"Is the Church Growth Movement Really Working"
Some interesting, useful quotes from, Bill Hull,
Michael S. Horton (ed), Power Religion: The Selling Out of the Evangelical Church? (Chicago: Moody, 1992).
A Book Review by Mr. Ralph Tate "And yet, the evangelical church seems to have become like the child with a new toy. As churches and pastors expect a more clever gadgetry from the marketing wizards, the latter are encouraged to become increasingly creative until the methods eventually bury the message. For that reason, the church growth movement should not be a primer for building effective churches; it has a sociological base, it is data driven, and it worships a the altar of pragmatism. It esteems that which works above all and defines success in worldly and short-sighted terms. It offers models that cannot be reproduced and leaders who cannot be imitated. The principles of modern business are revered more than doctrine; the latter, in fact, often being perceived as being a detriment or at least a distraction to church growth." (p. 142)
"The church growth movement does not produce lasting results, a point that has been recognized within the church growth movement. Though unwilling to concede 'anything wrong' with church growth principles they had developed, one prominent church growth advocate was quoted in an article in Christianity Today as acknowledging that 'somehow they don't work'". (p. 142)
"George Barna tells us that we are only replacing the dead, that the evangelical body is not growing. Churches are growing by the rearranging of the saints. Evangelicals are simply playing 'musical churches', moving around to more exciting, larger churches. The megachurch's feeder system is the smaller church and disgruntled believers who have quit their churches. What's going to happen when that feeder system dries up? What we are not doing is penetrating our world for Christ. Real evangelism, real discipleship, real outreach is simply not taking place on any serious level, as the cold facts plainly illustrate." (p. 143)
"But church growth has not happened, and instead of church growth principles replacing evangelism, they have merely succeeded in undermining it by placing success in the hands of technicians instead of the believing community as it discharges its duties in bearing witness to the gospel." (p. 143)
"It is seductive. ... The danger is to address church renewal through managerial technique. In this scenario, the pastor uncritically shapes his role on the new wave of leadership technique. Or he uses support groups and 'felt needs' as a primary means of evangelism. Before long, like any corporate executive, the pastor becomes a slave to the marketplace; he has to tell the consumers what they want to hear if he wants to keep his job and secure results. A 'user friendly' church, if by that we mean catering to the cultural and selfish goals of contemporary fashion, is an unfaithful church." (p. 144)
"The gospel is confrontational in its very nature. Any presentation of the gospel that does not present a challenge to the unbeliever to radically change his or her thinking and attitudes towards God and His saving work in Christ is not the same gospel preached in the pages of the New Testament! Today, people can be happy, healthy members of evangelical churches without ever having to face a God who is anything more than a 'buddy', a Savior who is anything more than an example, and a Holy Spirit who is anything more than a power source. And that can happen without faith, without repentance, and without conversion." (p. 144)
"The trouble comes when we employ those tools uncritically, without careful biblical scrutiny. The more the church accomodates to culture, the more it becomes secularized itself and, therefore, incapable of offering solutions as a hand outside a ruined culture, reaching into the pit to pull the captives free. A secularized church cannot make disciples ...." (p. 145)
"The perilous dual message is that secondary issues (structural) are primary and primary issues (doctrinal) are secondary." (p. 145)
Ego: p. 145-146. Talks about pastors becoming successful secular executives.
"It is based on growing models. Starting with principles, not models, is the key to building leaders. Therefore, it is the key to meaningful church growth as well. If you want short-term results and a dependent future, encourage leaders to rely on models. If you desire long term growth and a continual stream of working models emerging from those principles, start building a philosophy [should be: theology] of ministry." (p. 146-147)
"The mad rush to 'successful working models' is the new evangelical holy grail of pragmatism. Never mind that my preaching might be shallow and redundant, or that the music doesn't reflect much thought and effort - there must be a quicker, easier way to the big church like so-and-so down the street!" (p. 147)
"We are in danger of having an entire generation of pastors committed to clever programming instead of Scripture. That, of course, will not happen with any official declarations; in fact, those who engage in this idolatry of method will not even really think they are doing so." (p. 147)
"Before anything else, genuine church growth and renewal concern the spiritual heal of the church, not just its structural practicalities. A church may be growing and successful but be utterly destitute of spiritual life and sound teaching." (p. 151)
"Whereas the church growth movement has, as I stated at the beginning, contributed some valuable insights, the scales measuring results tip more toward frustration than growth. ...
"Those facts tell us two important things that touch our subject. First, since the total number of believers is not increasing, we are doing a poor job of evangelism. Second, the number of smaller churches will decrease as the number of megachurches increase. ... If the megachurches increase in number they will pull from the already existing 90 percent of churches (200 or fewer). ...
"Unless and until the highly talented church planters start penetrating the truly unreached, they will keep reaching the reached. Therefore, the larger churches will continue to expand while the smaller churches will shrink. That is why George Barna predicts that 100,000 churches will close during the decade of the nineties." (p. 152-153)
"..., a lack of theology of mission is a primary reason for church sloth and decline." (p. 156)
"The real killer is the comprimised, weak-willed, and theologically flabby team the evangelical church is putting on the field." (p. 156)
"The bottom line in this is simple: the figures clearly demonstrate that the church growth movement is going nowhere, in spite of all its dazzling apparatus. We must get beyond growth through technology and realize that the gospel doesn't need to be marketed; it needs to be preached from the pulpit and brought personally to non-Christians in their own environment." (p. 158).
