Duke Divinity School Lecture No. 1
By Donald McGavran
For April 1986
CHURCH GROWTH’S DEBT TO
METHODISM
The church
growth movement in April 1986 is spreading like wildfire through many parts of
the world, east and west, north and south.
Until 972 the church growth movement was chiefly concerned with the
propagation of the gospel in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the past fourteen years, however, it has
rampaged across North America, Britain and parts of Europe. The fact is that today the invitations I have
to speak on the subject of church growth span the broad spectrum of
denominational and theological persuasion.
That in 1985
a Methodist bishop in the mid-west wrote to the Institute for American Church
Growth in California saying that he hoped the United Methodists, who now have 9
million members, would plan to have 20 million by the year 2000 is further
evidence of very considerable concern about church growth. That church growth seminars, moving pictures,
and conferences are being held in almost every state of the union indicates a
tremendous rising interest in church growth.
The flood of books on effective evangelism—church growth—bears eloquent
testimony to the huge contemporary affection for church growth.
Bishop Pickett and Church Growth
Methodism
has made a great contribution to all of this.
I would never have thought of church growth or developed the church
growth theology and ideology had my life not been influenced by a great
Methodist. I shall tell the story in
some detail later on, but let me here briefly recount what happened. In 1922, I was granted a B.D. from Yale
Divinity School, and then on my first furlough I studied for two years
(1930-31) at Union Theological Seminary, being granted a Ph.D. Neither of these courses of study inclined me
in the least toward winning the lost or multiplying congregations. Indeed, in India, where I had served as a
missionary from 1923 onward, my work had lain exclusively in the field of
Christian education. I was the Principal
of a school system and the Director of Religious Education for the whole
mission of seventy missionaries. It was
my task to see that the Bible was taught systematically and effectively in all
twelve classes. That none of the several
thousand non-Christians thus taught was ever baptized I simply accepted as part
of the Indian condition. We taught the
Bible, hoping that it would influence the character and convictions of the
students and would someday (when the field ripened) spread the Christian faith.
Then, having
been elected to be Field Secretary of the Mission in 1932, I discovered that
after fifty years of work, the churches we had planted were growing at only 11%
a decade, and our total membership was less than 2,000. The same pattern of growth was observed in
all our neighboring missions except one.
The Methodists at Khandwa and Jagdalpur had had great surges of church
growth. Each of them ministered to
7,000-10,000 Christians in 50-100 village congregations.
Furthermore,
a young Methodist missionary named Waskom Pickett had been appointed by the
National Christian Council to do a survey of greatly growing Christian
movements fathered by Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and
Episcopalian Churches in various parts of India. His book summarizing the findings was
published in 1933 entitled Christian
Mass Movements in India. I read this
book with much interest.
Consequently,
in 1934, I proposed to a meeting of the Mid-India Christian Council that, since
mid-India seemed to be a section where church growth was the exception, not the
rule, we invited Waskom Pickett to do a careful survey of the seven areas in
mid-India where growth seemed likely to take place or had taken place. The Council enthusiastically agreed and appointed
me to make preparations for the survey and to accompany Pickett as he carried
it out.
As I
accompanied Pickett and observed how he investigated the work of missions,
growing churches, and non-growing churches, I learned a great deal. After Pickett had surveyed four areas he
said, “I cannot complete this, but you, McGavran, now know how to do it. You go ahead and complete these other
three.” Thus, using his insights
concerning Christian mass movements in India and his methods of research, I
surveyed the remaining three mission fields.
I became
convinced that were the missions of mid-India (Lutheran, Mennonite,
Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and Episcopalian) to put church growth
principles into operation, all of them could start Christ ward movements in the
receptive segments of society—the so-called untouchable castes. These consisted very largely of landless
labor in thousands of villages. My
mission in 1937 appointed me to do full-time evangelistic work in one
untouchable caste called the Satnamis.
To this task I devoted the next seventeen years of my life. I operated according to the principles. I found out the conditions under which they
did and did not work.
