Church Planting 101
Plainly put, I’m preparing to enter into a whole new world of ministry. As I look towards church planting with some Godly friends and partners in ministry, my tremendous excitement has been coupled with an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy and ignorance about just how to proceed. As we’ve begun the first steps of planning, my friend Scott loaned me Ed Stetzer’s book Planting Missional Churches. I just finished reading it this afternoon, and I’ve found it to be a great primer to wrap my mind around the many and various factors that go into planting a new church.
Most people in SBC circles know Stetzer as Lifeway’s stats guru. As the denomination’s director of research, Stetzer has compiled a lot of information and insight on the landscape of modern church life. Prior to this work, Stetzer successfully planted multiple congregations in several different settings. In Planting Missional Churches, he takes what he has learned through that experience and shares it with other planters who are heading out into the North American mission field. The book is as close to comprehensive as any book I can imagine, exploring church planting from its theological and biblical foundations to the practical aspects of church government, financial matters, worship structure, and selecting a facility.
The book is definitely strongest when it is the most practical. Not that Stetzer’s theological and biblical work isn’t good, it just isn’t as robust and detailed as the book’s more practical sections. However, for me, this wasn’t necessarily a negative. I’ve given a lot of thought to theology, ecclesiology, and my philosophy of church ministry. What I haven’t given much thought to are the ABC’s of how a new congregation actually begins. After reading Stetzer’s book, I feel like I at least have a basic grasp of what awaits us over the coming years. This will definitely be a book that I’ll go buy a copy of and use as a reference resource as we continue in our church planting journey. If you’ve got an interest in planting and are looking for a good introductory book on what’s involved, this is one you should definitely take a look at.
