Seminarians learn about church planting

Carlene Geier, a member of Hill Country Lutheran Church in Viroqua, Wis., and Jason Dulworth, a student at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, canvass a neighborhood near the church on Saturday, Oct. 18. (LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford)

By Cheryl Magness

In October, a group of students and a professor from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (CSL), joined staff of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Office of National Mission (ONM) for an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in church planting by witnessing efforts currently underway in the LCMS South Wisconsin District (SWD). Prior to visiting the SWD, the students took part in two intensive Saturday classroom sessions taught in St. Louis. Then, from Oct. 17 to 19, they traveled to Wisconsin to visit three towns in the SWD with church plants in various stages of development: Slinger, Wis.; Viroqua, Wis.; and Monroe, Wis.

In Slinger, the group met with a team that is still studying the potential for a new church plant in the area. In Viroqua, they joined members of Hill Country Lutheran Church in canvassing a neighborhood to raise awareness of the church. And in Monroe, they gathered with the members of Peace Valley Lutheran Church for Divine Service in the church’s storefront location.

Gabriel Lange, an exchange student from Brazil who is spending this year studying at CSL, said that he wanted to learn about church planting because “when we talk about church, we talk about mission — not a mission we decide to do, but the divine mission of preaching the Gospel to every person. … When I heard about this workshop, I quickly became interested because, after all, proclaiming Jesus Christ is the mission of every Christian, especially a future minister of the Word.”

Jason Dulworth, a second-year seminarian from St. Clair, Mo., said he was impressed by the “comprehensive yet accessible” presentation from the ONM and its focus on planting “robust, distinctively Lutheran congregations. I learned that, though every church plant is unique, they all face similar problems, have similar goals and are met with similar constraints.”

Before the group went out to walk the neighborhood around Hill Country, they were briefed on best practices by LCMS Director of Church Planting Rev. Dr. Quintin Cundiff and practiced via some role-playing exercises. They then canvassed the neighborhood in pairs consisting of a seminarian and a congregation member or Church Planting team member.

As Cundiff speaks and teaches about the theology of church planting, he is careful to remind listeners who is doing the planting, and why.

“Mission is not something that the church does because it seems like a fun diversion or a way to gain influence,” Cundiff explains, “but because there are people in our world whom God desires but who do not yet know Him. Mission is Christ’s work. Jesus sent His apostles into the world to proclaim the Gospel to all people. Our work of engaging in mission is simply in keeping with God’s desire.”

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Learn more about LCMS Church Planting.

Posted Dec. 16, 2025