Various
other missions in India, hearing of my labors, asked me to come and survey
their fields. Thus my knowledge was
constantly expanding about where churches were growing and far more numerous
cases of where they were not growing.
I was
surprised to see that while most missions were caring for existing churches
with commendable zeal; this very activity seemed to guarantee no growth. Good works, kind acts, laboring for justice,
proclaiming the gospel to all and sundry did not multiply vibrant and ongoing
congregations. This was an amazing finding.
I also
discovered that where the church was growing, without exception, a cluster of
congregations of the same segment of society, of the same sort of people, had
been started. The Christians continued
to live on in their own homes. They did
not move to the mission stations. They
continued doing their accustomed work and receiving their accustomed pay. They continued to arrange marriages within
their own community. Above all, they
continued to be regarded by the non-Christian members of their segment of
society (caste) as “our people.”
In one of my
surveys done in a Presbyterian mission, I asked forty or fifty non-Christians
of the receptive community, “What do you think of those of your number who have
become Christian?” They replied,
“Christianity has benefited them, and we are going to follow them in the near
future. It will be good for our entire
caste.”
All these
insights into churches were growing in India—and I may add have grown
throughout the world during the past 1900 years—were disquieting to me. They were so opposed to the ideas of what
Christians ought to do, which I had learned in Yale Divinity School and Union
Theological Seminary. These clusters of
like-minded congregations who continued as a distinct community were not at all
like the congregations I had been educated to expect. Any devout follower of Christ, educated or
uneducated, rich or poor, urban or rural, black or white, ought to feel welcome
in any congregation. After all, “In
Christ there is no Jew, no Greek.”
When I
discussed this with my Methodist friend Waskom Pickett, he said to me, “Of course,
as these congregations grow in Christian faith, as the Holy Spirit dwells in
their hearts, and as the biblical doctrine wipes out the false Hindu doctrine
that God Himself has created man in the form of superior and inferior castes,
brotherhood hand justice will increase.
But there is no biblical precedent at all for requiring 100% brotherhood
as a first step in Christianization.”
As I read
the New Testament, I saw that this was precisely what was recorded there. When Jews became Christians, they continued
to circumcise their boy babies. They
continued to worship on Saturday. They
continued to ban all pork products from their kitchens. They continued to have very slight
intercourse with Gentiles. In short,
they remained thoroughly Jewish. At the
same time, to be sure, they were ardently Christian. When Gentiles became Christians, they
continued to be uncircumcised, to eat pork, to worship on Sunday, not
Saturday. Yet they were devout,
Spirit-filled followers of the Lord Jesus.
As I record
these events, fifty years after they occurred, I recognize afresh what a giant
step in evangelistic methodology Pickett’s insights constituted. Please remember that in all this I was
following the light which I had first been given by a Methodist Missionary.
In 1940, I
was asked by the United Church Review
(at that time largely a Presbyterian magazine) to be its editor and then a
columnist. Forty years later, as I read
these columns, I see that what I am now telling you in North Carolina was first
expressed in written form in the United
Church Review long ago.
We live in a
day when the old denominational barriers are growing lower and lower. Denominations appear as Branches of the
Universal Church. The conviction has
spread very widely that if the Christians of any one Branch believe in Jesus
Christ as God and only Savior and the Bible as their rule of faith and
practice, they are valid followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those in one
denomination may not agree with certain forms of another denomination, certain
interpretations of passages of the Scripture, but they nevertheless regard the
other denominations as validly Christian.
Some have bishops, some do not.
Some have quarterly communion, some every Sunday. Some preachers wear robes, others do
not. Yet if they are sound on the two
main points I have mentioned, they are validly Christian. That is one reason why the church growth
movement is spreading through so many denominations.
John Wesley and Church Growth
 |
| John Wesley |
In this
lecture, I will not have time to develop John Wesley’s basic theology. However, Wesley was clear that God’s amazing
love for all mankind produced new life, joy and peace in all who would accept
it. John Wesley believed profoundly in the in flooding of God’s grace and power
to all those who believed. Indeed, he
held that the divine love gave men and women power to believe. Faith in God was the essential step to
salvation. Charles Wesley’s famous hymn,
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,
well expressed the life-changing power which John Wesley believed was essential
to the Christian life.
