Luther's Garden of Roses

"He allows the affliction to remain and to oppress; yet He employs different tactics to bestow peace; He changes the heart, removing it from the affliction, not the affliction from the heart. This is the way it is done: When you are sunk in affliction He so turns your mind from it and gives you such consolation that you imagine you are dwelling in a garden of roses."

Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 285. John 14:23-31.

Kelm Collection - Wisdom from Below

Fuller Seminary Advocate
"Our synod now has a fulltime executive secretary for evangelism. He's the Rev. Paul Kelm; and we need him. We need him to be our evangelism advocate."
Rev. Ron Roth, The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Winter, 1985 p. 2.

Give Them TELL!
"TELL has served the church faithfully for 15 years. Three editors have served; Ronald Roth (1977-84), Paul Kelm (1985-88), and the undersigned since 1989...The lead article in the first issue of TELL was titled 'Church Growth - Worthwhile for WELS.'...The author of this article in April 1988 issue of TELL concludes, 'It's obvious by now that I believe we in WELS can profit greatly from the writings of the church-growth leaders.' ... TELL as a separate publication ends with this issue. Nevertheless, the focus of The Evangelism Life Line will continue for years to come as an integral part of the new Board for Parish Services journal - PARISH LEADERSHIP.
Rev. Robert Hartman TELL (WELS Evangelism) Summer, 1992.

"The publication TELL ('The Evangelism Life Line') has been inaugurated to promote the cause of church growth."
Ernst H. Wendland, "Church Growth Theology," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1981, 78, p. 105.


WELS Mission Counselors' NEWSLETTER, April, 1992: authors are - James Woodworth, Disciples of Christ; "Net Results," March, 1991; Roger K. Guy, Disciples of Christ; Arnell P. C. Arn, American Baptist Church; Jane Easter Bahls, Presbyterian; C. Jeff Woods, freelance writer and minister; Lyle Schaller, United Methodist; Pastor Paul Kelm; Pastor Jim Mumm, WELS; Pastor Peter Panitzke, WELS; Pastor Randall Cutter and Mark Freier, WELS; First Congregational Church, Winchester, MA."
Pastor Jim Radloff, editor, WELS Mission Counselors' NEWSLETTER, April, '92, 2929 Mayfair Road Milwaukee, WI, 53222.
[GJ - Cutter and Freir left the Lutheran Church altogether. Freier was at Crossroads Community Church, the stealth congregation started with the blessing of DP Robert Mueller. The congregation is honestly non-Lutheran now.]

"Church growth theory suggests the need for seven fellowship groups for every 100 members."
Pastor Paul E. Kelm, The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Winter, 1985, p. 4.

"The mistaken announcement by a reporter from another Lutheran body was clearly repudiated in the March 15, 1992 issues of The Northwestern Lutheran. Yet you boldly state that the WELS continues to be a part of this project, in which it never participated. Dr. Jackson, I ask you to repent of your slanderous lie and retract it publicly. Galatians 6:1-2 leads me to ask this of you, for the sake of your spiritual life. Titus 3:10 urges me to ask this of you for the sake of the church. cc: District President Robert Mueller, Vice President Paul Kuske, Vice President Gerald Schroer, Rev. David Grundmeier, Rev. Gary Baumler."
Pastor Paul Kelm (WELS), Letter to Gregory L. Jackson, 9-23-92.
[GJ - I spoke to the ELCA leader of the Joy radio broadcast, which ELCA shared with WELS and Missouri. First of all, his secretary was shocked at the WELS denial. She saw the WELS man, John Barber, at all the meetings. She asked me to phone her boss, who was sick at home. The ELCA chairman was completely befuddled about the denial. Now most people realize that WELS works with ELCA and Missouri on many religious projects. The only group WELS will not work with is the ELS. WELS had a pan-Lutheran worship conference at Carthage College. They had a Roman Catholic speaker, ELCA speaker, someone from Wheaton College, Missouri speakers, women teaching men, but not one ELS speaker. Them there's " WELS fellowship principles" at work, courtesy of James Tiefel.]

