How Has the Church Growth Movement Changed in the Last Two Decades, and Where Is It Headed?

MR readily admits that we do not entirely understand the church growth movement; we are suspicious of the possible syncretism involved in borrowing so heavily from marketing methodology. At the same time, we understand that there are differences within the movement-though these variations are often difficult to see from the outside.

As such, we asked a friend with greater acquaintance with this issue to outline some of the shading that he thought we would be prone to overlook. Rev. Bill Hull served for a number of years as the Director of Church Ministries for the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), and has authored many books on church growth and disciple-making. Now the senior minister of Cypress (California) Evangelical Free Church, Rev. Hull has had an "on-again, off-again" relationship with the church growth movement. We asked him to explain what first attracted him to the movement; what changes he has seen during his involvement; how he thinks about "measurability" today; and where he thinks things are headed. – EDS.

BH: It was a gorgeous summer day in 1979; I was standing on a perfectly manicured hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. John Wayne's grave was a few feet behind me as I committed the earthy tent of a wonderful saint to the ground. As I walked to the car a man approached me and said, "Hi, I am Arthur Glasser, I just wanted to thank you for the service." I wondered if he were Dr. Arthur Glasser from Fuller's School of World Mission. I asked him and indeed he was. I knew his name because of the recent reading I had done on the church growth movement. We talked for a few minutes about evangelism, assimilation, and the importance of intentionality in leadership. His last words to me have stuck all these years: "Remember to measure everything." That sounded good to me, I was an ex-basketball player and I liked a scoreboard. The problem seemed that what was greatly valued in the church world could not be easily measured. It was easy to measure attendance and offerings, but what about kindness and personal growth? The lay leaders in my church were numbers conscious to a degree. They noticed attendance and financial numbers, but when I set numerical growth rate goals for a decade, they resisted. It remains an anomaly that when attendance and giving is down, panic sets in. But there seems to be no panic at all in churches about the lack of numbers in conversion growth.

It was the seventies and church growth was hot. Any pastor ambitious to lead a growing church was reading the literature. There were debates concerning its validity; John Stott an evangelical heavyweight, had serious questions. Stott spoke for many who were concerned about the pragmatism and "bean counting" personality of the movement. Most pastors are ambitious; I don't think there is anything wrong with that. God uses ambition-the Bible does speak against selfish ambition (1) -but God has wired us to desire success. (2) This is particularly acute in people 25 to 45 years of age. After all, this is the time so many of us are building our careers, our families, and our identities.

When I graduated seminary the road to success in my small cut of the evangelical world was preach it and they will come. I had a silent confidence that I would be one of those exceptional leaders who would be exempt from the normal rules. I would be able, like my role models, to preach well enough to bring the people in and hire staff to figure out the rest. But I was and still am, though less so, impatient. I wanted results and I wanted them immediately! Our church grew from 125 to 250 in the first year, then it flattened out and I became frustrated. It was time for a diagnosis followed by a prognosis, and that meant getting my tool kit from the church growth people.

The word I added to my everyday conversation was "empirical." I worked hard to put together a ten-year plan allowing for a 15 percent net growth rate with the obligatory 70 percent turnover in congregational personnel. The charts and graphs were impressive and I felt better about the church and, more importantly, about myself. It built my confidence to know that I had done something concrete about my situation. Additionally, we placed several measuring devices into our system so as not to lose control of the situation.

Three years later we were at the same size congregation, even though somewhat different personnel. The church had made important progress in conversion growth, but our net growth was at zero. The congregation was impressed with my ability to provide strategic leadership along with an innovative style. It had become apparent to me, however, that my ability to connect with people at a deeper level was weak and that all the record keeping had not attracted anyone. It was time for more ideas.

Just in time a new breed of book made its way into the Christian bookstores, the "How to Break [weekly attendance of] 200, 400, 800, et al." series. These short but helpful books gave pastors advice from pastors who had broken the barriers or consultants who had documented the same. There are many cases where this kind of information helps to get a church to the next level of ministry. It also fosters a mentality that can lead to pastors breaking their spirits more than their growth barriers.

Did I mention God? The number-one factor in church growth is God's blessing and permission. (3)

The way God is indirectly connected to church growth is the measure of giftedness he has chosen for each leader. (4) Some leaders have been given huge doses of charisma; others have mega-preaching and teaching gifts. This leads to large churches particularly in metropolitan areas. It is a fact that these greatly gifted ones will always be among us and they are the ones with the bigger ministries. The obvious truth that stands out like mountains on a landscape is you cannot reproduce such giftedness. But like mountains, we grow so accustomed to them, we don't see them anymore.

The Megas

By the middle eighties the church growth movement began to lose its impact. Too many pastors and church leaders discovered that setting goals and measuring progress alone was of little help. To be fair, no one really taught this; it is, however, a living by the numbers "hangover." As a class of people, pastors became cynical for a second time about charts, graphs, and numerical goals. The first wave of cynicism was the reflex reaction to engineering the church; the second wave was the emotional residue of not seeing much happen. Another dynamic began to affect church thinking: the birth of the megachurch. The sixties and seventies were dominated by the parachurch. Organizations like Campus Crusade for Christ and the Navigators provided needed guidance to lethargic local congregations. Additionally, there were a growing number of smaller missional groups that contributed to churches becoming more intentional and fruitful. And finally the church consultant was created from the "dust of the dearth." The dearth of effectiveness; I can remember how little attention churches paid to disciple-making in the sixties and seventies. It was as though they had a strange form of amnesia that made them forget the Great Commission.

