Caring Deeply About Church Planting
Never has the need for church planting been more acute or more necessary. The world around us is beset with problems of every kind—political, social, economic, racial, and moral. The list is endless, and the difficulties are systemic and entrenched. The best minds, institutions, and efforts are being marshaled to address these problems, but are we getting to the root issues? Could it be that the solutions lie elsewhere?
Indeed, the greatest reformer to ever live told us the hope we need comes from the church. Yes, the church, as anemic and as irrelevant as it may seem to some (or many). Jesus said of the community He would birth, "You are the light of the world and the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13-14). The church, in all its forms, from small to big, whether found in the countryside or in megacities is God’s redeeming force for society, for culture, and for the nations. The church is God’s secret weapon and His change agent for the world. He’s all in on the church.
As such the church is God’s organizational servant on the earth. It’s to be an enterprise of the highest quality. It’s to sparkle with kingdom power, love, and truth. As Ephesians 3:10 states, "[God’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms." For such a task, outstanding leaders are needed. Great leaders are not just for the arenas of business, politics, or the military. The church must also focus on recruiting, training, and deploying the best. As the leader goes, so goes the organization.
This book assists in the great endeavor of planting churches. It gives church planters a biblical and conceptual framework so they can be armed with a map for how to go about establishing new works. This framework is rooted in the humble yet glorious, small yet significant, quiet yet powerful ways of Jesus.
Rich Kao has been in pastoral and church planting ministry for nearly thirty years. He was Senior Pastor of City Hill Fellowship in Minneapolis, Minnesota, before founding Five Stones Church in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Rich has been involved in a variety of start-ups, humanitarian and leadership ventures, and business concerns. He is a member of the Cabinet of Canadians, and has served the Harper administration and presently the Trudeau administration on
issues of religious freedom and human rights.
Rich also leads the Five Stones church planting team, with a focus on planting churches in global cities around the world. He is a frequent conference speaker in Asia.
Prior to being in ministry Rich worked in the diagnostic and pharmaceutical industries, holding research positions at Kallestad Labs (Hoffman-La Roche) and 3M Co. He is currently a director with Measurement Technology Laboratories in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, a high-tech company specializing in air quality measurement.
He is also Founder and President of a new green company, Hive City, a design studio that specializes in green event architecture, retail elements, and custom branding by utilizing repurposed paperboard.
He has a B.A. in Biology from Carleton College, an M.S. in Immunology from the University of Minnesota, and a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership (D.SL) from Regent University.