Ed Stetzer: Church Planting and the Mission of God

Planting Churches and Planting the Gospel

Every church involved in a new church, and every church planter starting one, needs to answer the question: what is church planting? None of our churches should be a cul-de-sac on the Great Commission highway.

For some, the word planting comes across as insider language. In the sub-culture of the church planting world there is an entire language mostly unknown to the outside. We've all heard of planters talk about "doing a parachute drop church plant," or "starting with a launch team." What do these words even mean? More importantly, what is church planting about?

That's an essential question, really. Read more

Too many Anglican churches, in the breakaway North American Anglican jurisdictions as well as the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church USA are cul-de-sacs on the Great Commission highway. Starting a new church is not synonymous with planting the gospel. We can set all kinds of goals for starting new churches but unless the churches we start are gospel-believing, gospel-proclaiming, gospel-shaped churches, those goals are meaningless.