Christian Concerns, Church Growth Movement Links

Church Growth Movement

Updated April 3, 2004

It all sounds so very good. Who wouldn't want to reach the lost? Who would want to create barriers? Yet, in our efforts to dream big in our missions, our focus seems to be slipping off of our Savior and onto ourselves. A spirit of pride is seeping in - pride in what OUR church is doing to reach out - pride in what OUR church has to offer - pride in what we're DOING to serve God. At the same time, we seem to be losing our trust IN God.

This web page is a start - the barest beginning - of an attempt to understand what is happening. Perhaps you have a better grip on it than I do. If so, please write me with your comments: E-mail me

Links

A thorough, introductory look at the movement:

Gary Gilley, Market-Driven Church, Parts 1-4:

Note: By reading all four parts plus the "Entertainment" papers from the fifth link, you will get most of the material in his This Little Church Went to Market book.

http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/read_articles.asp?id=50

http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/read_articles.asp?id=51

http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/read_articles.asp?id=52

http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/read_articles.asp?id=53

Other Gary Gilley papers that relate to this subject

http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/articles_list.asp?id=3

The Purpose Driven Life, An evaluation

http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/read_articles.asp?id=1

http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/read_articles.asp?id=2

Many other good articles:

http://www.svchapel.org/resources/articles/articles_list.asp?id=2

Dennis Costella, An Analysis of Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven" Church Growth Strategy

http://www.fundamentalbiblechurch.org/Foundation/fbcsdlbk.htm

Research Paper on this subject

Laura M. Kaczorowski, Willow Creek - Conversion without Commitment

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/superch.html#acknow

Other Articles of Interest

Berit Kjos, Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 1

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2003/1-purpose.htm

Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 2, Unity and Community

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/2-purpose.htm

Spirit-Led or Purpose-Driven? Part 3, Small Groups and the Dialectic Process

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/3-purpose.htm

The Shepherding Movement Comes of Age (By Lynn and Sarah Leslie)

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/shepherding.htm

John MacArthur, The Seeker-Sensitive Movement

http://www33.brinkster.com/museltof/seekersensitive.html

James Sundquist, WILLOWCREEK CHURCH & BILL HYBELS' THEOLOGY

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/willowcreek.html

Don Matzat, Marketing the Message

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/marketingthemessage.html

Christian Research Ministries, Pastor, Who is leading you astray?

http://www.crmspokane.org/pastorletter.htm

F.J. Smith, The New Evangelism, Willow Creek Style

http://www.agetwoage.org/Willow.htm

Brad Smith, Let's be sensitive to the real seeker!

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/seekersensitive.html

Orrel Steinkamp, Niche Marketing, Audience-Driven, Full Service Churches

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/orrel12.html

Ralph Dettwiler, Thoughts to Ponder - Too much emphasis on spiritual gifts?

http://www.behindthebadge.net/articles/a81.html

Some "On the Edge" viewpoints with merit

Paul Proctor, Hegelian Dialectic & the New World Order

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/2002/proctor/hegelian_dialectic.htm

Ralph Tate, LIVIN' LA VITA LOCO: TX District "Celebrate[s] Diversity" (Y'all Come, Now! Hear?)

http://www.concordtx.org/tdnews/tx_loco.htm

Leonard Payton, The Pride of Simplicity

http://www.modernreformation.org/mr95/JulAug/mr9504simplicity.html

Pastor Rick Pettey, "Purpose Driven Church": A Critique

http://reformationtoday.tripod.com/oldrtpage/id52.html

Pastor Joe Fisher, A Critique of "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren

http://www.consensuslutheran.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=323&mode=nested&order=0

Links to other Lutheran articles

http://www.reclaimingwalther.org/artcg.htm

More pages of links

Berit Kjos, The Changing Church

http://www.crossroad.to/News/Church/contents.html

The NEXT thing

There are some indications that we're already moving to the NEXT thing, and if you think it's hard to get a handle on the church growth movement, wait until you try to understand this one. Some of the "buzz words" are kingdom growth (instead of church growth), apostolic leadership, reaching your community for Christ, and "mission vs. maintenance." Some people think that this will be as big a reformation in the way we think about church as the Reformation in Martin Luther's day was. One of the books making the rounds in WELS circles is The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. That particular book is far enough removed from some of the original books that the thinking of Peter Wagner and others is no longer recognizable as being a problem. You won't hear about God "raising up new Apostles" or "restoring the office of Apostle" in our Lutheran churches, but the thinking is the same, regardless of the language used. This may be the link that connects the "Word of Faith" churches (the name it, claim it group) to the church growth, purpose driven movement.

I know it's controversial in Lutheran circles, but I believe the Bible teaches that we are heading for a one-world religion, and I also believe that these movements are helping us along in that direction. Again, if you would like to make comments about that possibility, please E-mail me.

This article makes some of the points of the book mentioned above, but much shorter:

Reggie McNeal, Revolution in Leadership: Training Apostles for Tomorrow’s Church

http://www.nmichwes.org/bkrevw/revolution.htm

Articles on the New Apostolic Reformation

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/newapostolic.html (links to many articles)

http://www.letusreason.org/Latrain21.htm

http://www.banner.org.uk/apostasy/cell-church1.htm (This is very long and covers a lot of ground, but very good. I include it here rather than in the church growth list, because I think once you get through some of those articles, you'll understand this one better. She connects the dots very well)

Do you have a link you'd like to suggest? Or comments on any of these articles? E-mail me

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