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Vol. 27 (2013)
Scholars have picked up on the need to reclaim the church’s procreative nature, pointing to both church history and theology to demonstrate that founding new churches is a natural activity for Christians. This is opposed to church planting being perceived as a next-level activity for only the few large churches that can afford not to spend their entire budget and volunteer power on themselves.
It is with an eye toward this scholarship that Witness presents the following articles. This volume begins with the presidential address offered by Paul Chilcote at the 2012 AETE annual meeting. Bringing his expertise on the Wesleyan revival to bear, he presents the creativity and commitment of women who participated in the revival and suggests how they might contribute to present day typologies of church planting.
Following this is an article from Art McPhee, who considers the vast needs and opportunities for planting churches in the burgeoning cities of the world today. Marshalling historical data on church planting in Chicago, a survey of the current church planting marketplace in North America, and observations of the growing Christian movement outside of North America, he challenges the reader to participate in the remarkable work God is doing in the cities.
Marylin Draper shares her own, deeply personal experiences in church planting. Giving the reader open access to her successes and failures in the process of planting churches in Canada, she specifically calls on church planters to remember the essential role of worship in their work.
Expanding on the theme of church planting, Jon Hietbrink offers a retrospective on the establishment and growth of two mission organizations: the Student Volunteer Movement and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. In tracing the development of each agency over time, he points to the need for a clear theological identity for Christians to avoid being seduced into believing cultural values are equal with the gospel.
Finally, Christopher James provides an insightful view of conditions that help sustain evangelical church plants. Playing with the metaphors of ecology and microbrews, he suggests that there are ways for smaller evangelical church plants to thrive in a world of megachurches.
It is particularly exciting to present the research of several young scholars in the field of evangelism in this volume of Witness. The diversity of generation, as well as the mixture of practitioners and scholars who have articles this year, has made for a richer contribution on the topic of church planting. It is the academy’s hope that these historical surveys, reflections on personal practice, and sociological and anthropological presentations of church planting will provide the readers with ample resources to encourage the planting and revitalization of Christian faith communities.