Last week I attended the Church Planting Today conference run by the Baptist Union of Victoria and the Churches of Christ, featuring the English church planting guru, Stuart Murray Williams. Stuart had a remarkable collection of stories to tell about church planting and emerging church efforts in the UK ranging from the relatively tame to the outrageously extreme.
Something from the conference which struck me in a new way was how important church planting efforts are in the mission strategy of the church as a whole. When you look at the areas of substantial population increase (growth corridors) predicted for Melbourne over the next 25 years, you can see all too clearly how many people won’t have a nearby church to attend even if they want to, unless some church planting work is done now.
I also found out that Crossway is engaged in some excellent church planting efforts. I had a chance to visit Craigieburn, where Brett Mitchell is leading a Crossway planting team. Their public services started less than 3 weeks ago. Brett is a great guy, and he exudes excitement and enthusiasm. I’m sure that Crossway Craigieburn is in for a great future. Many more churches need to catch the planting vision.