Misplaced Pages

#478521

34-662: The Church Growth movement began with the publication of Donald McGavran 's book The Bridges of God . McGavran was a third-generation Christian missionary to India , where his observations of how churches grow went beyond typical theological discussion to discern sociological factors that affected receptivity to the Christian Gospel among non-Christian peoples. In 1965, he organized the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California , which

68-406: A deep engagement in the social sciences, in disciplines such as anthropology, history, geography, communication theory, comparative religious studies, social studies, education, psychology, and inter-religious relations. Missiology has thus included topics like inculturation , contextualization , interfaith relations , and reverse mission . Missiology as an academic discipline appeared only in

102-658: A discipline. He founded the first scientific missionary periodical in 1874, Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift , and was appointed the chair of missionary science at the University of Halle in Germany in 1897. His three-volume work on Protestant mission theory Evangelische Missionlehre and his survey of the history of Protestant missionary work were extremely important for the young discipline. Influenced by Warneck's work, Catholic church historian Joseph Schmidlin  [ de ] began lecturing in missiology in 1910 at

136-484: A manner relevant to them. Paul's missionary journeys, it was argued, used the same cultural relevance, which eventually led to the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15) which determined whether Gentile converts must adopt Jewish culture in order to become Christian. Stetzer states that the Church Growth movement went astray when it became overly simplified into a series of formulas for church growth, and ultimately led to

170-591: A wide range of activities to draw in families at different stages in their lives. Four key approaches include: Critics from other Christian groups suggest the movement is "only about numbers" and "success" oriented. Additional criticism has been level in recent years by authors noting that the church growth movement has coincided with the rise in Christian celebrity culture. Karl Vaters, particularly has been blunt about this, noting that "Christian celebrity culture guarantees moral failure." Vaters' recent book "De-sizing

204-661: A willingness to apply research to attracting members, including quantitative methods . Scholars and leaders from many denominations continue to meet annually to discuss the implications of these insights as the American Society for Church Growth . The "seeker-sensitive" label is associated with some megachurches in the United States where Christian messages are often imparted by means of elaborate creative elements emphasizing secular popular culture , such as popular music styles. Such churches often also develop

238-556: Is the academic study of the Christian mission history and methodology. It began to be developed as an academic discipline in the 19th century. Broadly speaking, missiology is "an interdisciplinary field of inquiry into Christian mission or missions that utilizes theological, historical, and various social scientific methods." It has historically focused on the missionary and evangelistic work of Protestant and Catholic denominations from Europe and North America into other continents. But

272-557: The Great Commission , winning the world for Christ, and saving lost humanity. This was the view McGavran held when he returned to the United States for his higher education. While attending Yale Divinity School, McGavran was introduced to the teachings of the influential Christian professor H. Richard Niebuhr. According to McGavran, Niebuhr "used to say that mission was everything the church does outside its four walls. It

306-706: The International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS). In European academia, especially in German-speaking contexts, there is the growing dominance of the term "intercultural theology." The close interaction between missiology, social sciences and culture made scholars to shape the discipline within the framework of history and sociology and remind about the "colonial past of missions" when Christians often attempted to use their political and economic power in evangelism. Many missiologists are now disavowing these methods and attempt to construct

340-481: The University of Munster and was appointed to the first chair of Catholic missiology at the same university in 1914. Since the 1950s, missiology has generally been discussed within the theological framework of the missio Dei , the "Mission of God." This has shifted the discussion away from "missions" in the plural, an exclusive focus on the evangelizing of the non-Christian in overseas contexts, to "mission" in

374-516: The 19th century. It was the Scottish missionary Alexander Duff who first developed a systematic theory of mission and was appointed in 1867 to the first chair in missiology in the world, the new chair of Evangelistic Theology in New College, Edinburgh . The chair was short-lived and closed after Duff's departure. Gustav Warneck is often recognized as the founder of Protestant missiology as

