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mission shaped church

is church planting passe?

After the 1990s' peak of interest in church planting there came a stream of

other supposed solutions to mission ineffectiveness: Seeker Services, the

Toronto blessing, the Alpha course, Cell church, Celtic Worship, Pensicola

Revival and most recently the `Transforming Communities' videos. Many of

these initiatives have been wrongly interpreted as offering a `quick fix' to 

the mission dilemma of the Church. Enthusiasm for these new options has

perhaps diminished enthusiasm for exploring costly and prayerful ways of

enabling church to grow and develop in non church cultures and places,

and church planting has tended to take a back stage position.

In a survey of church planting over the last decade, George Lings and 

Stuart Murray Williams note a decline in activity in the second half of the

1990s, but then renewed interest since 2000. They conclude:

There is evidence, however, of increasing planting activity . . . Planting

does not have its previous profile, but there are signs of resurgence. 

In our judgement, the level of activity is higher than five years ago and

the pace is quickening.

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insights from other parts of the 

world

contributions from other parts of the UK

A notable recent contribution in this field is the Presbyterian Church of

Scotland's report A Church without Walls.

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It gives excellent summaries 

of the changes in mission climate they face; the contours and processes 

of emerging church as they envisage it; an honest list of the inhibiting

factors in existing church life to overcome; and proposals for continuing

reform.

The Evangelism Research Group of the Church in Wales' Board of Mission

produced a document of similar significance, Good News in Wales.

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It describes by story and analyses the variety of other responses that 

have emerged, and highlights a call to let mission shape ensuing ministry

patterns. Archbishop Rowan Williams wrote the foreword.

We may discern signs of hope. These may be found particularly in the

development of a mixed economy of Church life . . . there are ways of

being church alongside the inherited parochial pattern.

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