If you have not read Parts 1 and 2, you should go back and read them before continuing here. Parts 1 and 2 include helpful background information necessary to understand this post.
Joe, you may say, the Church Growth Movement doesn’t really exist anymore and doesn’t influence the church today. In 1 John 4:1, we read an important instruction for Christians, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
The Church Growth Movement remains very much alive. An early manifestation of the Church Growth Movement includes the Seeker Sensitive Church. Much the brainchild of Bill Hybels of Willow Creek and Rick Warren of Saddleback, a Seeker Sensitive Church oriented itself around the unchurched person who may come to church. Although the idea seems innocent enough, relaxing attire, bringing in rock music, and watering down messages were not good things for the wider church. Again, we’re making something other than Christ the draw and employing works to grow the church.
The Seeker Sensitive movement did a significant amount of damage in the wider church. If nothing else, the movement normalized a lower view of worship of God, normalized rock and contemporary music in church, relaxed our obedience to God, eliminated the need for discipleship, and removed Biblical and expository preaching from the pulpit. In their place, “easy-believism” was popularized. The movement also gave rise to a new form of lyrics in songs embraced by many churches today. These lyrics deviated from that of long-standing hymns.
I would be the first to acknowledge that “seeker sensitive” is an outdated term. However, this does not at all mean that the underlying influences of the Church Growth Movement are dead. Rather, the Church Growth Movement has become brilliant at reinventing itself. As movements and ideas arise and are exposed as harming the church, new phrases and slogans appear.
Current manifestations of the Church Growth Movement include Acts 29, Emergent Church, Disciple Making Movement, and New Calvinism. As the Church Growth Movement reinvents itself and exhibits new manifestations, each manifestation is worse than the previous versions. Acts 29 is an obvious fraud in that there is no such chapter in the book of Acts. It is as if they want people to know that it is fraudulent and are highlighting how many people will fall for their gimmicks anyway. We will discuss the dangerous New Calvinism in the next post.
For further reading on the Emergent Church, I recommend Elliott Nesch’s “Hath God Said?: Emergent Church Theology.” Nesch’s book contains an elaborate history especially of Emergent Church and how it is destroying today’s church. It is very important to note that Buford, Schuller and Rick Warren were very key figures in birthing the Emergent Church.
How can the Church Growth Movement constantly reinvent itself and continue to survive? The Church Growth Movement is focused primarily on commercialism and profit. Such a focus constantly demands reinvention. They take a page from the book of commercial marketing tactics. When you watch tv commercials or see printed ads, the products being pushed are always “new and improved,” “revolutionary,” or somehow different and better. The goal is always to sell more, so the messaging constantly needs to be reinvented.
Peter Drucker was key to influencing Bob Buford, and Buford was key to starting the Leadership Network, which continues today to pump out a steady stream of false teachers. While they claim they are doing something good for the church, they are actually destroying the church. Although Drucker was neither a manager nor a Christian (despite many claims to the contrary), Drucker’s influence on the church continues to be far-reaching.
The business world’s influence of the church is why today we have multi-site churches, mega-churches, and profiting off best-selling books and contemporary Christian music. Christ is not central nor the focus. The focus is money and more of it. The message of Christ does not make profit, so it constantly has to be distorted, and the result is the destruction of the church.
I get it — we all want to see our churches grow and more people come to Christ. If you really want to evangelize, just read Acts and focus on the imitation of Christ. It’s not a popular message, but it is still effective.
Seekers by definition are seeking Christ, not entertainment. By only offering entertainment, this is how today’s church misses the mark, and it exposes the fraud of the Church Growth Movement.
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