2.3.2 Faithfulness to Christ.
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The CGM teaches that the church will grow when the church is faithful to Christ and the Gospel. Faithfulness as revealed truth is an absolute principle for the CGM. The belief is evident in their missiology that the church’s task is to proclaim the gospel; it need not concern itself with results and numbers.They are strictly in the hands of God.
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He will gather into his fold whom He wills. [1] So evangelism is about proclamation of the gospel, and persuading the hearer to submit to the claims of Jesus Christ on their lives. Many church leaders shy away from the concept of persuasion, yet McGavran believed it to be biblical as he suggests in his book “Ten Steps to Church Growth”:
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"Without persuasion, without intending for people to become disciples of Jesus Christ, evangelism is a thin, anaemic substitute for the real thing. Persuasion is an essential part of effective evangelism.From its inception the CGM has been “rooted in biblical, evangelical, conversionist theology".[3]
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The CGM defines “faithfulness” as “followers who use all their resources in order to produce results”.Their definition of evangelism can be better understood as sowing, reaping and discipling; it is not enough for people to make decisions for Christ; comprehensive discipling (perfection) is the CGM understanding of evangelism.
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In short, “evangelism is to proclaim Jesus Christ as God and Saviour, to persuade people to become his disciples and become responsible members of his church”.[4] While admitting that the CGM “is extraordinarily influential and significant within the American Churches today”,[5] Os Guinness comments that the CGM’s interpretation of evangelism is somewhat clouded by the use of marketing or humanistic engineering. Guinness suggests that the church can actually be seen to be growing in two ways through two approaches to evangelistic enterprise.
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He suggests that the difference between church growth as true faith and church growth as a form of streamlined humanistic engineering is the difference between traditional orthodoxy and the CGM approach. Guinness would hold the “Gospel and the Culture”[6] view of the CGM which suggests that the CGM’s ecclesiology is weak and unable to effectively engage with culture.
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Some may consider this hard to verify but reservation about the practice and method of culture encounter and evangelism continues to stir a great debate within the church. The CGM identifies the principled steps all churches must take if they would enjoy numerical and spiritual growth.
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2.3.3 Seek the Lost.
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The primary mission of the church is to seek the lost. The priority of the church according to the CGM is to find the lost; this for the CGM is a primary objective. There may be many important ministry opportunities within the local fellowship for prayer and Bible study, but like their master, to seek and to save that which is lost is the priority.
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McGavran clearly states “On one thing there is total agreement: men and women without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ are doomed to a Christ-less eternity”.[7] He also makes this same statement in his book “Understanding Church Growth”.[8] McGavran cannot be any clearer about the motivation and intention of his organisation. When the lost have been found, then discipleship must commence immediately.
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His views on the “lostness” of humankind open up the theological debate on the “resistance and receptivity” of the sinner to the gospel approach. Other issues arising out of the CGM’s understanding of “lostness” engender debate: concepts of spirituality, theology, reconciliation with God, self, others and the world which would naturally entail discussion on matters of world view, sociology, contextualisation and strategy for effectively engaging with the unchurched. The Centrist’s view promoted by Dr.Charles Van Engen [9]would find a close identification with McGavran’s approach to the “lost”.
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2.3.4 Discipleship.
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The church has a defined role in the discipling of the nations.The task of planting, watering and nurturing is given into the hands of God’s children; ultimately God gives the increase. Human responsibility in the mission of the church is a high priority for the CGM. A common defect in church circles is found when a church’s leadership and congregation are not willing to pay the price of reaching the lost for Christ.
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The need to mobilize the laity is optimum; the CGM insists that “church growth is not optional; it is a command of God”.The CGM puts tremendous emphasis on the quality of the leadership who have the responsibility for the discipleship of the new believers. A church is only as good as its leadership, Wagner reflects: In America the primary catalytic factor for growth in the local church is the pastor.
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In every growing and dynamic church I have studied, I have found a key person whom God is using to make it happen. Strong, disciplined, wise leadership is needed; leaders who can communicate the vision, be confident and have the ability to follow through in out working their ideas for ministry.
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One key emphasis of the CGM’s assessment of leadership was the belief that the traditional church has had an unbiblical model of ministry, made up of people who sat on ill-informed committees becoming people with the ability to discuss the problems but never really coming up with answers.
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They became non-leaders, carried the name of leader but were not able for the task entrusted to them. McGavran taught that in the life of the church there are at least five levels of leadership: volunteers, part time church professionals, bi-vocational workers, full time ministers and denominational leaders. If the church was to grow then leadership would have to be radically revolutionised and discipleship become a priority.
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2.3.5 Spiritual Gifts.
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God gives spiritual gifts to His church. The gifts are of the utmost importance and are given to be used in the mission of the church. The CGM would highlight the fact that spiritual gifts reflect the presence of the Holy Spirit in the fellowship; those gifted in this way are to be responsible team members in the out working of the great commission.
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The gifts reflect the divine power given to the individual to witness for God. Wagner[12] has much to say on the discovering of the gifts; he believes that many Christians are unaware of the gifts given so therefore they become inactive through ignorance.Schwarz[13] carried out a survey among 1600 committed German Christians and found that less than 20% knew what their God-given gift was. It can be observed that resistance to gifts could produce a false theological paradigm which could impact upon and restrict the growth of the Western church.
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Wagner suggests five ways of discovering your gifts: explore the possibilities, experiment with as many as possible, examine your feelings, evaluate your effectiveness and expect confirmation from the body of believers. This is good advice reflecting the CGM’s belief that church growth happens when God’s people find their gifts and use them responsibly within the local church.
