Why is church planting such a big deal for our diocese? Take a peek into C4SO’s vision for starting new churches in this conversation with the Rev. Dr. Brad Swope, C4SO’s Director of Church Planting; the Rev. Dr. Kris McDaniel, C4SO’s Canon for Church Development; and Bishop Todd Hunter.

Why do we focus on church planting in our diocese?

Brad Swope: To me, it’s the historic model of the kingdom. I always see church planting as a vibrant way the kingdom breaks out in the world, forming new worshiping communities. It works in every age and culture—something about the spirit of God working through the Church to do something new.

And when you do it, it’s dynamic, it’s stirring, you see frontline work like in the Book of Acts. You can also see that work in established churches, but there’s something really dynamic about those first three, four or five years and the excitement and risk. You risk a lot as a church planter, but when you see God in action, it reinforces your faith to see how big He is.

Kris McDaniel: The Church is always one generation away from extinction. And without the work of church planting, we have no future. I’m a church planter myself. That’s what I studied in my doctoral work at Asbury seminary, but more important than the education or academic work or thought work, this is just where the kingdom of God is most clearly advanced. One of the reasons I’m so resonant with our values at C4SO is that in addition to our more classically understood Anglican values, we have a value of mission. God is on mission. And I think church planting is at the very heart of that.

Bishop Todd Hunter: What I love about planting new churches is it means some new vision or DNA is getting started in the world. I’ve known hundreds and hundreds of church planters over 45 years, and they’re all slightly different. They’ve heard something particular from the Spirit. There’s some angle they’re passionate about. That’s what I really love—the expression of new DNA and new vision.

So how does church planting work in C4SO?  

KM: We encourage all of our church planters that they exist for the sake of the world and specifically for the unchurched. We’re not trying to reshuffle Christians from other traditions or churches into our churches.

When I planted, we didn’t try to program for Christians. We tried to reach and know our neighbors. So, most of our meetings were in Starbucks or another public space. Out of the first 100 adults we had, we met 85 of them outside of church. To me, that’s a sign of what a church really is. You’ll definitely need other Christians along the way, and God will give you other Christians—scaffolding to help you do the work.

BS: The goal is to go find where the Spirit is already at work in your context. I think about Kimberly [Deckel] and Andrew [Stravitz] at All Souls Phoenix, and they’re dealing with inner-city Phoenix and immigration issues. That’s a completely different context than Wichita or Nashville. Each church has their own set of people that they have access to. We each have a little sphere of influence. But that quickly multiplies. If there’s 10 or 15 people in your church plant’s core team, they each have their own sphere of influence that’s totally unique, and those are the people God wants to reach in that context. Now, as the core team gathers, the fingerprints of the Spirit on their gift mix are going to be unique as well.

From your own experience planting a church, what are the markers we’re aiming for?

KM:  I think the Anglican treasure we steward is uniquely positioned to be a part of the conversation regarding church planting. If you go back to the English Reformation, we took the Mass out of Latin and put it in the language that a 7-year-old illiterate plow boy could understand. The great book chained in the front of every English parochial hall was an English Bible. I’m so deeply committed to Anglican church planting because I believe that Anglicanism invites us to pay attention to and exegete our context, creating missional identification moments that are aligned with that context.

I once heard somebody say regarding church planting, “It’s not that Christians don’t have answers, it’s that we don’t have answers to the questions people in our neighborhoods are asking.” And when I think about contextual ministry, my mind goes to missiologist Leslie Newbigin’s exhortation that we would engage in a costly identification. I think to be an Anglican church planter is to know your context and identify with it in a way that costs you something. You can have a perfect liturgy, but that doesn’t matter if you don’t bother to know your area and your neighborhood and actually have answers to questions those people are asking. It takes time. I planted my church in 2002—we’re coming up on 19 years—and it took us a long time to get beneath the surface and begin to understand our multi-layered community.

BS: Yes, context is a big deal. I think there’s a humility required of church planters who want to plant in response to the real needs of their community. That humility means a willingness to not try to know the end product at the beginning of the process…a willingness to say, “I have some ideas, but this needs to be shaped by the people I am with and the context I am in, as we discern together what the Father is doing and the Spirit is revealing.”

BTH: I would answer the question about markers by saying I’m always looking for momentum. To me, momentum is always more important than the score. You can turn on a football game and it’s 27 to 21. Okay—maybe an interesting game. But it would be way more important to know that it used to be 27 to 0. If the other team just scored 21 unanswered points, it’s a whole different game.

So I think the goal in church planting is momentum. And sometimes that’s attached to numbers, but sometimes it’s attached to uptake of the vision, DNA and values. You know you’ve got momentum when you hear others teaching your values and vision and DNA. That’s the ultimate kind of momentum in church planting—when other people are excitedly telling your story for you.

C4SO: Does C4SO have a preferred method for church planting?

KM: One of the things we are trying to move away from is the notion of the “Lone Ranger” parachute plants. Brad and I both bear witness to the fact that it’s a lot harder to plant a church as a hero, drop behind enemy lines and do it all by yourself. And yet for many church planters, that’s the only imagination they have for what a church plant looks like.

We’re trying to stir up churches, both big and small, in our diocese to have an imagination to be mother churches. One of our favorite phrases around C4SO is “generative kingdom living.” We hope if we do this right, there won’t be any more parachute church planters because people will receive so much support that they’ll be doing this with teams. We shouldn’t have to do this work by ourselves. A part of exegeting your community is to plant in community with a team.

BS: We’re also trying to introduce the language of “church planting residency” to C4SO churches. That can mean a lot of different things, but for us, it’s how we can help your church develop an imagination to identify potential planters, take them through a training process, and yield a daughter church that would be sent out with support and vision. You don’t have to be a big church or have a ton of resources to do this well. Our Savior in Wheaton, Illinois, has 150 people, and they created a church planting residency and sent out Sandy Richter to plant Christ Our Peace in the Chicagoland area.

C4SO: Any encouragement for potential mother churches in C4SO?

KM: I hope as we come out of this pandemic, churches will have an imagination for not just survival, but for kingdom advancement through church planting, mentoring and developing leaders. My prayer for my own church, as well as for the churches in our diocese, is that we would be known as the kind of people who emphatically reject a scarcity mindset. Bishop Todd often quotes Dallas Willard, who says we’re perfectly safe in God’s kingdom. Do we really believe that? As we make our way through the months ahead, will we be open-handed or close-fisted? My hope is that all the leaders in our diocese, including myself, will be open-handed.

BS: We believe that God is doing something completely new that will position the Church to reach our increasingly post-Christian, post-denomination and even post-pandemic culture. And God himself is looking for workers to go into the harvest fields he has prepared. We also believe that C4SO is well positioned to be a missionary movement that sees dozens of churches planted in the next decade that will be part of that harvest. If you would like to be a part of that movement, please get in touch with us.

Learn more about church planting in C4SO.