Ed Stetzer is the Southern Baptist church planting guru. Planting Missional Churches functions like a textbook for a seminary class on church planting. By missional, Stetzer means “doing mission right where you are” (19). For Stetzer, it means thinking like a missionary to our own American culture. A missional church then has a culture whereby it thinks like a missionary and is trying to take the gospel to the surrounding community (19-20).

Stetzer then walks through the biblical foundations for church planting, how the church should be structured, creating small groups and other practical matters. It is a good introduction to the basics.