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This may be viewed by some as a very controversial subject and the CGM courageously explores all the gifts including prophecy, tongues, interpretation and healing. Wagner wrote a book entitled “Your Spiritual Gifts” where he introduces the CGM’s concept of how to rediscover spiritual gifts. While there is openness to the gifts of the Spirit, the Movement was criticised by the Charismatic movement for not being a part of the charismatic renewal movement which it believes appropriately recognises spiritual gifts.
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The key point for Wagner and the CGM is pragmatism; it is the application of the gifts and their use in the local church that is important for numerical growth to happen. That is the main challenge for the movement, and not a theological debate on whether the gifts are for today’s church or not.
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The Charismatic movements tend to forget that John Wimber and C. Peter Wagner (who moved in their personal spiritual experiences to embrace and promote spiritual signs resulting from church growth) taught church growth classes at Fuller to many American pastors, making some of the present day leadership of the CGM Charismatic by experience.
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2.3.6 Church Health.
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Warren[14] suggested that the important challenge for the church is not growth but spiritual church health. Dr. Howard Synder[15] clearly argues that “the key issue of the church is one of health and not of numerical growth”. Here we see the CGM advocating the importance of church health. Because the church is the body of Christ, then personal and collective spiritual health is required by God of His people.
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This according to the CGM is measurable. McGavran describes it as “the different rates of growth, describing the different parts of the body, and discovering why one part of the body is growing better than another”.The clear indication is that spiritual health and spiritual growth can be discerned and measured. Spiritual health is a big issue for the CGM, as it suggests that as the church is the body of Christ, spiritual health and not necessarily numerical growth is the goal of the fellowship.
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If the church is part of “God’s plan for the salvation and discipling of men and nations”,[17] then spiritual health and the maturity of individual Christians in general and the local church family in particular, is the ultimate challenge. How to measure that health is clearly indicated in the CGM’s 10 basic principles for church growth.[18]
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For over 20 years C. Peter Wagner has been writing books on church growth but at the heart of them, judging by the principles used, health is the objective, for when health is operating church decline is being obliterated. Schwartz’s book “Natural Church Development” which is a product of the CGM, details its understanding of a healthy church; it talks about healthy churches reflecting certain clear and research proven characteristics i.e. empowered leadership, gift orientated lay ministry, passionate spirituality, functional structures, inspiring worship, holistic small groups, need orientated evangelism and loving relationships.. These topics constantly find their way into discussion in many church health books.
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Donald MacNair[19] has written a book on Biblical strategies for vibrant life and ministry entitled “The Practices of a Healthy Church.” Health is a key issue for the CGM and an important issue for Warren as dealt with in chapter 4 of this dissertation.Yet it can have its pitfalls if it is defined too humanistically, psychologically, therapeutically or if church health focuses too narrowly on the church, missing the fact that the church exists not for its self but for God’s mission in the world.
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2.3.7 Mission.
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The CGM’s teaching acknowledges the mission fields as being ripe for harvest. Their intensive research of many countries ranging from African nations to the islands of Indonesia has led to this conclusion. McGavran suggests that decline and slow growth is not God’s will for his church but that the harvest is ripe and ready for reaping.
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This is seen in his comment where he reflects: Today we stand on the edge of the greatest expansion of the church the world has ever seen. The facts according to CGM’s research on mission possibilities indicate an abundant harvest ready to be reaped.[20]
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The common challenge that the CGM introduces, is one that receives its driving power from the words of Jesus when he said: “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”[21] Because of the deep inherent belief behind the CGM’s principles in the Sovereignty of God, this challenging statement of the Lord Jesus Christ will be, they believe, effectively fulfilled without failure.
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That understanding inspires the CGM’s belief in the expectation of church growth, not only in America, but worldwide. Warren, as we will see in subsequent chapters, allows this type of challenging thinking to influence and drive his ministry to be not only localised, but, as McGavran suggests, through the sovereign purposes of God to the ends of the earth.
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Already millions of people worldwide in at least 28 different languages are being influenced by the results of Saddleback’s ministry and the CGM principles which are at the very heart of Warren’s ecclesiology.
[1] Donald McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, 26f.
[2] McGavran, UCG, 27f.
[3] McGavran, UCG, 8.
[4] McGavran, Ten Steps To Church Growth, 51.
[5] Os Guinness, Dining with the Devil, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House, 1992, 24.[1] Engle & McIntosh, Evaluating The Church Growth Movement, 24.
[6] Donald McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, 26f.
[7] McGavran, UCG, 27f.
[8] McGavran, UCG, 8.
[9] McGavran, Ten Steps To Church Growth, 51.
[10] Os Guinness, Dining with the Devil, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House, 1992, 24.
[11] Engle & McIntosh, Evaluating The Church Growth Movement, 24.
[12] C. Peter Wagner, Your Church Can Grow, 74.
[13] Christian A Schwarz, Natural Church Development, Barcelona, Spain, Horeb, 1996, 24-25.
[14] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, 31.[1] Engle & McIntosh, Evaluating The Church Growth Movement, 215.
[15] Donald McGavran, Ten Steps To Church Growth, 67.
[16] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, 31.[1] Engle & McIntosh, Evaluating The Church Growth Movement, 215.
[17] Donald McGavran, Ten Steps To Church Growth, 67.
[18] Donald McGavran, Ten Steps To Church Growth, 30.
[19] C.Peter Wagner, Strategies for Church Growth, London, England, Marc, 1987, 35.[1] Donald McNair, The Practices Of A Healthy Church, Phillipsburg, NJ, P&R Publishing, 1999.
[20] Donald McGavran, Ten Steps To Church Growth, 19.
[21] Matthew`s Gospel, Ch. 16:18.