A few months ago, maybe it was as far back as Spring, Asbury Seminary and our New Church Development Team hosted a Church Planters Roundtable. There was a guy there, Chris Backert, who gave a great presentation on the recent history of church planting, current trends, and likely future developments. Our core team snagged some time with him, picking his brain. His basic advice to us was first, make Kentucky the most attractive place to plant a church; let planters know that we are invested in them and their success. Second, become the best you can be in rural church planting. He said that not only because Kentucky is a rural state, but also because it is a new frontier. He pointed out that everyone tries to plant in cities and large towns. But no one is planting in the countryside. As far as an emerging trend, it is a clear one.
Ha ha! Here we are planting a church in Menifee County, and feeling called and being blessed with people to do more and go farther south and east. But it is really hard to find any advice or resources... it's so new, planting in a rural context, that we are writing the book as we go.
But then... at dinner in a Mexican Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho... I sit next to Phil Claycomb, a pastor from Texas who is in the learning group I am a part of this year. What does he do? He runs a church planting network that recruits, trains, and equips church planters for towns under 3,000 in population. I asked him, "So how did you get into that?"
Because he plants churches in Texas and Oklahoma, where there are lots of small towns. And over dinner, he was gracious enough to share what they do.
So like I said, 350,000 churches in America. Who knows how many pastors. 12 of us in a learning group. And two of them intersect directly with what Mike and I are up to.
The Lord couldn't speak much more clearly.
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