At age 58, Jon Shuler is pioneering a bold initiative aimed at starting 200 new churches by the year 2020.

Jon Shuler dreams about starting churches that start churches. Jon was the rector of a 2,000 member Anglican church in Knoxville, Tennessee when he accepted an invitation in 1994 to pioneer a new church planting ministry, the North American Missionary Society (NAMS). The brief was to facilitate church planting across the United States.

To date, Shuler and his associates have ‘birthed’ more than 60 new Anglican congregations in 37 Episcopal Church of the USA (ECUSA) dioceses.
But Shuler was discontent. At 55, this feisty Professor of Church Planting and Evangelism (Columbia University, South Carolina) and his wife of 36 years, Cynthia, began a new work – King of Kings Anglican Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. His reasons are compelling.

Jon Shuler is interviewed by Evangelism Ministry’s Stuart Robinson.

SR: Jon, tell us something of the history and vision of King of Kings.
JS: For many years, as General Secretary of NAMS, I had been arguing that we needed a new church plant in every strategic city (of one million or more) in the US. These fellowships would then serve as a base for church planting networks. The only problem was that I couldn’t find people who’d give it a go. So, in 2000, Cynthia and I decided to set the example. Our plan was (and is) to start 200 new churches by 2020 from the King of Kings base in Charlotte. We now have five and are working on three more.

SR: You’ve taught church planting in different contexts around the world. What have you learnt from the King of Kings exercise?
JS: Church planting is harder than you think, takes longer than you think, and is more expensive than you think – but is worth every ounce of energy it requires. I also believe that it is work for a younger man.
I’ve also come to see that the ‘DNA’ of church multiplication is missing from the classic Anglican ‘gene pool’. This means that too many traditionalist Anglicans in a core group or launch team will (or could) impede the new work.

SR: What then is your strategy for the evangelisation of Charlotte?
JS: Our strategy is simple. Plant one church that replicates itself and so it goes. You know, 70 per cent of the people in our city are not connected to a church, let alone saved. So, under God, we believe that it is now possible for us to plant at least 100 churches here by 2013. I will be 68 (and 75 when we reach our target of 200!).
‘Great Commission Cells’ are where most of our discipling takes place. People learn to follow Christ within a dedicated small group of believers who share the vision for the work.

SR: King of Kings is aligned with the [conservative] Anglican Mission in America (AMiA)?
JS: Right. Liberalism has decimated the ECUSA in my lifetime, I believe. The recent problems in ECUSA in relation to the authority of Scripture and sexuality have stiffened our will to serve only the Lord Jesus and his Kingdom – not any kind of ‘Anglican dream’.

SR: What are the major challenges you face?
JS: We are planting into an urban environment with very high property values – some of the world’s wealthiest people live here. Secondly, ‘church people’ who come to us are usually not well discipled. Remedial work is time consuming. Thirdly, the labourers are few; finding people who embrace what we believe God has called us to do is a rarity.

SR: How might we pray for you?
JS: We are experiencing a growth spurt at King of Kings (150 per cent over the last year). Please pray that so many newcomers will not dilute our vision and values. We have more opportunities than we do resources; we need servant hearted people first, finances second. We are asking the Lord to raise up four new church planters for 2004 and five for 2005. Pray that we’ll stay focused. At the end of the day we want to see lives transformed over and above goals met.