Anglican 1000 Summit - Post #5

Some highlights from Bp. Todd Hunter's first plenary, "Missional Anglican Church Planting":


1. "You came to faith because someone planted a church." Every Christian that has ever lived can say the same thing.


2. What is Anglican Church Planting? Our church planting efforts live in the creative tension between innovation (to reach a particular culture) and continuity (with an ancient tradition). This creative tension is expressed in the Preface to the 1549 BCP. Our church planting is rooted in history, thoughtfully, freely and flexibly. We need to find the "islands of health and strength in our history." Anglicans have lots of church planting models to draw from in our history; some healthier and more effective than others. We need to learn from our whole past.


3. Some things in our Anglican treasure chest:
Catholicity
Biblical foundations
An unique pastoral/evangelistic ethos
Sweet reasonableness
Episcopal leadership


4. What is Missional Church Planting? To be missional is to find a new ecclesiology that starts with a God who is on mission. The mission of God creates the church. Therefore, we need to start with the kingdom of God and its implications for our life together, instead of starting with our "brand" and figuring out how to protect or expand its influence. Our congregations need to be outposts of the kingdom of God, communities with a certain shape, rather than franchises of a brand. We need to exist for others (expressing God's nature) rather than ourselves.


5. Some marks of the kingdom most applicable to church planting:
generosity
risk-taking
hospitality
prayer
evangelism
cooperation


6. Church planting is not a zero-sum game. Plant in clusters to reach a city.


7. Look to the pipelines. Seminaries will not be able to train all the church planters that we will need. So we need to think imaginatively about recruiting and training planters.


8. Focus on strengths not weakness. You cannot deploy a weakness to a positive end. So identify strengths.


9. Mt. 11:28f. - yoke with Jesus to recover our lives. Work with Jesus. Walk with Jesus. Watch and learn from Jesus.