Perspectives
on Church Growth (Part 1) •
(Part 2) •
(Part 3)
by Joel McDurmon
 You have seen them, and perhaps have been sickened by
them: churches that look like malls, “worship centers” that look
like shopping centers, complete with neon signs and sprawling parking
lots. A few years ago I used to travel through Grapevine, Texas on a
regular basis, where I would behold a behemoth megachurch of which I
have still not seen the like. It gobbled up acres of otherwise beautiful
Texan prairie, and only stood apart from the massive office complex across
the highway because of its name placarded across its windowless gray
front. There it was, in boldface type: “churchnamegoeshere,” all
scrunched together with “.com.”
Just
exactly what idea is conveyed by such commercialism? Has Christ at last
employed American mall culture for His ends? Or have corporate creeps
crept into church leadership? It is hard to tell. This three-part article
intends to deal with some of the pros and cons of the modern church growth
and seeker sensitive movements, to survey some of the literature involved,
and to emphasize some surprising areas in which traditional churches
would be wise to stop criticizing and start taking notes.
It
is difficult, however, not to criticize from the outset. When looking
at modern megachurches we see nothing, on the surface, but self-serving
shadows of what church should be; shallow attempts by enterprising Christians
trying to make the church relevant to American commercial culture. And
the similarities with that culture are startling. The bottom lines for
both mall and megachurches are the same: bigness, trendiness, multimedia,
and money.
These
are the complaints put forth by many critics of the so-called Church
Growth Movement, also known as the seeker-friendly movement, an informal
phenomenon that urges churches to seek cultural relevance as a means
of boosting attendance and continuing ministry. But stepping back for
a minute, I have to ask, what exactly is wrong with a church being big,
using available technology or having lots of money? Absolutely nothing.
The danger begins, however, with the lust for trendiness, which has properly
been the focus of critics to differing degrees. Some have emphasized
the pragmatism involved in making the comfort of unbelievers the standard
for Christian worship, and the dilution of the Gospel that inevitably
follows. Others have spied connections between Church Growth proponents
and new age religious leaders which make the seeker-sensitivity appear
to be a sinister scam. In these regards a few books have been published
recently which I will review below, but first a few words of introduction
about the Church Growth Movement itself.
Faces of Church Growth
The movement is dominated by a few representative
personalities. One is Dr. Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback
Valley Community Church in Orange County, California, whose recent
book The Purpose-Driven
Life has become the one of the best-selling non-fiction books of
all time. It could be said that his prior book, The Purpose Driven
Church (PDC), is the “bible” of church growth.
Selling millions of copies, it urges churches to replace organs with
synthesizers and traditions with trends, and to employ demographic modeling
in order to make local culture the focus of church atmosphere. Warren
claims in the subtitle to PDC, to teach Growth Without Compromising
Your Mission & Message. His critics deny he has succeeded, and
they are in part correct, but there are a few things Warren has masterminded
of which modern churches should take note. More on that later.
 Another
face in the seeker-friendly scene is the ever-smiling Joel Osteen, pastor
of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. While some might inquire as to
the cause of his incessant smiling on television, an informed viewer
might conclude that behind that plasma-screen grin are royalties from
the sale of 2.5 million copies of his book Your Best Life Now.
While not known for church growth publications per se, his “God
just wants you to be happy” sermons have certainly helped him to
master the art of growth—so much so that Lakewood has taken over
the old Houston Rockets’ basketball arena as a 16,000-seat church.1 Concerning
Osteen’s masses, one reporter has noted that, “To keep them
coming back, Lakewood offers free financial counseling, low-cost bulk
food, even a ‘fidelity group’ for men with ‘sexual
addictions.’”2 Osteen
appears to be on to something, but just exactly how do we make sense
of a phenomenon that seems to be selling out the Gospel on one hand,
yet doing so much Christian service on the other?
We
need discernment, which means we need prayer and study in order to produce
a good critique. When it comes to the Church Growth phenomenon, there
has been no shortage of critiques, but how good are they? Let us look
at a few.
Church Growth: Spiritual Deceptions
The book that began my foray into this study is Decieved
on Purpose: The New Age Implications of the Purpose Driven Church by
Warren Smith. Smith is a freelance writer and former victim of the
New Age movement. His spiritual journey (he is now a Christian) gives
him a keen eye for spotting New Age deceptions, and his very well written
book3 traces curious parallels
and some overt connections between key New Age leaders and Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven efforts.
