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On November 16, Continuing Forward hosted its first-ever online webinar, a follow up to the workshops we hosted in Orlando during the October 2023 Anglican Joint Synods. The webinar was also our first event specifically focused on church planting.
The guest speaker was Fr. Kevin Craik, who previously planted a church in the ACNA. Since 2018, he has been leading St. Thomas Anglican, an ACC mission in Fullerton, California. The session was moderated by Joel West, a member of the Continuing Forward executive committee.
The major topic of the webinar was an overview of the process of planting a new Anglican church. It began with how planting started — whether with clergy or laity — and deciding how, where and why to plant.
Fr. Kevin then described both the general process — and his own personal experience — with the process of launching a church. This included gathering the core group, raising funds, identifying key resources (including worship space) and attracting enough people to launch. Overall, his recommendation was that for all aspects of operations — worship, singing, children’s ministry — the new mission should do its activity well or not at all.
The culmination of all this preparation is launching the new church. Like other church planting experts, Fr. Kevin advised that it is essential to avoid launching before the mission is ready — both in terms of resources, and also with clear plans going forward.
Finally, Joel discussed how others can support and facilitate the efforts of clergy and laity to plant a specific church in a specific location. Some of this support must come from the local diocese, a nearby “mother church,” or other local resources.
The full presentation slides are provided below, and the video of the event is provided here.
Continuing Forward intends to provide further online and in person events on church planting. To help us prioritizing our offerings, we ask that all interested parties fill out our church planting survey.
