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Church Growth Movement Issues In Missions Last Updated 1/20/2008 |
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(Continued from Church Plant In Kalkaman)
Even though the believers who attend our fellowship in Kazakhstan are young in the faith, a wide variety of false teaching has infected their thinking. Church Growth Movement methods are one of the most destructive examples. The infection here as come via the American church. Rick Warren is the author of "The Purpose Driven Church". I didn't know who he was until I heard his ideas coming from the mouths of the Kazakh men that I was pastoring. These were men who had been trained or were being trained in our local conservative evangelical seminary. One of these national leaders is the first Kazakh leader to graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary.
Why am I writing about this? I believe that the unbiblical teaching and methods of the Church Growth Movement have been exposed and abandoned to some extent by sound churches in America. But, I want you to know that you may still be supporting these methods and teachings through your mission's program. |
"Like the modernists a century ago, churches in the user-friendly movement have decided that doctrine is divisive-peace is more important than sound teaching. Wanting to appeal to a modern age, they have framed their message as a friendly, agreeable, and relevant dialogue, rather than as a confrontation with the gospel of Christ." John MacArthur
To read the complete article see: | |
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Let's start with some examples of false assumptions that Rick Warren has made. The following comes from a review of his best-selling book: "The Purpose Driven Church".
"Warren assumes that the primary purpose of Sunday morning church services is to reach out to unbelievers (see p. 243). In the New Testament, however, the reason the church gathers is for worship and equipping (Eph. 4:11-16; Acts 2:37-47). Evangelism is to primarily take place in the believer’s life context (“as you go”—Matt. 28:18-20) rather than being the main focus of the Sunday worship service."
"Warren assumes that the gospel can be made inoffensive to unbelievers if presented correctly. Yet, Scripture teaches that the gospel is, by its very nature, offensive to those who hate God (1 Cor. 1:18, 21, 23, 25; 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:7-8)."
"Warren assumes that the style of music a church uses is one of its most important keys to reaching the culture (see pp. 280-281). Interestingly, the New Testament is silent regarding this “critical” element of church growth.
"Warren assumes that large numbers indicate true success. He even says, “Never criticize any method that God is blessing” (p. 156) and interprets the “blessing” as that which draws a crowd. But what about the prophet Jeremiah’s ministry? He faithfully proclaimed the truth his entire life and yet saw no fruit. According to Warren’s model, Jeremiah was a failure." Nathan Busenitz To read the complete article see: Review of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Church: Nathan Busenitz |
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What many people do not realize is that Church Growth Movement Methodology has all but replaced missions. Modern missions has taken up the quest for a church that has status, and the respect of the culture. This quest was laid out by Fuller Seminary and School of World Missions. This idea underlies the "Perspectives on World Missions" seminar. I challenge you to read the sidebar articles and the recommended books and then try to distinguish between Church Growth methods and modern missions. In my opinion, "modern" methodologies are being applied in missions without "being guided and shaped by a theological cause, namely the Word and Spirit of God." I hope that sends a chill up your spine! They are applied without what Oz Guinness calls "critical discernment" and a correct understanding of the basis of modernity, namely it's lack of a need for God. (See the link at the right of this page.)
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"When all is said and done, the church-growth movement will stand or fall by one question. In implementing its vision of church growth, is the church of Christ primarily guided and shaped by its own character and calling-or by considerations and circumstances alien to itself? Or, to put the question differently, is the church of Christ a social reality truly shaped by a theological cause, namely the Word and Spirit of God?" Oz Guinness
To read the complete article see: | |
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Let's look at some examples from Kazakhstan. In the name of rapid numerical growth and "the national church" new believers who have never experienced how a healthy local church functions are trained to be pastors in 1-3 years. Graduates may or may not return to the church that sent them to be trained. They become accountable to the seminary (i.e. the para-church) not the local church. They are used more like mercenaries to accomplish a goal than "faithful men" who are guarding and passing on what has been entrusted to them. Up until 2 years ago they were "sent" by the seminary to plant churches without having been mentored in a church by an experienced pastor (there aren't any), and (this is the fundamental mistake) without an understanding of and a commitment to the authority of Scripture. To put it another way, these men have not been taught and shown how to be "guided and shaped by a theological cause, namely the Word and the Spirit of God."
What they are not without is monthly salaries supplied by you (the American church) and quarterly statistical forms to file with the seminary based on the Purpose Driven Church Model. If the church plant doesn't grow fast enough, the pastor is replaced. The fruit of these methods in Kazakhstan has been pastors who sin in ways that disqualify them and congregations who bully their pastors in unbiblical directions. The results here are the same as the results in America with one crucial difference. America has national leaders capable of refuting error and churches that are truth-driven. We don't have that here yet. In America there is a strong voice of opposition that is guarding the truth which has been entrusted to faithful men. That strong voice of opposition has been conceived here, but is as yet unborn. The birth of this voice seems unlikely due to the strict suppression of all discussion of doctrine and false teaching in modern missions. Nationals are being taught not to "contend for the faith." But this voice of truth will be born because Christ is also guarding what has been entrusted to us. It will oppose the American funded goliath of our time. Some of the American churches that supply the funding agree with the "if it is successful, it must be right" methods being employed in "modern" missions. These churches will answer to God. But I think that many do not know how their money is being used. What does Scripture say about how we should plant churches?
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Scripture instructs and commands us to plant churches in a specific way. 2 Tim 2:1-3: "You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." 2 Tim 1:8: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, . . ."