SECTION 10

#1732781100479

408-411: The Church Growth movement was to reach groups of people, as opposed to random individuals, with the gospel within the United States. The goal was to understand how to share Christianity in a culturally appropriate way, given the changing climate in the United States. McGavran stated that in order to reach people of different cultures, their culture must be first understood, in order to present the gospel in

442-554: The Church" argues that an obsessive focus on church growth strategies have also contributed to a rise in pastoral discouragement. In 2007, Willow Creek Community Church conducted a major survey that revealed that heavy involvement into programs and activities did not necessarily translate into discipleship unless the church had a clear path for believers' development. In response, Chuck Colson stated, "I am cheering Willow Creek on. Think what could happen if, instead of tickling ears, all

476-670: The Fuller Evangelistic Association to apply his church growth methodologies to churches around the world with Fuller serving as their platform. He also created the Institute for American Church Growth in order to focus in on growth in America which was distinct as a nation state due to its ethnic and cultural diversity in its demographics. Based on his lectures in Eugene and later at Fuller, McGavran published

510-564: The Gospels were translated into Chhattisgarhi . In 1958, McGavran resigned from his mission work and proposed to a number of American seminaries the possibility of starting a department focused on the subject of church growth . It was not until 1961 when the Institute of Church Growth was established at Northwest Christian College , now Bushnell University , in Eugene, Oregon . Eventually in 1965, David Allan Hubbard invited McGavran to become

544-459: The book Understanding Church Growth (1970). In the work, McGavran articulated a key feature of his church growth theory, known as the "homogenous unit principle." Drawing from his experiences in India of mass movements, the homogenous unit principle reasoned that individuals are more likely to convert to Christianity en masse when they share similar demographics. Missiologist Missiology

578-500: The churches gave the people real meat." Colson did not outright praise or condemn the church growth movement, instead stating that "During the Reformation, the reformers had a phrase for this spirit. It was called semper reformandi , or always reforming. The more we continue to understand that we have not arrived, and the more willing we are to adopt the humble approach that we and our churches are in need of continual reformation,

612-638: The decline in Christian numbers in the West has been met by the rise of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians in the Majority World "for which mission and evangelism are their raison d'être." Through missionary work in new contexts and the gradual shift in the World Christian population from the West to the non-Western world, Christians have had to grapple with new questions. While biblical and theologically rooted, missiology has therefore sought

646-424: The faith. Yet, in the other eleven areas the church was growing by one hundred percent, one hundred fifty percent, and even two hundred percent a decade. He wondered why some churches were growing, while others, often just a few miles away, were not. During this same time period, McGavran was quietly changing his view of mission and theology. In the formative years of his childhood, mission was held to be carrying out

680-435: The first dean of School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California . McGavran recruited a number of top missiologists and established the largest missions related faculty for any school in the world. McGavran's leadership also helped Fuller's School of World Mission to become the largest missions school in the world by number of students. McGavran, along with his pupil Peter Wagner , created

714-680: The influence of John R. Mott and the Student Volunteer Movement , McGavran went to India as a missionary in 1923, working primarily as an educator under appointment with the United Christian Missionary Society of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) . In 1927 he became director of religious education for his mission, before returning to the United States to work on his Ph.D. at Columbia University. After his return to India, he

SECTION 20

#1732781100479

748-451: The more our churches and lives will come to reflect the God we preach." Donald McGavran Donald Anderson McGavran (December 15, 1897 – July 10, 1990) was a missiologist and founding Dean of the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California , and is known for his work related to evangelism and religious conversion . McGavran is widely regarded as

782-488: The most influential missiologist of the 20th century. McGavran identified differences of caste and economic social position as major barriers to the spread of Christianity . His work substantially changed the methods by which missionaries identify and prioritize groups of persons for missionary work and stimulated the Church Growth Movement. McGavran developed his church growth principles after rejecting