"Your September 21 article in Christian News perpetuates a lie, slanders leaders of your church and risks spiritual offense to weak brothers and sisters. You describe a conference on leadership in which fellowship lines were clearly drawn and at which testimony to the truths which separate Lutherans was publicly given as 'a joint ministry conference with a liberal agenda.' Then you add, 'Months later, the three groups [ELCA, LCMS, WELS] joyfully announced a joint religious radio show, Joy, also funded by Lutheran insurance money. WELS participated in 'Joy' from the beginning and continues to be a part of the project.'"
Pastor Paul Kelm (WELS), Letter to Gregory L. Jackson, 9-23-92.
[GJ - As I recall, I combined the Snowbird story with Joy Radio. The three synods also did multi-cultural stuff together as well. AAL paid the three groups to do a joint evangelism program. Snowbird was difficult to deny because I had The Lutheran photo of Chilstron, Bohlmann, and Miskchke reprinted in Christian News. The photo caption said something like "Chiefs Confer." Kelm's hysterics are still a little difficult to comprehend, except perhaps the phones were ringing a lot.]

"Evangelism upside-down is starting with the subjective issues of perceived reality and working back to God's objective truths of ultimate reality - sin and grace. It's offering the attendant blessings of salvation as the 'hook' to gain an audience for God's plan of salvation." [felt needs used to sell the Gospel]
Paul Kelm, The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Fall, 1985 p. 4.
[GJ - That's a good title for such pathetic content.]

"Upside-down evangelism may begin with different diagnostic questions. What do you want out of life? lets the other person pick the path for witness. How do you feel about where our society is heading? uncovers fears and needs without becoming too personal. What makes people happy (or unhappy) do you think? allows someone to express preceived [sic] needs in the third person."
Paul Kelm The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Fall, 1985 p. 5.

"Upside-down evangelism doesn't begin with personal sin and guilt, but rather with the consequences of sin. Societal consequences (for which each day's newspaper provides evidence) are the 'perceived need' door to understanding the alienation of life and people from God."
Paul Kelm, The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Fall, 1985 p. 5.

"It's just easier for many people to work backwards from the subjective to the objective in their thinking. In fact, upside-down evangelism may start with gospel and work back to law, stating the solution as a prelude to the problem and clarifying both at the cross." [This is Moravian Pietism, as shown by Walther's Law and Gospel.]
Paul Kelm, The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Fall, 1985 p. 5.

"Upside-down evangelism follows the path of least resistance to the God of gracious acceptance."
Paul Kelm, The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Fall, 1985 p. 5.

Finding the Receptive: People in Transition, by James Witt - "The Bible illustrates the people-in-transition receptivity principle very well. Converts such as Naaman, a leper; Ruth, a widow; the woman at the well, a five-time divorcee; the thief on the cross, a convict near death; were all people who in a period of transition were receptive to hearing the Gospel. The Receptivity-Rating Scale shown at left...
Paul Kelm, editor, The Evangelism Handbook, WELS Evangelism Appendix III,

"MOTIVATING AND ORGANIZING THE CONGREGATION AROUND THE GREAT COMMISSION" [This is the Donald Abdon view of relating all church structures to evangelism, as noted in Valleskey's PT notes.] Paul Kelm, editor, The Evangelism Handbook, WELS Evangelism "PLANNING, long-range or short-range, should be S-M-A-R-T...specific...measurable...accepted...realistic...timed...."
Paul Kelm, editor, The Evangelism Handbook, WELS Evangelism p. 3.

"Don't let the world paint us into a corner of antiquarianism on subjects like a six-day creation or verbal inspiration."
Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 13.

"Thesis Seven: Sound Apologetics Can Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good...Logic never converted anyone; but Christianity is logically defensible, once one makes reason ministerial to God and His Word...Read C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer and Josh McDowell for practical apologetic tools. In fact, lend your copy to the prospect whose intelligence and education have become his curse. Once you've read Josh McDowell's 'Lord, Liar, or Lunatic' argument for the deity of Christ, you'll find yourself using it."
Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 14.

"A last word on sound doctrine is in place. Sound doctrine must be distinguished from tradition, praxis and preference. The liturgy, translation of the Bible, vestments and organizational policies of the church are not equatable with sound doctrine."
Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 3.

"Doctrines in controversy and applications to those doctrines are a disciple's meat. They are swallowed only after patient doses of discipling milk. The art of mission work is to preserve that sequence despite a prospect's desire to chew what he can't swallow."
Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 3.

"Non-Christians usually become good prospects for personal reasons or as I like to say: 'They come for sociological reasons and stay for theological reasons.'"
Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 4.