In my opinion, Scripture defines a church planter as:
"a faithful suffering father who (by God's strength) guards, lives, and passes on the specific, unchanging, God glorifying truth about Jesus Christ that has been entrusted to him, to another faithful suffering child who the church planter has prepared (by God's strength) to repeat the process."
What I have witnessed in Kazakhstan over the last 8 years is quite different from this model. In my opinion, modern missions defines a church planter as:
"an ambitious national (a foreign missionary can never pastor a church, he is only a consultant to the national church.) person who by man's modern methods and financial means, attract other ambitious national persons to adapt the general truth (that has been mentioned to them by teachers and consultants who they barely knew) to the times and culture they live in in order to establish the largest possible church in the shortest possible time, and then repeat the process for the glory of the church."
I believe Paul's (God's) charge (2 Tim 2:1-3) has been abandoned by modern missions. Few missionaries are faithful. Few have been entrusted with the God glorifying truth. Few are entrusting it to other faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You (as members of the American church) are no longer sending faithful suffering spiritual fathers who are qualified to entrust the specific, unchanging, God glorifying truth about Jesus Christ that has been entrusted to them to their faithful suffering spiritual children. One reason is that it takes faithfulness over time, intimacy, involvement, example, and Biblical love to be a father. It is much easier to attract a following. All you need are modern marketing methods. This is impersonal, uninvolved, practical modern missions. It disgusts me. I hope it disgusts you. You are complicit in this when you send well meaning lecturers from America who don't know their students personally. You are complicit in this when you send short-term teams. It is true that meaningful relationships can be formed, and involvement sometimes results from these methods. But I believe that the intent of 2 Tim 2:1-3 is to model church planting after the mutual trust, intensity, and commitment of the relationship between a parent their children. Short-term missions, it seems to me, are more like a dating-relationship or even a client-customer relationship. In my opinion, this misses the very heart of what God is saying to us in 2 Tim 2:1-3.
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What I have seen are men and women who are starving for faithful, nurturing fathers. They have never been discipled. They do not have close relationships with other believers. This means that the church family doesn't talk to each other, let alone fulfill the one-anothering commands of Scripture. They are afraid to ask each other questions that might reveal spiritual problems that they consider personal. They are not poor in spirit and broken hearted before God. They do not mourn over sin. Their focus is outward toward unbelievers. They are obsessed with attracting more unbelievers to church services but lack completely a hunger and thirst for righteousness in their own lives. They lack a desire for God to search them and know their hearts. They love "evangelism" but have no love of the truth! It breaks my heart to see this. This is the harvest that Modern Missions has reaped.
Churches who would never use Church Growth Movement methods in America are pouring dollars and missionaries into Church Growth Movement-based missions programs that are suffocating, and starving the true national churches in every country on earth. Are you supporting the goliath in missions while fighting him at home?
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"Another way to express the paradox is that modernity simultaneously makes evangelism infinitely easier, and discipleship infinitely harder. Ponder the fact that the twentieth century was heralded as "the Christian Century," summed up aptly at the beginning of the century in John R. Mott's slogan - "the evangelization of the world in this generation." Yet the century is ending, as Jacques Ellul says, in a situation closer to the saying of Jesus "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" The problem is not that Christians have disappeared, but that Christian faith has become so deformed. Under the influence of modernity, we modern Christians are literally capable of winning the world while losing our own souls." Oz Guinness (emphasis added.)
To read the complete article see: | |
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Church members and pastors, think carefully about what you are doing. Churches that would never teach Church Growth Movement methods and pragmatism in spiritual things to their youth, have already indoctrinated a generation of their youth in that very philosophy through short-term missions programs.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there are not enough qualified life-time missionaries on the field to "strengthen" all those national "children" who have been neglected from the moment they were spiritually conceived by short-term "daters" and "consultants". As a result of casual, short-horizon, methodology-based approaches to missions, nationals need spiritual EMT treatment first before they can be strengthened. The time has come to repent and to send faithful, suffering, spiritual fathers who are ready to use God's strength to entrust something that glorifies God to their spiritual children.
Sound out the idols of what you are doing in missions. Do the missionaries, mission programs, and mission boards that you support employ methods you would not employ in your church? Do they put their trust in principles from God's word or man's mind?
By the strength of the grace that is in Christ Jesus, through the teaching of God's Word, we will heal some of the national leaders who have been so harmed by church growth movement teaching in Kazakhstan. By the grace that is in Christ Jesus, the voice of opposition will begin to "contend for the faith." |
"A striking difference between us and the Apostle Paul is his seeming indifference to numerical success. He seemed content to focus his ministry on building a pure bride, even if numerically small. This evidently required that Paul have the battlefield mindset of a soldier, which is much different than our own mindset. We dislike the fact that he was always fighting and contending. A variety of verbs are used to describe the ministries of Paul and his associates in the book of Acts. They were ubiquitously found disputing against, reasoning with, speaking boldly to, preaching to, persuading, exhorting, declaring, and warning their hearers. We believe that this kept them from entering into peace and rest such as we have. We believe that by not fighting with the world, we have discovered the green pastures and still waters about which the Lord spoke in the Psalms. It is not surprising to us that Paul’s polemical ministry caused him to spend a great deal of time in prison. Perhaps God was trying to speak to him there about changing his methods."
To read the complete article see the following link: Thought Provoking Satire on the Church Growth Movement
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My prayer is that you would read more about this issue. Follow the links above. Please, examine and hold your own missions program, missions agencies, and missionaries accountable. The issues surrounding the Church Growth Movement are critical for us in Missions today and I think for everyone.
Yours In Christ,
Kevin Heinz |
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