“Church Growth writers sound like a hard-driving North American businessman, armed with a sheaf of statistics, eager for new take-overs and determined to keep his concern within a category outlined by ‘growth companies.’ “
-J. B. A. Kessler, Ir., July 1968
in The International Review of Missions
“We . . . urge readers not to be carried away by the enthusiasm of pragmatics at the expense of real dependence upon God. To become too absorbed in methods based on psychological and sociological insights is to invite superficial or even counterfeit spiritual results.”
-Robert T. Coote, June 1975
in Eternity
“What should be rejected is a craving desire for success. … The fault does not lie with church growth concepts but in a lust for success on the part of some ministers and lay people. Our need is not to get rid of or avoid the subject of church growth. The need is to be rid of an unholy obsession with success.”
-Foster H. Shannon, 1977
in The Growth Crisis in the American Church
(William Carey Library)
“The wave of pragmatism sweeping the church today seems predicated on the idea that artificial technique and human strategy are crucial to the church’s mission. Many appear to believe that we can capture people for Christ and the church only if our programs are imaginative enough and our sermons are persuasive enough. Therefore they bend their philosophy of ministry to suit whatever techniques seem to satisfy the most unbelievers.”
-John MacArthur, Jr., 1991
in Our Sufficiency in Christ (Word)
“Strategy is never intended to be a substitute for the Holy Spirit. Proper strategy is Spirit-inspired and Spirit-governed. Rather than competing with the Holy Spirit, strategy is to be used by the Holy Spirit.”
-Peter Wagner, 1971
in Frontiers in Missionary Strategy (Moody)
Copyright © 1991 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