As one reads
Wesley’s sermons and observes the way in which he started class meetings
throughout England and Ireland, one realizes that John Wesley was doing very
closely what the church growth movement is doing today. To be more exact, the church growth movement
today is what John Wesley did 200 years ago.
John Wesley lived at a time when most Christians were rather nominal,
cold, secular and worldly. He insisted
that real Christians must live a very different kind of life, that their
conduct must be based on Christ’s teachings as recorded in the New
Testament. He taught that when, flooded
by God’s grace, one becomes a personally committed follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ, makes the Bible his rule of faith and practice, and is filled with the
Holy Spirit, he becomes a new person.
John Wesley
went to the receptive segments of British society. He did win some followers of the gentry, the
intelligentsia, and the highly educated.
However, the majority of his followers came from that section of society
which we would now call the working classes.
Most of the Methodist class teachers and preachers were not graduates of
Oxford or Cambridge. Like the apostles
themselves, they were fishermen, working men, and tax gatherers, who believed
on Christ, had experienced His amazing grace, and were filled with the Holy
Spirit.
Immediately
following the Revolutionary War in 1784, when Coke and Asbury came to the
United States, they found an extraordinarily ripe field. Only one in ten of all Americans in those
days were a member of any church—Congregational, Episcopalian or
Presbyterian. The Baptists were very
small in numbers. Any denomination which
maintained that its ministers had to be seminary graduates, highly educated,
could not possibly staff the multiplying congregations on the American frontier. The gospel preached by Asbury and Coke was
listened to by great crowds of hungry people.
Many of the unchurched were soundly converted and became ardent
Methodists. Methodist congregations
multiplied. Their leaders were chosen
from the specially able, Spirit-filled, and Bible-informed members of the newly
founded congregations. Preachers arose
almost by magic. To be sure, training
schools were founded by Asbury and Coke.
We must not underestimate this aspect of their labors. Nevertheless, they were not going to say,
“Our ministers must be highly educated and seminary trained.” That conviction did come in due time. But it did not mark the wonderful years of
early Methodist expansion.
As I was
looking into the McGavran family history, I spent some time in Carroll and
Columbiana Counties of northeast Ohio. I
noted the records of the churches that were planted from 1795 to 1850. I was amazed at the large number of Methodist
congregations that had been started in that whole area. As one today travels the deep rural sections
of that part of Ohio, he finds cemeteries now abandoned by kept up by the
state, where once a Methodist Church had stood.
Multiplication of congregations is very good church growth
practice. This is precisely what needs
to be done among the vast numbers of unbelievers in today’s world.
True, it is
in countries like Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and
the many nations in Africa and Latin America—to say nothing of China and
Japan—that one sees the enormous size of the unreached populations of
today. However, even in northern Europe,
Britain, Canada, and the United States there are numerous communities in which
more than half of the people today attend no church, are living members of no
congregation. Since I will stress this
in later lectures, I will say no more now.
Let me
reiterate that church growth was an outstanding characteristic of early
Methodism. Evangelism and church growth
do not come merely by planning and ingenuity.
First there must be spiritual life which makes us aware of God’s great
power in the lives of earnest Christians.
