Concepts and eories of Church Growth

e term, church growth has several connotations (Towns 1986, 63–70). However, two main schools of thought exist—Church growth as a discipline and movement, and the missional perspective preposition.

Church Growth as a Discipline and Movement

As a discipline and movement, Donald McGavran, who is said to have coined the concept is described as the father of church growth (Bush 2016, 25; Rheenen 2013). Even though the concept implies the priority of mission in church growth, it is considered not to be a synonym for soul winning, evangelism, or mission. Rather, according to Schantz (2016), McGavran intended that it replaces such words because, according to him, those words had lost their relevance through overuse and misuse to describe everything from paving the church parking lot to aiding revolutionary guerrillas. In order to distinguish his concept from those words, McGavran (1970) de ned Church Growth as “e ective evangelism” and emphasized the importance of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ (Walters 2010, 23). Schantz (2016) and Walters (2010, 4) mention students of McGavran, such as Peter Wagner, Win Arn, Eddie Gibbs, Vernon Middleton, Gary McIntosh, Lyle Schaller, Elmer Towns, and Tom Rainer as developing the church growth theory, especially in the United States. Schantz (2016), however, believes it was Peter Wagner who popularized the church growth movement, and his de nition seems to be the most accepted formal de nition of church growth. In his modi ed de nition by Towns, Vaughan, and Seifert (1982, 105), church growth is that science that investigates the nature, expansion, planting, multiplication, function, and health of Christian churches, as they relate to the e ective implementation of God’s commission to “make disciples of all peoples” (Matt. 28:18–20). Schantz (2016) rede nes it as a science that involves careful study of the methods used in Christian outreach and of the people the outreach is trying to win, with the purpose of arriving at recommendations as to which methods will procure the best results.

As a discipline, the main strategies that were developed by McGavran and his students are as follows: the priority of numerical church growth, concentration on responsive groups, recognition of homogeneity, the use of secular disciplines in church growth research, and the use of spiritual power (the Holy Spirit).

Even though McGavran has been called the premier missiologist of the twentieth century, he is also well criticized for his ideas and thoughts, especially on church growth (McIntosh 2005). e church growth movement is criticized for taking God and surprises out of the mission of God and downplaying the means of grace and work of the Holy Spirit. is is a very serious criticism as it gives the impression of the Church owning the entire mission which is supposed to emanate from God’s very nature. e movement is further accused of an excessive preoccupation with numbers (“numberitis”) and worship of numbers (“numerolatry”) (Valleskey 1990, 17). Even though these have been defended, it is still important to mention.

Missional Perspective Preposition

e missional perspective preposition is an attempt to correct the seeming shortfalls of the church growth model. According to Rheenen (2018), the missional model maintains the strengths of the church growth model while broadening its theological horizons. is preposition is rooted in the understanding that a missionary theology should permeate both theology and missiology and for that matter should be interdisciplinary and interactive (Kirk, 1997, 50). e missional model therefore highlights the intertwining, inseparable nature of theological re ection, cultural analysis, historical perspective, and strategy formation within the context of the practice of ministry. Such a helix, according to the missional model, begins with theologies (such as missio Dei, the kingdom of God, incarnation, and cruci xion) which focus and form people’s perspectives of culture and the practice of ministry. Cultural analysis and the subsequent awareness which enables church planters and Christian leaders to de ne types of peoples within a cultural context, to understand the social construction of their reality, to perceive how they are socially related to one another, and to explain how the Christian message intersects with every aspect of culture (passage of life rites like birth rites, coming of age rituals, weddings, funerals, etc), then forms the second element of the helix. It then considers historical perspective, for example how things came to be based upon the interrelated stories of the particular nation, lineage, the church, and God’s mission, as the third arm of the spiral. Finally, the helix completes with incisive contextual strategies, which are based upon theological re ection, cultural analysis, and historical perspective, for the practice of ministry (Rheenen, 2013).