Links to WWW Sites on Growing Churches and Church Growth
WWW Links on Church Growth Conversionist Churches Resulting From Late 20th Century Revival Traditional Conversionist Churches Contextual Churches Church Planting Promoting Church Growth   Details of Models Limited Enthusiasm Births, Deaths & Reversion  Renewal Discipleship Membership   Details of Results Summary of Results Short Term Revival  Long Term Growth Long Term Decline  Growth via Renewal Discipleship Membership   References & Bibliography  Mathematics of Church Growth Church Growth Revival  System Dynamics  Sociology of Religion Epidemics  Social Diffusion Publications Articles Contemporary Revival-Like Movements Church Growth Model Building Series	Introduction Although there are many organisations that help promote church growth, the best way to understand church growth is look at growing churches. For convenience these can be put in four categories: Conversionist churches resulting from the late 20th century revival Traditional Conversionist Churches Contextual Churches Church Planting Movements There will be overlap. Not all traditional conversionist churches are in a historic pre-world war 2 denomination. The late 20th century revival affected a number of churches who have remained in historic denomination. The contextual approach is also advocated by some in varying degrees in the denominations, the conversionist churches of the revival, as well as the emerging post-modern churches. All three of these are predominately western in origin whereas church planting movements are associated more with the developing world. Churches Resulting From Late 20th Century Revival A conversionist church is one that seeks to grow though the conversion of people outside the church. Strictly speaking conversion here is meant in a spiritual sense, rather than the sense of leaving a church for one of a different ethos. Nevertheless many converts may have belonged to a different church but their spiritual conversion has led them to change churches. These churches have a clear sense of who is a believer and who is an unbeliever. They see the growth of the church in terms of the change in the individual who needs to belong, that is people believe before they belong. Although they do not see the growth in the church by adapting the church's beliefs to the culture, unlike the contextual churches below, nevertheless the modernisation of church culture to make it more relevant to outsiders has been a crucial part of their growth strategy. These particular conversionist churches have resulted from the Charismatic revival from roughly the 1960's onwards. This includes the Jesus People in California, UK Restoration churches, independent Charismatic churches, the "third wave" of 1980's revival, and the various revivals of the 1990's. Foundational to these churches is an experience of the Holy Spirit which, among other things, leads to the generation of enthusiasts whose actions increase the growth of the church. As such some of these churches are tests cases for the models developed by Church Growth Modelling. Although church growth methodologies are less important for these churches, most are aware of them and individual congregations embrace them to some degree. Questions for these churches are to what extent revival and their early experiences of the Spirit are relevant to them and to what extent they have evolved into mainstream church life in order to maintain a now successful church life. Although most have now lasted one to two generations can they create a sustainable church life on the basis of their early enthusiasm and practices? Alternatively will they evolve into something reduced to a formula, or more bland, or more respectable, and in each case ultimately unsustainable? Calvary Chapel Formed out of the Jesus People revival Pioneer One of the early UK Restoration churches New Frontiers Perhaps the fastest growing of the UK Restoration churches Vineyard Christian Fellowship and Vineyard UK The leading church group to come from the third wave of charismatic renewal Partners in Harvest The organisation formed by The Toronto Airport (Catch the Fire) church to network those churches affected by the Toronto Blessing Return to Top Traditional Conversionist Churches As the conversionist model of church is the norm in Protestant Christianity, there are many traditional conversionist churches, that is those not affected by the late 20th century revival, that are examples of church growth. Some have come out of the resurgence of interest in reformed doctrine that took place from the 1950's onwards. Others are examples of good church growth practice within their denominations. Generally they emphasise preaching, are conservative in doctrine and relatively conservative in church life. Most would have little interest in the charismatic phenomena that dominated the late 20th century revival, however some are sympathetic to revival. Again the churches are good test case for the limited enthusiasm model of church growth. Grace Community Church, Sun Valley California. Reformed evangelical teaching that has built a large church and influenced many around the world through broadcasts and downloads. Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. Reformed evangelical church with campuses spread across the city. Worldwide influence through teaching with charismatic sympathies and some contemporary worship. The Southern Baptists in the USA is a large growing traditional evangelical denomination. Within it the more traditional reformed Founders Movement is also growing in size and influence St Helen's Bishopsgate, London is one the dominant traditional conversionist church in London. Strong teaching with groups aimed at students and city workers among others.   Contextual Churches These are churches that have high on their agenda the need to be relevant to the culture in which they are based in. At the more conservative end are the "Seeker Sensitive" churches where pragmatism, rather than specific spiritual experience, is the defining feature of their life. Thus there are more specific church growth methodologies underling their church life than conversionist churches. Nevertheless doctrine is still important. Also included are the emerging churches, who seek to engage with post-modern culture. This is a more diverse movement to define. Early examples are also conservative and closer to the seeker sensitive models, though with perhaps a more liberal church culture. More recent examples strongly emphasise practice and values and place less emphasis, if any, on doctrine. Indeed some embrace the post-modern approach to belief themselves appearing to have no required doctrines. Thus the prevailing church growth strategy is for the church to adapt itself so much to society that people can belong before they believe. There is more recognition of the journey of faith. The movement, if it becomes that, could become an interesting test case of Dean Kelley's work where the move into leniency from strictness will create weak churches and ultimately lead to their decline. The current church growth models would need some revision to handle these type of churches. The key question to these churches is where they stand on revival, experiences of the Holy Spirit, the source of their authority and the extent to which they are differentiated from the society around them. Can any of the postmodern contextual churches create a church life that can even be sustained for one generation? From a modelling point of view the limited enthusiasm model with may not be appropriate, some form of network modelling may be needed to capture the dynamics of change in social networks that appear to be present. The list is mainly of congregations rather than denominations or networks as that reflects the nature of the churches. Seeker Sensitive Saddleback Church Willow Creek Community Church . Emerging Churches A useful guide to emerging church in the UK. Sanctus1, Manchester. A growing community who, in their own words are "engaged in a journey of creative exploration into faith, worship and culture". Difficult to estimate true size and growth. Grace is an emerging church in London connected to a historic denomination. Holy Joe's, were at the forefront of alternative approaches to church and worship in the UK, picking up people disenchanted with the Christian church. Mars Hill, Michigan. Was originally a Calvary chapel. Emphasis on community and connections without hype. The doctrinal statement is given as a narrative rather than a series of propositions. Others Mars Hill, Seattle. Originally branded an emerging church before the name took on its current meaning, the church is contextual in practice whilst being traditional and conservative in beliefs. It has a vibrant policy of church planting in the city and networking with similar churches elsewhere. . Return to Top Church Planting Movements (CPM's) Church planting movements are rapidly growing churches formed by planting new churches in areas where there was no Christian influence previously. They usually occur among specific people groups and the movements quickly become indigenous. World Changers Follow the right hand side links on "contagious relationships" and "movement lifecycle" for ideas similar to the church growth models Baptist Press Church-planting movements: Gospel chain reaction Church Planting Movements - homepage and source of the definitive books on CPM's: Church Planting Movements, How God is Redeeming a Lost World by David Garrison. A copy of a related booklet can be downloaded here. Global Frontier Missions - A good definition of CPM's. International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention . . Return to Top Organisations to Promote Church Growth Numerous organisations, independent of specific churches, teach church growth methods. The models of Church Growth Modelling do not depend on any particular church growth methodology and as such endorse none. The models assume growth through contact between believer and unbeliever. However most methodologies discuss contacts between believer and unbeliever, reversion, child retention etc. even though they do not come to any quantifiable and testable conclusions. Thus they provide useful background information. Church Growth Associations Healthy Church (formerly British Church Growth Association) American Society for Church Growth Church Growth and the Center for Church Growth Seminaries where church growth research is conducted include: Fuller Theological Seminary. Hartford Seminary Data Based Christian Research Brierley Consultancy American Religion Data Archive British Religion in Numbers Church Growth Methodologies Cell Church - USA: https://www.touchusa.org/defaultpage.htm Cell Church - UK: http://www.cellchurch.co.uk/ A report on Megachurches from Hartford Theological Seminary G12 method of cell church multiplication G12Harvest.org Return to Top .