The love and power of God poured through the members of those eighteenth
century class meetings and revived multitudes of men and women. If Methodists today are to be true to their
own foundations, they will turn from the pleasant task of looking after
themselves and seeing that their congregations meet in beautiful buildings,
listen to wonderful music and well phrased sermons, and attract enough men and
women so that the membership remains about what it was the preceding year—they
will turn from all of this and begin to practice what John Wesley practiced,
what Waskom Pickett advocated, and what the church growth movement is
emphasizing so heavily today.
 |
| Dr. George Hunter |
Let me
mention a third aspect of the debt which church growth owes to Methodism. In 1976, just ten year ago, some great
leaders of the Methodist communion noted that the membership of the church had
dropped from 10 million to 9 million. In
the preceding ten years they had actually lost a million members. However this was explained, these leaders
felt shocked and grieved. They said, “We
as a great Branch of the Church must again start to practice effective
evangelism. We must again multiply
congregations in the unchurched segments of the North American population and
around the world. Existing congregations
must grow. New congregations must be
multiplied. Thousands of new
congregations must be planted among the Hispanics, the Portuguese-speaking 2
million along the east coast, the Filipino million or more now living in
America, and many other minorities whose second and third generation are now
growing up into very nominal Christians or, in most cases, practicing
secularists. We must cease equating a
Methodist Church with a fine building.
Like John Wesley we must start many class meetings of reformed,
Spirit-filled, Bible-obeying men and women.
The time has come for a radical revision of the way of thinking which
has become so common among United Methodists in the past two decades.
Thinking in
this fashion, these Methodist leaders dedicated a quarter of a million dollars
a year to the task and appointed George Hunter, III, Professor of Evangelism at
the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, to
help reverse the downward trend in Methodism.
He read all of church growth’s normative literature and then came to the
Fuller School of World Mission in Pasadena and spent a quarter, reading case
studies and attending those classes which he thought useful. He also attended seminars held by Dr. Win Arn
of the Institute for American Church Growth on the one hand, and classes conducted
by Dr. Peter Wagner on church growth on the other.
Whereas the
church growth movement founded by the School of World Mission in Pasadena was
interdenominational, touched all manner of denominations from the conservative
to the liberal, and even enlisted a few Roman Catholic students, Dr. Hunter
concentrated his efforts on the United Methodist Church. He operated out of Nashville as a department
of the Methodist Board of Discipleship.
He enrolled a staff of seven and devoted six years to creating a conscience
on church growth throughout the United Methodist Church. He now heads the new School of World Mission
and Evangelism at Asbury.
He met with
very considerable success. God blessed
his efforts. Nevertheless, many
Methodist congregations and conferences continued to sleep. In 1981, he invited me to speak to his staff
in Nashville. In the course of that
presentation, he pulled out a map of the United States showing all the
conferences of the United Methodist Church.
Those which had grown by even on member a year were white. Those which had no grown were black. Nearly half of the conferences were
black. Dr. Hunter knew that if the dust
bowl was to be turned into good agricultural land, water in great supply was
necessary. The task was not easy. Careful planning, exact thinking, much labor,
sweat, toil, tears and blood must be poured out.
Such
consecrated labor is, of course, part of church growth theology. The life of Jesus of Nazareth and His
apostles as they proclaimed the way of salvation and multiplied congregations
of Spirit-filled Christians was not a life of ease. They did not sleep on beds of roses. The Lord Himself died on a cross. According to tradition all the apostles died
as martyrs. Paul’s account of the toils,
tribulation, shipwreck, beatings, and imprisonments that he suffered is
impressive. If the lost sheep are to be
found and folded, the shepherd must toil long and hard and journey through many
thorny and rocky stretches of the countryside.
But, my friends, this is the task.
This is that to which our Lord calls us.
This is what John Wesley, Bishop Asbury, Bishop Pickett, Dr.Hunter, and
thousands of other Methodists (and leaders of many other denominations) have
emphasized through the years.
In April,
1987, Dr. Hunter’s book, To Spread the
Power, is being published by Abingdon Press. In it he recounts the lifelong labors and the
strategic mind of John Wesley. Hunter
shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that the tremendous multiplication of
classes and societies, movement toward receptive populations, and
developing culturally indigenous ministries and leaders are all an essential
part of Methodism. All of you will read
his book with great profit and delight.
Methodist Alan Tippett and Church
Growth
 |
| Dr. Alan Tippet |
He was a
missionary of twenty years’ experience in the Fiji Islands and a very able
man. In the fall of 1961, as he studied
at the Institute of Church Growth, I became convinced that he knew a great deal
about animism and anthropology.
