Yet very little mention has been made about the growing literature available on church planting in both America and England. Little has been said about case studies of church planting in Australia.

Church planting is not new-  see Paul's Acts missionary journeys (read `church planting activities'); or Anglican Roland Allen's `Missionary Methods - St Paul's or Ours '(1912); or Donald McGavran's `The Bridges of God- A Study in the Strategy of Missions' (1955); to name some of the earlier literature on this theme.

A central principle of the Church Growth Movement initiated by McGavran, was that the most effective world-wide evangelistic stategy, was the `planting of new churches'. McGavran's pioneering work at Fullers' School of World Mission, set in motion the application of effective missionary strategies, within the context of the church in North America. This is the historical context for the growth of independent church planting, such as that of Mark Driscoll.

In England, following the Lambeth 1988 call for a `Decade of Evangelism', the challenge of church planting begun in earnest. Much of the earlier issues are addressed in Hokpin's `Planting New Churches' (1991), and Ling's `New Ground in Church Planting' (1994). More recently the English `mission-minded church- church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context', has again raised the issue of church planting. However, in a recent commentary on that book by George Lings, www.encountersontheedge.org.uk he argues that modest changes under the heading of `fresh expressions' has domesticated the initial emphasis on `planting churches'.

In Australia, I was the founding Secretary of the Australian Fellowship of Church Growth, and lectured in Church Growth (including church planting), at Ridley College in the mid 1990's; and sought to exemplify some of the church growth principles in my 14 years as Vicar of St Andrews Glen Waverley. Most of my extensive library of church growth books is now held in the Leon Morris Library at Ridley College.

Perhaps the time is ripe for further informed discussion and strategic planning for church planting in our Australian context. Will a real church planter stand up ?

[Jason]

G'day Phil,

Did you plant any churches? What did you learn about church planting from doing it?

[Phil Saunders]

Hi Jason

The simple answer is `no' - I did not plant a church.

In the time I spent as Vicar of St Andrews Glen Waverley (1976-88), church planting was not on any Anglican agenda - it was just emerging on the radar of the American church growth strategies of adoption of mission-style church planting.

The innovative changes we developed at St Andrews, would today be called `fresh expressions'. However, I did learn some negative lessons about the difficulty church planting would become in an Anglican Diocese.

Firstly, we were denied support for the purchase of larger site for our growing congregation (8am,9.30am,11am,7pm), within our own parish boundaries- `too close to a neigbouring parish'.

Secondly, we were denied the opportunity of a three-stage amalgamation with a smaller parish bordering our own parish(without a Vicar, and with inadequate income to appoint a new Vicar). The final stage was to be the purchase of a larger site on a main highway for an amalgamated parish - rejected primarily because of `different churchmanship'.

Thirdly, we were denied the opportunity to lease a larger building to assess the extent of growth (freed from building constraints ), because the building we had in mind, `was in another parish'.

Some of these issues are being addressed today in a more positive manner- I think there are some contemporary examples emerging.

However, in the meantime, the most likely expression of  Anglican`church planting' is likely to be a more modest approach of developing `multiple congregations' on the one site, or on separate sites within the one parish.

Nevertheless, apart from classic independent`church planting', there still seems to be plenty of flexibility , within the Anglican church, in developing `fresh expressions' of church which have a more specific evangelistic focus (which is the underlying thesis of the church growth movement - the most effective world-wide evangelistic method is the planting of new churches).