Church planting matters because God is a missionary God. Indeed, He commands us in Matthew 28:18-20 to make disciples of all nations. Baptists often have heeded this call, and yet the painful truth is that in our own country God’s gospel is not clearly, consistently, or comprehensively displayed.

The task of our churches, therefore, is to create and implement a missiology that will enable us to preach the gospel, make disciples, and plant churches in an increasingly diverse array of American socio-cultural contexts. We must plant churches that are sound in their doctrinal foundations, contextual in their cultural forms, and aggressively missional in their orientation, intent upon crossing cultural and linguistic boundaries.

For this reason, I am grateful for the PLNTD Church Planting Network, which has emerged as a grass-roots network of confessional and missional Baptist churches. I hope and pray that God will use this network in the formation of a cascading chains of churches planting churches, and of church planters sharpening and assisting other church planters.

-- Bruce Ashford, dean of the College at Southeastern and professor of philosophy and intercultural studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary