All Articles For A Critique of Modern Church-Growth Evangelism

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. IV. The Nature of the Growth A final area in which the modem church growth movement is to be examined and critiqued is in the area of the nature of growth itself. As Guinness points out in his book, the term is capable of double meaning: qualitative growth, referring to spiritual depth and character; and quantitative growth, referring to size and numbers. The church needs both, he says, but while they may be distinguished, they ought not to be separated. One of the problems is that in...

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...

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. II. ITS MESSAGE When one examines the message of the modern church growth movement, he soon finds some disturbing things. While they claim that they do not undermine or alter and compromise the gospel message, the fact is that in the interests of reaching the masses and enticing them to believe and join the church they do undermine and alter and compromise the gospel message. This is evident from those who advance “power evangelism” through signs and wonders. Apart now from the error of believing the continued...

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of South Holland, Illinois. A relatively new and influential movement is sweeping through the churches of this country and beyond -the modem church-growth movement. It purports to have a greater passion for reaching the lost and getting people to attend worship services, a more relevant perspective on the growth of the church, and a better way to evangelize than the church of the past. The movement has pressed forward with its own agenda of church growth and evangelism; it is serious about getting its message and methods out and about “awakening”...