(Re)Planting Missional Churches Conference: The Theological Dimensions of Why

Offered by Princeton Theological Seminary’s Center for Church Planting and Revitalization and the Office of Continuing Education, with support from the Mills Seminar in Parish Ministry

The American scene of the Christian church is enormously complex. Most neighborhoods have no shortage of church options, yet statistics point to a steady decline of membership in established churches. For sale signs mark vacant church buildings. Meanwhile, radically untraditional megachurches and immigrant congregations experience burgeoning growth.

In this context, why should anyone plant a church, or try to revitalize one? What are the theological issues at the center of such an undertaking? Are some rationales for church planting and revitalization theologically problematic? On April 12-14, 2018, the Center for Church Planting and Revitalization at Princeton invited four leaders with theological expertise and on-the-ground experience from across the spectrum of American Christianity to address the “why” of church planting and revitalization today. It’s our hunch that the “why” questions need to be clarified before we get very far into conversations about the “what” and the “where.”

Listen to the presentations from this conference: