Why Anglican Church Planters Should “Always Be Gathering!”

Our newest Continuing Forward video features an interview with Anglican church planter Fr. Tony Melton, about why he passionately believes any church planter (and many existing churches) should “always be gathering.” Put another way, evangelizing the community is not a one-time pre-launch activity, but an ongoing responsibility of the church and its people.

As a curate at Chapel of the Cross in Dallas, in his first summer, he was told to knock on doors throughout the local neighborhood — exactly as Bp. Paul Hewett recommended in his 2023 talk on “Recovering Kingdom Thinking.”

Fr. Tony moved to the northern Atlanta suburbs in July 2019 to plant a new church for the Reformed Episcopal Church, as part of what became the REC-100 initiative. For the initial period, he, his wife and three (soon four) kids worshipped at St. Barnabas, Bp. Chad Jones’ home (APA) parish in Dunwoody, Georgia.

In March 2020, in the first week of Covid lockdowns, he planted his church, Christ the King. The church calls its members to a life of faith based on Thornton’s threefold rule: weekly Eucharist, Daily Office, and a personal life of prayer with spiritual direction.

Pre-Launch Gathering

In Fall 2024, when teaching Anglican Church Planting course at Cranmer Theological House (along with Fr. Michael Vinson of the REC and Joel West of Continuing Forward), he described the five phases of planting a new church as 5 Gs. The revised framework (to be used in their 2026 class) is: Germinate, Gather, Galvanize, Gear up, and Go, beginning with the preliminary planning (Germinate) and culminating in going live with a public Sunday service (Go).

Every church planter knows he must grow his initial nucleus into enough people to create a self-sufficient parish. Evangelical church planters emphasize the importance of having a large enough turnout on the public launch. Launching prematurely is a common mistake made by Anglican church planters

Indeed, as others have recommended, Fr. Tony said the top priority during the Gather phase is to block off time for the process of gathering, which he described as having three components:

1. Networking: conscientiously making new contacts to meet people and introduce the church. In his first three months, Fr. Tony had 500 conversations (3 minutes or more) with someone new.

2. Incarnational ministry: a clergyman visibly present (in clericals) in the community throughout the week and ready for conversation, whether working in a coffee shop or coaching a Little League game.

3. Inviting people to periodic liminal events, that enable the Celtic ministry approach of “belonging before believing”. The best-known example of such “Front Porch” ministries is Theology on Tap.

While laity will find #2 more difficult, he believes as the launch team (and later parish) grow, they must support and be involved in these gathering efforts.

“Always Be Gathering”

However, Fr. Tony emphasized, gathering does not end with a launch event: gathering is something that must continue throughout the life of the church.

Instead, Fr. Tony calls church planters to "always be gathering". As he explains:

It's a mode of being to where you're always trying to bring people that are not within the church into the church. …

It's this disposition of the heart that they are not yet in the in the room … and I as a priest have the ministry of Reconciliation. I will be judged unless I go out and compel them to come in and figure out what it's going to take in this moment to be a persuader of men and women to join the church.

He added, "I think that it's a message that, the classic sacramentally-minded Anglo-Catholic Anglicans need to hear." Of particular important, he argues, is reaching the millions of recently dechurched throughout America.

Successful gathering also requires a well-defined process for welcoming visitors from the minute they set foot in the parking lot until they become communicant members of the parish. The congregation is also called during Epiphanytide to invite friends to visit the church.

Shifting the Parish Mindset

This orientation is manifested throughout the life of the church plant and parish. Fr. Tony chosethe example of a church plant’s first hire. The planter might be inclined to hire someone to serve the existing people — rather than another clergyman who will be focused on reaching out to those not yet in the room.

Such an emphasis has its own risks. While the clergy prioritize both spiritual direction and pastoral emergencies, Fr, Tony said the emphasis and energy devoted to evangelism leave him less time for casual conversation. As a result,

I think we've lost those that have been spoiled by consumerism. But the people that have stayed, which is the majority of people, the only way they truly find themselves is by giving themselves away. It's the only way to make someone holy, is to become not selfish, and to actually cultivate, over time, a care for the people that are not yet in the room.

Church Planting Parish

Living out its call to reach others, CTK has trained up clergy to plant four other churches. Two are local, sent with parishioners from CTK: Fr. Spencer Almaral leading Incarnation Anglican in Canton Georgia, while Fr. Hunter Van Wagenan is preparing to lead another local church plant.

In two other cases, the church trained curates to plan elsewhere. After five months in Atlanta, Fr. Jesse Barkalow returned to Colorado to lead Holy Cross Anglican in Colorado Springs. More recently, after four months in Atlanta, Fr. Alex Marlowe moved his family to launch a new church in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Fr. Tony argued that any parish with 75 members should hire their own church planting curate. In this case, the parish would seek out a mission field 25-35 minutes away, and prepare both the curate and existing parishioners to be sent out to plant a daughter church.

The complete video is on the Continuing Forward YouTube channel.

Course on Anglican Church Planting

Fr. Tony and his colleagues are preparing to teach Anglican Church Planting at Cranmer Theological House again in January. The main emphasis of the course is developing a complete plan to plant a new Anglican church in a specific location, with ongoing instruction and feedback from three instructors throughout the course.

The course meets online on Thursday evenings (8pm ET, 5pm PT) from Jan 29 to May 7, (except Feb. 19 and Apr. 2). For more information, see the seminary website or email ContinueFwd@gmail.com.