Planting Distinctively Lutheran Churches:
What Does This Mean?
Church planting is a hot topic in American Christianity. Faced with decreasing membership and a growing indifference (if not outright hostility) toward the Faith in our culture, many church leaders see church planting as a do-or-die proposition and have launched church planting initiatives in their respective church bodies. Lutherans are certainly no exception to this effort.
The increasing challenge to Lutherans engaged in church planting is that of planting churches that are, in actuality, Lutheran. With so much of today's church planting literature and expertise found in non-Lutheran sources, this challenge is more substantial than it may first appear to be. Compounding the situation is the naturally tendency in church planting to gravitate toward what works rather than what is faithful to the Lutheran confession of the Faith.
There are many churches being planted by Lutherans. However, we must consider whether or not we are planting Lutheran churches. More fundamentally, we must honestly ask ourselves if planting distinctively Lutheran churches is desirable and if it is what we should be doing to be faithful to Christ's Great Commission. Our answer to these foundational questions is a resounding "yes!". We are committed to planting churches that are distinctively Lutheran and are convinced that doing so is proper, will be effective, and is pleasing to our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Our conviction raises new questions. What is a distinctively Lutheran church? What is involved in successfully planting such churches? What, if anything, should we make use of from the evolving discipline of church planting that is not Lutheran in its theology and practice? In short, we must ask ourselves the Lutheran question, "What does this mean?". Exploring the answers to this question is the purpose of this blog.
Welcome to "Planting Lutheran Churches." We hope that you'll find helpful information for and useful guidance in being a faithful planter of Lutheran churches in the current and future pages of this blog. Moreover, we invite you to engage in a discussion that will result in the exchange of beneficial ideas, identification of best practices, and the encouragement of what Martin Luther called "the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren."
SDG
@RevMAWood
