CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
October 1, 1991
"As Jesus looks over His present-day disciples, particularly those whom He is holding responsible as stewards of the resources that should be used for church growth, He must frequently say, 'O ye of little faith.' . . . Remember, the indispensable condition for a growing church is that it wants to grow. … Wanting to grow and planning for growth is another way of applying biblical faith." -Peter Wagner, 1976 in Your Church Can Grow (Regal) "I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with the church-growth principles we've developed, or the evangelistic techniques we're using. Yet somehow they don't seem to work. … The real battle is now a spiritual battle, and as we are learning how to fight and win those battles, we are going to open the way for evangelistic techniques to have a much greater influence on our society than we've seen before." -Peter Wagner, June 24, 1991 in Christianity Today "Most churches could be two-thirds smaller and lose nothing in power. In most churches, the first third are committed, the second third are peripheral, and the third third are out. … Millions of people every week, in decreasing numbers but increasing power, are saying, 'Church growth is not the point. Faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ is.' " -Robert K. Hudnut, 1975 in Church Growth Is Not the Point (Harper & Row) "There's always been an evangelistic arm of the Christian church-'Go and make disciples of all nations.' I have no quarrel with that, just with techniques that go for breadth at the expense of depth. The church growth crowd will go to any length to increase the size of membership, which does not necessarily increase the size of commitment. People can be brought into churches through huckstering techniques, ...
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