Consequently, I asked him to become an assistant professor, teaching
four hours a week while he carried on his doctoral studies in anthropology at
the University of Oregon across the street.
When he returned to the South Pacific in June, 1964, I thought we should
never meet again.
However,
when a year later, June, 1965, President Hubbard of Fuller Theological Seminary
asked me to become the founding dean of the now famous School of World Mission
and Institute of Church Growth, he told me that my main task would be to build
up a mission’s faculty of seven full-time professors. The first man I called was Dr. Alan
Tippett. He was not only a good
professor of anthropology and animism, he was also an ardent believer that the
essential work of both churches and missions was the discipling of all segments
of the world’s population. He had
practiced church growth, he taught church growth, and the modern church growth
movement owes a great debt to him. In
the next five years, I added full-time professors from Presbyterian, Baptist,
Brethren and Congregational denominations.
The church growth movement is spreading in scores of denominations. Nevertheless, the first man I called to the
graduate School of World Mission in Pasadena, was a Methodist. I emphasize this to make clear that the
church growth movement owes a very considerable debt to the Methodist Branch of
the universal Church.
Conclusion
When my good
friend Robert Orr asked me to come and speak to the Divinity School of Duke
University, I accepted his invitation chiefly because of the debt which I owe
to Methodism. It would
have been far
easier for me to stay at home. In my 89th
year is possibly would have been wiser too.
But as a partial payment of the debt, I felt I owed it to you to come
and in my own inadequate way state the situation which faces the universal
Church today.
Church
growth speaks to a universal condition.
It speaks to the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ—all denominations,
all branches—lives and operates in a world where slightly growing
congregations, static congregations, and declining congregations are far too
common. This is true among
Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and all other
Branches of the Church. Oh, to be sure,
there are some spurts of growth. Indeed,
there are certain sections of the world in which the church is making great
advances. For example, in Africa, south
of the Sahara, the number of Christians is increasing enormously. By the year 2000, there will be at least 350
million Christians in Africa south of the Sahara. Here and there in other lands, notably in
South Korea, tremendous church growth has occurred. I shall be speaking of these matters later in
the lectures, but all put together they do not wipe out the fact that many denominations
today in Europe and North America have grown content with their ineffective
evangelism. They evangelize, to be
sure. Some of their congregations grow a
little, but their denominations as a whole, in a nation which desperately needs
church growth if it is to become more just, more brotherly, and more kind,
remain very slow growing, if not static and declining.
In modern
American culture where sin in many forms has become commonplace, where
pre-marital and extra-marital sex are accepted as legitimate ways of life,
where all kinds of bribes and corruption occur with amazing regularity, and
where our prisons are fuller than ever with robbers, murderers, and other
criminals, we must have a significant increase in the number of practicing,
Spirit-filled, Bible-believing followers of the Lord Jesus. Unless this happens, we will see American
civilization crumble. The signs are
written large for all who have eyes to see.
Methodism
arose as the great John Wesley addressed himself to precisely this
condition. Methodism has grown and
spread throughout the world. Today, in
addition to the many good works that it is already doing, it must return to its
pristine passion—multiplying classes of the redeemed, winning men and women to
the holy life, and remaking the world as God wants it remade.
Whether this
obedience to Christ is called Methodism, effective evangelism, or church
growth—or for that matter, Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, or a Baptist way of
life—makes little difference. That it is
truly Spirit-filled, truly biblical, and truly full of overpowering love makes
all the difference in the world. As we
begin this series of lectures, I trust that all of us gathered in this room
will believe that we are emphasizing the essence of our Branch of the Church. Whether we are Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians,
Lutherans, or members of any other Branch of the Church, let us be certain that
God the Father Almighty wants His lost sheep found. He wants His lost sons and daughters brought
back home. In this series of lectures we
shall be talking about the essential work of every Branch of the Church. Not only is it their most essential work, but
it is also their dearest dream, their most ardent hope, and their most
rewarding task.
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