Church Growth Movement

Background

The movement arose within evangelicalism as an effort to study the causes of church growth through surveys, statistics, and sociology and to apply the findings to evangelism and mission. It grew out of the experience of the American Donald McGavran (1897–1990), a third-generation missionary in India. McGavran observed that, even within the same region, churches that barely grew existed alongside churches that grew rapidly. He concluded that social factors such as caste (India's hereditary social hierarchy) and economic circumstances acted as barriers to the acceptance of the gospel.

Development

• 1955 McGavran published The Bridges of God, a study of how faith spreads along networks of family and friendship. The book is regarded as the starting point of the movement.
• 1961 The Institute of Church Growth opened at Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon.
• 1965 The institute faced closure because of the college's financial difficulties. Fuller Theological Seminary then established its School of World Mission and appointed McGavran as its founding dean. Ralph Winter, C. Peter Wagner, and others joined the faculty.
• 1970 In Understanding Church Growth, McGavran set forth the homogeneous unit principle, the claim that people like to become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic, or class barriers.
• 1974 At the International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, McGavran and others delivered plenary addresses, and Wagner led a church growth workshop. More than one hundred participants were associated with Fuller. The congress brought church growth theory to international attention.
• 1977 The Theology and Education Group of the Lausanne Movement held a consultation in Pasadena on the homogeneous unit principle.
• Wagner, McGavran's academic successor, defended the homogeneous unit principle in Our Kind of People (1978). From the early 1980s he emphasized spiritual gifts and signs and wonders (miraculous works) as driving forces of church growth. During this period he taught related courses at Fuller with John Wimber.

Outcomes and Influence

In the United States, the movement's principles were adapted into pastoral strategies for individual congregations. Some therefore regard the movement as the root of later developments, citing examples such as seeker services aimed at people unfamiliar with church and the spread of megachurches. Wagner's emphasis on signs and wonders is also reported to have been connected with the current known as the Third Wave.

In Korea, church growth studies are reported to have been introduced through seminary courses and translated books during the 1970s and 1980s, when churches were growing rapidly. They were reportedly drawn on widely in pastoral practice thereafter, in areas such as evangelism strategy, small-group ministry, and the assimilation of new believers.

Assessment

Supporters hold that the movement directed attention, in light of the Great Commission, to the actual fruit of disciples being made. They also credit it with enabling the effective use of mission resources through research and measurement.

Critics argued that the homogeneous unit principle could be used to justify divisions along lines of class and race. They also objected that it placed the sociological observation of "what is" ahead of the biblical standard of "what ought to be." In response, Wagner contended that the New Testament church itself largely grew along homogeneous lines, and he explained the principle as an attempt to respect the dignity of the individual.

In Korea, the movement is reportedly often mentioned in discussions that critically reexamine a growth-centered mindset that prioritizes membership numbers and the size of church buildings.