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WHEATON, IL: Anglican Realignment Draws Hundreds. Hear Call to Plant 1000 New Churches
By David W. Virtue in Wheaton, Il.
www.virtueonline.org
March 5, 2013
The realignment of the Anglican Church in North America took yet another turn as more than 700 Anglicans gathered at Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton near Chicago to hear speakers push to plant 1000 new Anglican congregations in North America. All this is as The Episcopal Church implodes, grappling with the need to restructure itself as congregations age and shrink.
The summit on church planting heard Anglican Church in America (ACNA) Archbishop Robert Duncan describe the "perilous season we went through," with many congregations losing their properties after leaving a morally and theologically bankrupt Episcopal Church. "Who could have imagined so many new churches would be planted," he told an excited audience ready to move out on his command.
In 2009, Duncan called to found 1000 new churches. It has since created 230 churches, with ACNA now totaling 950 churches. "Who could have imagined so many young people catching the remarkable disease known as Anglican fever," Duncan said. Addressing his listeners in the new Church of the Resurrection that draws 1,000 weekly to its services and is host of the conference, Duncan noted wryly, "This maybe the first time I've preached in a factory."
Duncan cautioned that, "Some will not receive you" and emphasized that effective church planting depends "wholly on The Lord." He said planters are called "to reach America with the transforming love of Jesus Christ."
Alan Hawkins, a leading ACNA church planter, called ACNA's new church starts "pretty amazing for a bunch of Anglicans." He emphasized that the 1000 new churches goal is a "starting point," and "not a finish line." Hawkins also implored that church planting not be seen as a means for expanding the institution, but a way for "Gospel proclamation" and "reaching the lost." He also challenged each ACNA congregation to plant a church in the next 3 years, "If you want to see something last throughout eternity, plant churches."
Alan Hirsch, a Jewish convert, author and church plant innovator, said missiology always informs ecclesiology.
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