816-484: The other theological and social sciences differ to a great extent. While it continues to be considered a Christian theological discipline, some have contested whether missiology is a strictly church discipline or academic one. There are several academic societies for missiology, such as the North American organizations the American Society of Missiology (ASM) and Evangelical Missiological Society (EMS), and

850-581: The popular view that mission was ‘philanthropy, education, medicine, famine relief, evangelism, and world friendship’ and become convinced that good deeds – while necessary – ‘must never replace the essential task of mission, discipling the peoples of the earth’. McGavran was also a co-founder of the Evangelical Missiological Society. McGavran was born in Damoh , India, in 1897. Following his father and grandfather, McGavran became

884-565: The services of Pickett to study why similar mass movements to Christ were not happening in their ministry area of mid-India. As supervisor of eighty missionaries and various medical and educational institutions, McGavran had become concerned that after several decades of work his mission had only about thirty small churches, all of which were experiencing little growth. At the same time, he saw "people movements" in scattered areas of India where thousands of people in groups, rather than as individuals, were becoming Christians. McGavran assisted Pickett in

918-402: The singular, a broader topic including a multiplicity of God's activities in the world. Hence, " Mission is the participation of the people of God in God's action in the world. The theological and critical reflection about mission is called missiology ." [emphasis in original] Today missiology is taught at many Christian theological schools and its scope of study and relations with

952-562: The study and became the chief architect of the study in Madhya Pradesh. In 1937 McGavran wrote a book called Founders of the India Church in which he turned the spotlight on humble Indians who began people movements. McGavran discovered that of the 145 areas where mission activity was taking place, 134 had grown only eleven percent between 1921 and 1931. The churches in those areas were not even conserving their own children in

986-556: The third generation of missionaries in his family. He received his early education in Central Provinces, India. After his family returned to the United States, he went to school in Tulsa and Indianapolis . He attended Butler University (B.A., 1920), Yale Divinity School (B.D., 1922), the former College of Mission , Indianapolis (M.A., 1923), and, following two terms in India, Columbia University (Ph.D., 1936). Through

1020-418: The very thing McGavran sought to avoid, namely a new kind of mission station. Stetzer states too many of the churches following the emerging formulas became a socially-engineered mission station, which drew people out of their own cultures, into Christian warehouses and away from their neighborhoods and communities where they lived. Two key attributes of Church Growth are a passion for the Great Commission and

1054-737: Was elected field secretary in 1932 and placed in charge of administering the denomination's entire India mission. During his time in India, McGavran was deeply influenced by J. Waskom Pickett , once saying: "I lit my candle at Pickett’s fire." In 1928 Pickett was asked by the National Christian Council of India, Burma, and Ceylon to make an extensive study of the phenomenon in India of "Christian mass movements," that is, mass conversion of certain sectors of Indian society. McGavran read Pickett's book and recommended to his mission headquarters in Indianapolis that they employ

Church Growth - Misplaced Pages Continue

1088-404: Was philanthropy, education, medicine, famine relief, evangelism, and world friendship." McGavran espoused this view of mission when he went to the mission field in 1923. As he became involved in education, social work, and evangelism in India, he gradually reverted to his earlier position that mission was about making disciples of Jesus Christ. When McGavran's three-year term as mission secretary

1122-446: Was the institutional homebase for Church Growth studies until after his death. It has been the training ground for tens of thousands of pastors and missionaries of one hundred mainly evangelical denominations . McGavran used statistical research to show that the typical missiological strategy of the time, mission stations, was largely ineffective in reaching people for Christ, as well as ineffective in discipleship. The original goal of

1156-530: Was up in 1936, he was not reelected. According to McGavran, in effect the mission said to him, “Since you are talking so much about evangelism and church growth, we are going to locate you in a district where you can practice what you preach”. McGavran accepted his new appointment and spent the next seventeen years trying to start a people movement among the Satnamis caste . About one thousand people were won to Christ, fifteen small village churches were planted, and

#478521