The most important of these connections  involve pop-psychology and
positive-thinking guru, Robert Schuller (of “Crystal Cathedral” fame),
who greatly influenced Warren with his leadership seminars. Problem
is, Schuller’s leadership methods revolve around “vision
casting,” a variation of New Age meditation techniques. Smith
describes one book which, “encouraged the reader to use guided
visualization (now often called ‘vision casting’) and other
metaphysical techniques to gain whatever it was they wanted. Pastors
were encouraged to ‘visualize and dream bigger churches,’ or ‘a
new mission field,’ or whatever else they thought would improve
their church and ministry.”4
Schuller
wrote the introduction to this particular book. As a result of this kind
of thinking, “vision” statements are all the rage in modern
leadership texts. In fact, the vision statement for Warren’s Saddleback
Church goes so far as to claim that it is “inspired by God.”5 Smith
goes on to reveal Schuller’s partnerings with New Age psychologist
Gerald Jampolsky, and spirit medium Neale Donald Walsch, author of a
spirit-channeled book, Conversations with God, and others. This
same Schuller is a driving force behind Warren’s approach to ministry.
Smith quotes a Christianity Today article as saying, “During
[Rick Warren’s] last year in seminary, he and Kay drove west to
visit Robert Schuller’s Institute for Church Growth. ‘We
had a very stony ride out to the conference,’ she says, because
such non-traditional ministry scared her to death. Schuller, though,
won them over. ‘He had a profound influence on Rick,’ Kay
Says. ‘We were captivated by his positive appeal to nonbelievers.
I never looked back.’”6Smith
goes on to show Schuller’s influence indeed, citing several instances
where Warren repeats and even downright plagiarizes Schuller’s
very words.
Smith
continues citing New Age influences on Rick Warren, including the Bible
translation called The Message. Translated by Eugene Peterson, The
Message is a paraphrase translation which aims at smooth and comfortable
language rather than accuracy. Strangely, Peterson replaces the familiar
clause, “On earth as it is in heaven,” in the Lord’s
Prayer with the explicit New Age phrase, “As above, so below.” He
repeats the phrase in his translation of Colossians. This classic formulation
for practitioners of magic and witchcraft erases the Creator-creation
distinction and understands the universe, spiritual and material, as
a continuum—a direct relation between God and man differing only
in degree. While it may not sound like a big deal at first, for those
versed in the history of New Age thought and occultism, the phrase signifies
something very purposeful, and indeed as dangerous as denying the doctrine
of God as the Christian church knows it. Smith adds, “if Rick Warren
or anyone else says, ‘So What?’ I would say, ‘So how
come?’”7 Exactly.
 Another
New Age leader Warren references is Bernie Siegel. Siegel is a surgeon
who opened himself to New Age spirituality by “directed meditation” and
received a spirit guide named “George.” Siegel went on to
fuse New Age teachings with modern medicine and published a book along
those lines. He openly endorses Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations
with God and another pop-New Age work called A Course in Miracles. Warren
promotes Siegel as a life to be emulated with no explanation as to who
Siegel is. Meanwhile, biblical examples such as Isaiah and Job are criticized
by Warren. Am I missing something here? Why does “America’s
Pastor,” as Warren is known, exalt New Age leaders uncritically
and condemn biblical leaders resolutely?
This
last example seems to be part of a character trait of Warren’s
that disturbs me. He often quotes radical anti-Christian sources as authorities
while passing over biblical truth that could have better made his point.
While we should not be opposed to reading non-Christian thought, we certainly
should not use it as the foundation of our thought. We must engage unbelievers
but not be unequally yoked with them. Warren ignores this and thereby
defies the biblical truth that bad company corrupts good morals. Among
the unruly quotable cast Warren sidles to his aid are Aldous Huxley,
a promoter of psychedelic drug-induced spirituality, and Anais Nin, an
early twentieth-century pornographer famous for her tell-all diaries.
While quoting people of this nature is not bad in itself, especially
when writing an analysis or exposé, Warren cites them as sages
for a Christian audience. Why not the Bible?
In
Part 2 of this article, we
will see some of the driving forces behind this and other aspects of
the church growth movement, as well as review what some other contemporary
authors have to say about it. Once we peel away some of the peculiarities
of the movement as well as those of some of its critics, we will be in
a position to benefit from our study.
1. William
C. Symonds, Brian Grow, and John Cady, “Earthly Empires: How
evangelical churches are borrowing from the business playbook” Businessweek Online,
(May 23, 2005): www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934001_mz001.htm. Since
Symonds’s article, the deal went through.
2. Symonds,
Grow, and Cady, “Earthly Empires: How evangelical churches are
borrowing from the business playbook.”
3. Smith’s publisher,
Mountain Stream Press, graciously sent me review copies of several of
their available books on the New Age, including Smith’s spiritual
autobiography The Light that was Dark: From New Age to Amazing Grace.
I unfortunately can not review all of them but do recommend them as one
resource for those affected by New Age spirituality.
4. Warren Smith, Deceived
on Purpose: The New Age Implications of the Purpose Driven Church (Silverton,
OR: Mountain Stream Press, 2004), 55.
5. Rick Warren, The
Purpose Driven Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), 43.
6. Quoted in Smith, Deceived
on Purpose, 104.
7. Smith, Deceived
in Purpose, 34.
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