Today, with my 10,000th tweet, I am happy to make known to you a project that has been in the works for several years–the PLNTD Network.
This is a new network that is singular in its purpose and simple in its design. Its focus is the Great Commission, its passion is the local church, and its vision is seeing local churches owning the Great Commission to the point of reproducing themselves in new expressions of gospel-centered faithfulness.
The beta version of our resourcing website is live, and I have the privilege of beginning with a series called “Bring It Back” where, over a series of twelve articles, I lay out the call to bring church planting back to the local church and how PLNTD seeks to encourage, assist, and empower local churches and church planters for that specific task. Over the next couple of months, we plan to stock the resource warehouse, develop relational communities, and share about the work of residency centers in local churches for training future church planters. Together, we believe that resourcing, relationships, and residencies will help catalyze the vision of PLNTD and provide the kind of synergy we hope will inspire and encourage churches and planters alike in the call of the Great Commission.
There are several ways in which you can find out more information or get plugged into the PLNTD Network, not the least of which include:
* subscribe to the PLNTD feed
* follow PLNTD on Twitter
* join the PLNTD Facebook page
* sign up for the PLNTD e-newsletter
There is so much about PLNTD that has me really excited and hopeful about the future work of church planting in Baptist life. I believe PLNTD has the potential to, on the one hand, reach out to the younger generation who are passionate about gospel-centeredness, missional living, and incarnational community, and on the other hand, reach out to the elder generation and provide opportunity to partner together for the renewal and revitalization of Baptist churches through a Great Commission resurgence.
We invite you to join us in the PLNTD Network to see church planting thrive in the church, by the church, and for the church!
Excellent! This could not come at a more helpful time for our church.
Interesting! (And a great web design—it looks fantastic.)
I am curious (not critical), however, about two things:
(1) Why not partner with a group like Acts29?
(2) Why not try to partner with NAMB/state conventions in the SBC, especially in light of the (hopefully successful) GCRTF recommendations?
Again, I mean those questions not in a critical way, but one driven by curiousity: why another planting network?
Chris,
Thanks for the questions. Let me try to answer them:
1. I’m not sure that is an either/or proposition. I (and others involved with PLNTD) are friends with a ton of guys in A29. There is a lot that we have common. The difference is that we are not open-handed on our ecclesiology and perhaps have a slighly more chastened contextualization.
I had the privilege of spending an evening with Scott Thomas over a year ago about the PLNTD network and was greatly encouraged by his gracious support and words of affirmation. It goes without saying that I and many others are and continue to learn a lot from A29, and I hope the networks will partner together in the future.
2. I am hopeful for the GCRTF recommendations, and I hope that perhaps the state conventions would be interested in backing new church planting networks (this is already happening in some places like North Carolina). So again, this is not an either/or but more likely a both/and. We don’t see PLNTD in competition either with other networks or with denominational entities/conventions. We are simply a network of local churches wanting to invest in other churches and future church planters on a grassroots, radically decentralized level.
So why another network? Because there really isn’t one in Baptists world, especially Southern Baptist. And because North America could use another 50 vibrant, gospel-driven networks. Obviously, PLNTD will not be for everyone, and we realize that, but we want to do our small part in working to see church planting become a passion in local churches and help train, encourage, and partner with future church planters as they pursue God’s call in their lives.
Thanks for a good answer; I look forward to seeing what PLNTD does over the next several years. I pray God’s favor!
I was curious about the Baptist part too. Also not critical, just curious. What was behind that decision?
Hey Joe!
I remember us having this convo at GCA a while back. We decided to develop PLNTD as a distinctively Baptist network because that is where are confessionally and where we want to focus our attention missionally. That is not to say, however, that we can and will not partner, support, and come alongside other networks or church planters outside being Baptist. It is simply that we will be *planting* Baptist churches.
I suppose you can liken it to MNA but maintaining a decentralized structure that limits our organization to local churches. I hope that makes a little sense.
I am thankful for this! This is a great need for us SBC folks. Thanks for your work on this brother. I’m looking forward to hearing, learning, and partnering more.