Witness Moment

Gaining Practical Experience in Church Planting

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, students join LCMS Church Planting staff to learn about efforts underway in the LCMS South Wisconsin District.

Story by Cheryl Magness | Photography by Erik M. Lunsford | Winter 2026

When the Rev. Dr. Quintin Cundiff, director of LCMS Church Planting, speaks 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.”

In October, a group of students and a professor from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (CSL), joined Church Planting staff to be a part of that mission by gaining hands-on experience in church-planting efforts currently underway in the LCMS South Wisconsin District. Prior to visiting the district, the students took part in two intensive Saturday classroom sessions taught on the CSL campus. Then, from Oct. 17 to 19, they traveled to Wisconsin to visit three cities with LCMS church plants in various stages of development: Slinger, Wis.; Viroqua, Wis.; and Monroe, Wis.

The model that is guiding the Synod’s current church-planting emphasis was developed by the Rev. Dr. Mark Wood, who formerly served in the LCMS Office of National Mission. It makes extensive use of demographic data and draws on project management principles to gauge progress toward the goal. It also relies heavily, in the earliest stages, on a core group of laypeople to do the initial footwork.

Congregation member Carlene Geier and Jason Dulworth, a seminarian at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, canvass a neighborhood near Hill Country Lutheran Church in Viroqua, Wis., on Oct. 18, 2025.

The Rev. Dr. Quintin Cundiff, director of LCMS Church Planting, and the Rev. Jacob Eichers, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, La Crosse, Wis., speak with seminarians from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, at Hill Country Lutheran Church, Viroqua, Wis., on Oct. 18, 2025.

In Slinger, the CSL group met with a church-planting team that is still in the feasibility phase. 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 the Divine Service in the church’s storefront location.

Before the group went out around Hill Country, Viroqua, they were briefed on best practices by Cundiff and took part in some role-playing exercises. They then canvassed the neighborhood in pairs consisting of a seminarian and a congregation member or Church Planting team member.

Congregation members arrive for the Divine Service at Peace Valley Lutheran Church in Monroe, Wis., on Oct. 19, 2025.

The Rev. Joshua Benish distributes the Sacrament during the Divine Service at Peace Valley. Below, Noah Bauer, a seminarian at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, chats with church members after the service.

Jason Dulworth, a seminarian from St. Clair, Mo., who is in his second year at CSL, said he was pleasantly surprised at “how willing people were to engage with a man in a collar. The church member I was with was great too. We had several good conversations about the lives of people we engaged with. They were, for the most part, open to conversations about God, Jesus and church. In particular, the answers given by people to the question, ‘What is your favorite Bible story?’ were fascinating. Even people who said they didn’t have a Bible in the house had an answer to the question.”

Learn More

Read a Reporter article about a similar workshop held for seminarians from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne

Support the national mission work of the LCMS

Cheryl Magness

Managing editor of Reporter and staff writer for LCMS Communications.