Church Growth is a movement within evangelical Christianity which aims to develop methods to grow churches based on business marketing strategies. Various church leaders have proposed different ways to grow churches. One prominent example is the "seeker-sensitive" approach, which aims to make churches more accessible and sensitive to the needs of spiritual seekers.
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History
The church growth movement began with the publication of Donald McGavran's book The Bridges of God. McGavran was a third-generation Christian missionary to India, where his observations of How Churches Grow (the title of another of his books) went beyond typical theological discussion to discern sociological factors that affected receptivity to the Christian Gospel among non-Christian peoples. In 1965, he organized the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, which was the institutional homebase for Church Growth studies until after his death. It has been the training ground for tens of thousands of pastors and missionaries of one hundred mainly evangelical denominations.
Methods
Two key attributes of Church Growth are a passion for the "Great Commission" and a willingness to apply research to attracting members, including quantitative methods. Scholars and leaders from many denominations continue to meet annually to discuss the implications of these insights as the American Society for Church Growth.
The "seeker sensitive" label is associated with some megachurches in the United States where Christian messages are often imparted by means of elaborate creative elements emphasizing secular popular culture, such as popular music styles. Such churches often also develop a wide range of activities to draw in families at different stages in their lives.
Four key approaches include:
Criticism and praise
Critics from other Christian groups suggest the movement is "only about numbers", "slick" and "success" oriented.
Some apologists respond that most advocates have a real concern for the salvation of the individuals represented by the numbers. Some Church Growth groups distance themselves from the "showbiz" approach of megachurches and believe these may be counterproductive.
Willow Creek Community Church recently conducted a major survey that shows heavy involvement in "seeker sensitive" programs and activities contributed to church growth but did not necessarily translate into spiritual growth and maturity unless the church had a clear path for believers' development.
Advocates argue that the most important thing in Christianity is the salvation of souls, which means that a successful church will – by definition – be a growing church.
Others argue that a proper balance between numerical growth and depth of spiritual growth is needed.