The church could ignore mavericks like Bill Bright and Dawson Trotman, but they couldn't turn a deaf ear to the words that cast a spell on their egos: "explosive numerical growth." There had always been large churches of 500 to 1,000 and occasionally 3,000 or 4,000, but churches over 1,000 were rare in the radical sixties and the polyester seventies. But then came Willow Creek Community Church, a church so different and growing so fast that everyone paid attention. It wasn't charismatic; it wasn't a cult; it wasn't soft on truth; it was meat-and-potatoes Christianity repackaged. Bill Hybels, the founding pastor, asked the community why they didn't go to church. Based on those answers along with his own personal convictions, he launched the church in the seventies. By 1990 it was a force to contend with, holding seminars and workshops with thousands attending and thousands more on the waiting list. It became a national news story when ABC's Peter Jennings interviewed Hybels. The highly revered sociologist Peter Drucker referred to the large church as the most important sociological event of the last ten years. Willow Creek reconfigured the idea of church; they held worship services on Wednesday night, while Sunday morning was a special outreach service geared to the seeker. The Willow Creek association of churches now numbers in the thousands who have benefited and have sought to adopt their style. While churches in America over 1,000 in attendance are still in the top 1 percent, that still accounts for several thousand churches.

If Willow Creek were too corporate-looking, just as many church leaders flocked to Saddleback Church in Southern California-16,000 and growing. The appeal of Willow Creek is the wonderful organizational abilities of Bill Hybels and his staff. He understood the times and tapped into a mammoth "felt need." That need was to have God presented in a way he could be understood and appreciated. Saddleback's pastor, Rick Warren, comes across warm and inviting; his language and manner are attractive to many pastors. Many who couldn't relate to Hybels found Warren an attractive alternative.

Prayer and Experiencing God

In 1976, world leaders met in Lusanne, Switzerland, to figure out how to evangelize the world. Church growth was hot, and many a seminar talked about their view and principles. They joined together once more in the early nineties in Manila and again in Korea. From that, each country formed its own version of Lusanne; the United States eventually named their version Mission America. The most amazing thing about Mission America is its stationery. The list of leaders covers the margin from top to bottom with a Who's Who of the U.S. Church. What strikes you most is the varied backgrounds and the once divided theological camps that have now joined together. It appears that Jesus' request has now been largely answered. (5) The Church has joined hands to demonstrate love and from that power base, to reach a country.

There is a hunger among leaders that has placed marginal differences into the background. People no longer want to argue rapture, pretrib, postrib, premill, amill, postmill … as one leader stated, "I just want to see God revive his Church and fulfill the Great Commission." It is interesting that while various traditions have different interpretations of the Bible, they are willing to lay aside those differences for the greater good of the kingdom. Since the mid-nineties, there have been a growing number of revival streams that are now converging into a potentially mighty river of God's power. Prayer summits for pastors, fasting and prayer-gatherings for church leaders are growing. Local church pastors are gathering to pray, and fellow pastors become comrades, not competitors.

This all comes as a result of unsatisfied appetite for the real thing. The wonderful truth that has made its way into many a church leader's mind is, church growth isn't enough to satisfy our hunger for God. This is one of the reasons Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God book has been a best-seller. Men and women alike hunger to encounter the living God and see his power. The number-one church growth principle is: when people encounter God, they will come back. People want to be where God is working, where they can see the impact of his power. People can't stay away from the authentic move of God's spirit. This must be considered a positive development when the desire for God leads to others being drawn to the Church. This is church growth God's way.

I am a typical evangelical pastor who desires to see God manifest himself in a powerful way. I have historically been in that comfortable theological place that says, "I am open to all the work of God's Spirit, I do not seek all of it, but if God wants to, I'm not against it." This has led to what one writer calls the "Silent Divorce." (6)

The evangelical and charismatic churches have lived as though there has been a divorce between the Word and power. The charismatic churches have lived with the Spirit with periodic visits from the Word. The evangelical church has lived with the Word with occasional visitation from the Spirit. There is a strong move to have a two-parent church where the Word and Spirit dwell together in balance.

The next phase of church growth is upon us. It is the two-parent church where Word and Spirit join together to give us the encounter with God we are so hungry for. There is a great deal of literature and conferences that teach us to exegete our culture and how to target a group, a raft of books on leadership style and just as many on evangelism and discipleship. I have written eight books myself on these subjects. Leaders attempt to develop the right kind of worship experience: we search for ways to attract visitors and keep them. We write sermons that are to be relevant. But all this is cannon fodder compared to an encounter with God during worship. People are drawn to God's reality and power, especially when his presence is experienced.

The crucial key to our own church growth experience is a deepening of our relationship to God. God has begun to move in special ways in our services. Needs are coming to the surface. It is becoming normal to have a ministry time during our services where people can be prayed for. The pull of God's power is so strong that it overrides all the wisdom of the literature. People are standing, coming forward, confessing their sins and asking God for help in front of everyone. Then others discover it is okay to have needs and the church is a forgiving and healing community. All this is done without backing off one inch from the clear teachings of God's Word. I am not sure what will come next, but I am sure that the spiritually thirsty will find the way.