The intention of this thesis is to explain the concept of missional church planting and explore its theological foundations. The concept is designed to draw out effective practices for church planting based on the proposition that the church is intrinsically missional. In my opinion, the biggest problem of the Korean church’s church planting ministries is the lack of theological reflection. The Korean church has focused only on techniques and methods of church planting, most of them being reckless. However, such reckless methods have stopped working since the 1990s when the Korean church began to stagnate and lose its social influence. In addition, there is a need for new paradigms that are better suited to the spread of postmodern culture in the Korean society. Church planting is a core ministry in evangelizing to the world according to God’s will. However, it could be an obstacle to God’s mission if it falls into ecclesiastical expansionism without the right missiological perspective. In order to construct the concept of missional church planting, I suggest five key thoughts: (1) creative ministries beyond mere church planting, (2) recognizing the missional essence of the church, (3) orienting towards the fulfillment of the Great Commission, (4) adjusting to the cultural environment, (5) growing dynamically and reproducing daughter churches. I also suggest the concepts of both the organic church and the missional church for constructing the ecclesiology of missional church planting. On one hand, an organic church based on the biblical concept of ‘the body of Christ’ secures healthy growth from its organic life and inner dynamics; as a natural result, it emphasizes planting new churches. The church as an organism has a duty of reproducing other churches; such a duty is divided into hiving off and supporting. On the other hand, a missional church is founded on the fact that mother churches as well as newly planted churches have an apostolic mandate toward the world. Furthermore, the concept of missional churches plays a role of a rudder, explaining what a church should be, what it should do, and how it should organize itself for the purpose of performing its apostolate.

• 최동규(서울신학대학교, 교회성장학) | Choi Dongkyu