LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 442

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442 ADDITIONAL THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS—OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

For the Sake of Christ’s Commission

The Report of
The Church Growth Study Committee
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Preface

Gop GAVE US Jesus CHRIST AND HIS BRIDE, the
Holy Christian Church. “For God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto Himself and has
given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor.
5:19). That was Good News. That is Good
News for His church now. The risen Lord is
still in the midst of His church to give her for-
giveness of sins, life and salvation by means of
His Gospel preached and His Sacraments ad-
ministered.

The Gospel and the Sacraments of Christ are the saving trea-
sures of the church. Faithfulness to this Gospel, by which alone the
church lives, must remain the central concern of Christ’s church on
earth. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has been blessed by
the use of these treasures. The enemy of God and of mankind, how-
ever, has never allowed this Gospel to remain unopposed.

In a previous generation, the unity of the Missouri Synod was
shaken by controversy over the divine authority of Holy Scripture
(formal principle). By the grace of God, the Synod emerged from
that struggle with a clearer confession of the inspiration and au-
thority of the Bible.

In this generation, the unity of the Synod is threatened by di-
versity of doctrine and practice originating from influences that
have their sources in Evangelicalism and the Church Growth
Movement. Here the content of the Gospel itself is at stake (mate-
nal principle). Therefore, we address below numcrous theological
and cultural issues vis-a-vis the Church Growth Movement in the
hope that the Synod’s mission and evangelism ministries may ever
be faithful to Biblical and confessional teaching.

While earlier studies’ on this topic have been presented to the
Synod, this study is in response to the request of the 1995 Synodical
Convention (Res. 3-09, see p. 35). In order to complete our assigned
task, this committee divided itself into two groups, one concentrat-
ing on theology and the other on the culture. Our report reflects this
division of labor. This document seeks to define “Church Growth”
in the words of the leaders of the movement itself. It also aims to
address some of the effects of American Evangelicalism and the
Church Growth Movement on the public confession and worship
life of the LCMS that have emerged in the past decade.

Faithfulness to the Great Commission shapes the continuing
mission of Christ’s church until He comes again: “Go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

This report is offered to further the cause of Christ-centered
church growth and genuine evangelism. The principles it sets forth
should serve to sort out helpful strategies from those that, however
unintentionally, obscure the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What Is the Church Growth Movement?

THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH IS BY NO MEANS
synonymous with the “Church Growth Move-
ment,” anymore than, for example, “educa-
tion” is the same as the “National Education
Association.” The Church Growth Movement
may not be defined simply as any plan or sug-
gestion to promote the growth of the church.
Rather, it is a particular historical develop-
ment, marked by particular dates. leaders,

2001 Convention Workbook

books and characteristics. It can be correctly understood and de-
fined, therefore, only on the basis of its own recognized standards
and texts. The book Church Growth: State of the Art defines
Church Growth in the following way:

The science that investigates the nature, funclion and health of
Christian churches as they relate specifically to the effective imple-
mentation of God’s Commission to “make disciples of all the nations”
(Matt. 28:19). Church growth is simultaneously a theological convic-
tion and an applied science, striving to combine the eternal principles of
God's Word with the best insights of contemporary social and behav-
ioral sciences, employing as its initial frame of reference the founda-
tional work done by Donald McGavran and his colleagues.*

In his book, Foundations for Church Growth, Kent Hunter re-
flects this common definition:

Church growth can be formally defined as that science which in-
vestigates the nature, function and health of Christian churches, as they
relate to the effective implementation of the Great Commission to“. . .
make disciples of all nations.” (Matt. 28:19) Church growth is simulta-
neously a theological conviction and an applied science, striving to
combine the eternal principles of God’s Word with the best insights of
contemporary social and behavioral sciences.*

Adds Hunter: “Church growth is a process which, like yeast in
dough, slowly but surely revolutionizes and reforms every segment
of the church.”

According to Christianity Today, the movement’s “basic book”
is Donald McGavran’s Understanding Church Growth (1970)?
McGavran, who was a long-term Disciples of Christ missionary in
India, tried to reassert the primacy of evangelism in an ecumenical
setting that had largely forgotten it. The 1990 version of his book
was revised and edited by C. Peter Wagner, McGavran’s succes-
sor as leader of the movement.® The Christianity Today article cites
Wagner’s conclusion: “I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically
wrong with the church-growth principles we’ ve developed, or the
evangelistic techniques we’re using. Yet somehow they don’t seem
to work.” He sees “Third Wave” neo-Pentecostalism as the solu-
tion. Elsewhere Wagner had paid tribute to Robert Schuller, who in
turn is indebted to Norman Vincent Peale. Wagner states:

Possibility thinking boils down basically to a synonym of what the
Bible calls “faith.” Schuller’s definition of possibility thinking is “the
maximum utilization of the God-given powers of imagination exercised
in dreaming up possible ways by which a desired objective can be at-
tained.” He is convinced that “the greatest power in the world is the
power of positive thinking.”*

In his foreword to Carl F. George’s Prepare Your Church for
the Future (1992), C. Peter Wagner hails the volume as “the most
significant step forward in church-growth theory and practice since
1970.” The book advocates the “meta-church” concept, which
“highlights the lay-led small group as the essential growth center,”
so that “everything else is to be considered secondary to its pro-
motion and preservation.”” This book and other Church Growth lit-
erature and materials have exerted enormous influence on the offi-
cial and unofficial mission and evangelism thinking of the Missouri
Synod and its districts. See also Kent Hunter’s recent defense of
the Movement in his Confession of a Church Growth Enthusiast
(1997)'° and the numerous endorsements by LCMS leaders con-
tained in the book.

Some emphases of the Church Growth Movement have high-
lighted the importance of mission work and a desire for healthy
growth. There is certainly nothing wrong with common sense sug-
gestions that might make a church more accessible and rela-
tional—the need for visibility, adequate parking space and facili-
ties, ways of making a congregation more welcoming to new
members, and the like. Such ideas are helpful. The problems with
the Church Growth Movement have to do with the assumption that
God’s Word is not sufficient, that it needs to be supplemented with
“contemporary social and behavioral sciences.” In practice, this
means changing the church—its worship, its self-understanding,
and its confession—so that it conforms to contemporary American