I agree with Swanny that “church planters” may not be the best term for “church planters” but since “church planters” call themselves “church planters,” and so far, I don’t know another name to call them (apostles? blech. missionaries? meh.), I will go with “church planters.”
Whatever they are, there does seem to be a new form of them appearing around the world right now. Sure, many are still doing it the “old” way, where they raise $300,000 and purchase state-of-the-art sound equipment, do lots of radio and TV advertisements, and try to make a big splash in the community. But the new breed of church planters focus on completely different things.
They want to plant churches for unchurched people, and especially for those who will not ever go to a traditional church. They want to spend time with people who don’t want to sing Christian songs, share prayer requests, and listen to someone teach the Bible for 45 minutes. This new breed of church planters love hanging out with people who use use foul language and have bad habits. They are not afraid of questions from people who aren’t sure there is a God. They don’t run away from people who sin a lot, and sin blatantly.