The very first time I met a certain pastor he said to me, "I think the Church Growth Model and the Prosperity Gospel are really the same thing." At the time I totally shrugged it off, and yes I'm pretty sure he capitalized those terms when he talked. It left me wondering, "What the hell was that?"
Usually people don't start first time conversation by linking dangerous theological concepts with a certain model of the church. It was really completely outside the social norms that should have dictated the conversation. It went from, Hi, I'm Mark and I'm new youth pastor in town to his assertion. Now that it has been nearly three years since that conversation I can honestly say that it was one of my more memorable "nice to meet you" conversations I have ever had.
I have thought about what he said, which by the way does have some merit. There have been times that I have looked at an organization like a church and said they must be doing something right because they have a lot of people supporting it. Is that true? Is the number of people a direct correlation to the rightness of the program?
Let's follow that logic out a little shall we. Let's say that an organization is gaining a lot of followers. This organization has over the course of just a few years built up a following of several hundred thousand people. This is a pretty big organization. Now, let's say that the reason this organization is growing is because it is placing irrational amount of blame on one ethnic group for the struggles that are going on in the world, and promises to make the world a better place through relocating this group and stripping them of power and wealth. Is this organization doing the right thing? Most would say no, yet they are getting a large following, therefore, just because a lot of people are supporting something doesn't make it right.
My assertion is that just because a lot of people coming doesn't mean you are doing something right. It means you are doing something popular. It means you are marketing well. But it doesn't mean that theologically or ethically you are doing the right thing. This is the basic link my awkward conversationalist was making. Church Growth is about getting lots of people and it follows that if you are faithful to God then everyone will flock to your church, which is in fact prosperity gospel. Maybe if we follow the line of the prophets, we are following God when the majority of the people in the world are ignoring you.
Therefore, it is not that you're doing something right if you have a lot of people attending, but it is not that you are doing something wrong either. High church attendance means you have lots of people interested in what you are doing. It could be right or it could be wrong. Growth doesn't mean you're right theologically or ethically it just means there are a lot of people checking out what you're doing. Let's not read too much into numbers, please.
1 comment:
If you had a "like" button, I would just click that because I completely agree with you. Since you don't, I will have to comment and try to come up with something clever to say...So my assertion is this: Churches often spend far too much time worrying about church population growth and in the process sometimes forget to support the Spiritual growth of those who are already there. So then what we end up with are great big churches in which members are rarely challenged to grow beyond a very simplistic understanding of Christ that ultimately may not serve them all that well.
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