Completing a 1-2 Planting Punch
Last month, I read and reviewed Ed Stetzer’s Planting Missional Churches, the first book in my current foray into church planting resources. This week, I just finished reading Discovering Church Planting by J.D. Payne, and it served as a perfect companion piece to Stetzer’s work. Much like Stetzer, Payne - who is a Professor of Church Planting at Southern Seminary here in Louisville and an elder at Crossing Church - takes his theological and practical knowledge and looks at the task of church planting from just about every angle imaginable. However, whereas Stetzer’s focus was much more deeply rooted in the nuts-and-bolts practical stuff (for example, including chapters on facility selection, financial setup, and church naming), Payne paints with a broader brush, spending more time on the theological and writing what could most accurately be described as a 400-page philosophy of church planting. In short, if Stetzer tells you how, Payne tells you why.
Now admittedly, that’s an oversimplification. Just as Stetzer spends time on the theological and biblical underpinnings of planting, so Payne talks through some practical considerations. However, even these chapters are much more philosophically driven. For example, his very helpful chapter “Tentmaking and Church Planting,” on bi-vocational planting, explores practical issues of financial support and its entailing stresses but also offers an overarching view on why self-supported planting is often a better way rather than a last resort. He not only says, “Here are the practical outworkings of bi-vocational planting,” but also, “Here’s what kind of statement bi-vocational planting makes about the gospel.” The way he applies this “big picture” mentality across the spectrum of the planting process was tremendously helpful and has given me a lot of food for thought.
The book is stuffed full of good information. Three historical chapters focusing on Moravian, Methodist, and Baptist planting movements were especially worthwhile reading, and the summary questions and extensive bibliography and notes will be a great resource for further discussion and study. Though, at times that information, one of the book’s greatest assets, can be a liability. While great quotes on planting and excerpts from other works litter the book, the way that these items are interspersed and arranged seems a bit disjointed and can often break the flow of the chapter, making the information difficult to process. Payne’s writing style, much like Stetzer’s, is very simple and straightforward, which makes the book very accessible but not quite as engaging as it could have been. Let me be clear, though – these are minor stylistic quibbles. J.D. Payne has written a book that will be a blessing to church planters the world over and has earned a place in my library right next to Ed Stetzer.
