Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois.

III. Its Methods

Our criticism of the modern church growth movement also goes behind the message to get at its methodology. As there are serious errors in its proclamation, so there are serious errors in its programs. The “new” evangelism places all the emphasis on using the right methods and means to make the church grow. The reason why the church has not been able to reach the lost and get them into the church, church growth experts tell us, is that she has not used the right methods. Whereas in the past the church used exclusively the preaching and teaching of the Word, today’s culture and people demand more effective means. And the church growth people claim they know what methods to use.

For those who follow the teachings of C. Peter Wagner and John Wimber, the method to use is miraculous signs and wonders, the special gifts and manifestations of the Spirit. According to these men the church was lethargic and lifeless and needed a shot in the arm. Her witness in the preaching was not attracting the lost; she needed something to- get the world’s attention. The so-called third wave of the Spirit which was sweeping through third world countries was just what Wagner and Wimber were looking for. Here was something exciting and life-giving; here was something attracting and overpowering. And so they began to pray for and exercise the special signs and wonders of the Spirit. Since then this method of “power evangelism” has caught fire and spread throughout the U.S. and beyond. It is to them the method of doing evangelism.

But is it? According to Scripture it is most emphatically not. We have already pointed out that the biblical method of evangelism is the preaching and teaching of God’s Word (Matt.28:19, 20; Acts 2, 3, 8, etc.). The signs-and-wonders evangelism rejects this method in favor of another. In doing so it pretends to be wiser than God, which is wicked and foolish. It seeks a power that it is showy and which can be manipulated to get the attention of and a hold on the unconverted. This too is evil and destructive. The Spirit does not work through special signs and wonders any longer. His means is the preaching of the gospel. In this respect we agree with the words of J.I. Packer where he wrote:

So, in the last analysis, there is only one method of evangelism: namely, the faithful explanation and application of the gospel message. From which it follows…that the test for any proposed strategy, or technique, or style, of evangelistic action must be this will it in fact serve the word? Is it calculated to be a means of explaining the gospel truly and fully and applying it deeply and exactly? To the extent to which it is so calculated, it is lawful and right; to the extent to which it tends to overlay and obscure the realities of the message, and to blunt the edge of their application, it is ungodly and wrong.

We must apply the same test and criticism to the methods of “market evangelism.” This approach to church growth involves a number of general and specific tactics in bringing the gospel to people and getting them to come to hear it. One of the general principles is that of pragmatism, i.e., the idea that whatever works is legitimate to use, and, along with this, that the end justifies the means. One mega church pastor revealed this view when he said, “I must be doing right or things wouldn’t be going so well.”2 And so, if it is a picnic in the park complete with clowns and jazz music and games that will get the lost to hear the message of salvation, then that is perfectly legitimate. Or if it is a public concert of contemporary Christian rock music that will do it, that is good and lawful. Or if it is a wrestling match between church employees that will attract outsiders, then that is proper too. Virtually any means, any avenue, any approach may be used, say the church growth people. George Barna, a popular promoter of this pragmatic evangelism, exemplifies this attitude:

Remember how the comer tavern used to be the place where the men of the neighborhood would congregate to watch major sports events, like the World Series or championship boxing matches? While times have changed, that same concept can still be used to great impact by the – Church. Most churches have a large hall or auditorium which could be used for special gatherings built around major media events – sports, political debates, entertainment specials and the like.3

But as John MacArthur has written in response, “That entire scenario is built on a set of presuppositions that are patently unbiblical. …The notion that church meetings should be used to tantalize or attract non- Christians is a relatively new development. Nothing like it is found in Scripture….”4 But that is precisely the problem with this pragmatism-it is cut off from theology and from Scripture. It is free to roam, and it roams freely into error. The method we use in our evangelism must be drawn from Scripture and be governed by our theology, not from and by our own whim concerning what works.

Another general method involved in “market evangelism,” is consumerism. According to this approach the gospel is to be viewed and dealt with as a market product and the people as so many consumers with specific needs which must be met. This is Barna’s specialty in the church growth movement. It is his conviction that the church must take this approach and use this method because we live in a market-driven society. And so, if the world of MacDonalds and Quaker Oats and United Airlines is using the latest marketing techniques to sell its product and meet the needs of consumers, so must the church do this with the gospel. What the church needs to do, according to Barna, is determine a “target audience,” solicit from them their “felt needs,” and then put the gospel in an attractive “package” to reach this audience and fulfill their needs.5

Closely related to this consumerism of the church growth movement is its method of what is called “contextualization.” Using Paul’s statement in I Corinthians 9:19-23 as the basis, the new evangelists claim that the church must constantly be accommodating the gospel to the culture of its time. It must communicate the gospel message in the context of the world, not only where they are but also how they are. By this they mean that the church must become like the world, speaking to the lost and un-churched on their terms, catering to their needs, and fulfilling their desires. Not surprisingly, Jesus is held forth as the model Marketer and Contextualist by the modern missiologists. Says Barna,

Jesus Christ was a communications specialist. He communicated His message in diverse ways, and with results that would be a credit to modem advertising and marketing agencies. Notice the Lord’s approach: He identified His target audience, determined their need, and delivered His message directly to them. By addressing the crowd on the mountainsides, or the Jews in the temple, He promoted His product in the most efficient way possible: by communicating with the ‘hot prospects.’6

What must we make of this consumeristic approach to evangelism and church growth? It too must be judged wrong and ruinous when tested by the truth of Scripture. There is no doubt that the church must go into the world and bring the gospel; there can be no question that the church must make the message of salvation in Christ relevant to the world, and thus communicate it to people in terms they can understand; there is a proper sense in which we must become all things to all men; and there is no argument that we may use modem technology to communicate the gospel. But Scripture is clear that “we are not selling a product to a consumer, but proclaiming a Savior to a sinner…. Jesus Christ is not a product or technique, but a person. And he is ‘not sold in any stores.’ He cannot be bought. Rather was it we ‘who have been bought with a price’ – the price of Christ’s life.”‘ Years ago already Herman Hoeksema also sounded the alarm about the evils of “salvation hucksters” who “hawked” Jesus, offering him at the “cheap price of the sinner’s goodwill.”8 Scripture is equally clear that the gospel message is not man-centered but God centered, so that it is not the fulfilling of man’s needs which determines the content of the gospel, but the fulfilling of God’s mandate to preach His whole counsel. Scripture teaches that we are not to change or compromise the gospel message to meet the needs of sinners, but that sinners are to be changed by the gospel message and be conformed to the image of God’s Son.

In addition to these criticisms, it may also be mentioned that consumerizing and contextualizing the gospel cheapens it, trivializes it, and ultimately corrupts it. Michael Horton makes this point in these words:

In consumer religion, Christianity becomes trivialized. Its great mysteries become cheap slogans. Its majestic hymns are traded in for shallow jingles…. And its parishioners, now unashamedly called audiences, have come to expect dazzling testimonies, happy anecdotes, and fail proof schemes for successful living that will satiate spiritual consumption…. Mass marketing almost always reduces the quality of the product. To stand out among other competing wares, Christianity is reduced to relying on quick, catchy, attractive packaging?

John MacArthur adds these thoughts, that the modern idea of “contextualization” “has infected the church with the spirit of the age. It has opened the church’s doors wide for worldliness, shallowness, and in some cases a crass, party atmosphere. The world now sets the agenda for the church.”10 And Os Guinness utters the stern warning that when the church uses the tools of modernity, she must have a long spoon and a large hammer; a long spoon because he who sups with the devil of modernity “will find his spoon getting shorter and shorter – until that last supper in which he is left alone at the table, with no spoon at all and with an empty plate,” to use the words of Christian sociologist Peter Berger; and a large hammer because the tools we use can soon become our idols, and then they must be smashed.”

What then is our method of evangelism and church growth? It is the unashamed proclamation of the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ wherever the Lord of the harvest sends us. That is the Spirit’s means of converting sinners and building up the saints.

. . . to be continued

1. J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty Of God (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 1961), 86 (emphasis his). 

2. Quoted in Os Guinness, Dining With the Devil, “The Mega church Movement Flirts with Modernity” (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 38. 

3. George Barna, The Frog in the Kettle (Ventura, Calif.: Regal, 1990), 94-95. Quoted in MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, 83.

4. John F. MacArthur, Jr., Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World, (Wheaton: Crossway, 1993), 83. 

5. Cf. Webster, Selling Jesus: What’s Wrong with Marketing the Church, (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 1992), chaps. 2, 4-6, for a fuller treatment of this whole idea of marketing the gospel. 

6. Ibid., 36. 

7. Michael S. Horton, Made in America: The Shaping Of Modern Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991), 71-72. 

8. Cf. his little booklet, “Jesus Savior and the Evil of Hawking Him”, published by First PRC of Grand Rapids, Mich. 

9. Ibid., 70. 

10. MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, 102. 11. Guinness, Dining With the Devil, 30, 31.