"Small churches need not be small thinkers, but small-thinking churches will always remain small. Churches and people seldom go/grow beyond their expectations."
Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 6.
[GJ - See Waldo Werning and Robert Schuller for the same thought. Did the Apostles know this? According to Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, they did not.]

"Thesis One: Sound Doctrine Sounds Good When Good People Sound it. Normally, people respond to other people before they respond to doctrine."
Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 7.

"Small thinking churches typically budget to remain small."
Rev. Paul Kelm, "How to Make Sound Doctrine Sound Good to Mission Prospects," p. 7.

"Lifestyle evangelism is the merger of visual and verbal witness, by the people Jesus intended, in the way that He modeled. It's the primary element in a church's strategy to win the lost." [Other endorsements from Rev. Burton Bundy, Church of the Lutheran Brethren, and Dr. Erwin Kolb, LCMS] Rev. Paul Kelm, Evangelism, WELS Your Invitation!
Kent Hunter, (D.Min., Fuller; S.T.D., LSTC) Church Growth Center, Corunna, Indiana 46730 Phone 219-281-2452 Invitation for Heart to Heart Workshop.
[GJ - Bivens claimed I was slandering Kelm to suggest Paul endorsed this ecumenical workshop. I then produced the brochure as proof. Next Bivens claimed that Kelm was quoted without his permission. I phoned Hunter and asked the D.Min. from Fuller. Hunter said he asked Kelm's permission and got it. False accusations of slander are in fact slanderous.]

Paul’s Brother Dan, Now in the LCMS

"The Network of WELS Small Group Leaders. 1. Information on active/interested small group leaders. 2. The Resource Sharing Network led by Divine Savior in Indianapolis, Indiana [Pastor Dan Kelm]."
WELS Campus Pastors, Small Group Training Conference, Jan. 7-9, 1991, Madison. p. 19.

"When planning the service, Rev. Kelm and the worship committee decided immediately that there wouldn't be any organ music and that the usual Lutheran liturgy wouldn't be used."
Carol Elrod, "Pastor Hopes Seeks Will Find Way to Special Church Service," Indianapolis Star, May 12, 1990 printed in CN.

"The role model for this carefully choreographed and rehearsed service, referred to by Rev. Kelm as a 'seeker service,' is Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Ill., near Chicago, an independent congregation formed 14 years ago...Rev. Kelm said he viewed a videotape of a service at the Chicago-area church before planning the first seeker service for Divine Savior, which is affiliated with the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod."
Carol Elrod, "Pastor Hopes Seeks Will Find Way to Special Church Service," Indianapolis Star, May 12, 1990 Reprinted in CN.

Cicero - Also True of Denominations

Marcus Tullius Cicero:

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.
An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.
But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through
all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor;
he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments,
he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation,
he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body
politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.”

Your Confession - And Mine - The Book of Concord

"We have no intention of yielding aught of the eternal, immutable truth of God for the sake of temporal peace, tranquility, and unity (which, moreover, is not in our power to do). Nor would such peace and unity, since it is devised against the truth and for its suppression, have any permanency. Still less are we inclined to adorn and conceal a corruption of the pure doctrine and manifest, condemned errors. But we entertain heartfelt pleasure and love for, and are on our part sincerely inclined and anxious to advance, that unity according to our utmost power, by which His glory remains to God uninjured, nothing of the divine truth of the Holy Gospel is surrendered, no room is given to the least error, poor sinners are brought to true, genuine repentance, raised up by faith, confirmed in new obedience, and thus justified and eternally saved alone through the sole merit of Christ." (Closing of Formula of Concord, Concordia Triglotta. p. 1095).

Cited in Francis Pieper, The Difference Between Orthodox And Heterodox Churches, and Supplement, Coos Bay, Oregon: St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 1981, p. 65.

Church Growth Eyes - Is Anyone Else Laughing?

"The Institute for American Church Growth has created a card game called 'Church Growth Eyes.' The game may be used in groups to learn how to see through church growth eyes."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 51.

"As we consider various factors and principles relating to Church Growth we need abundant, accurate information about the members of our churches. This basic principle of Church Growth is called Discerning the Body. Pastors and lay people need to discern the Body in the congregation in which they are serving. For this, Church Growth eyes are essential."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 61.

Robert Preus: "This is not a handbook on how to do certain things, not offering us gimmicks, procedures, models, and the like, although there is much of practical material to be found throughout. It is rather a theology of church growth and missions." [foreword by Robert Preus]
Waldo J. Werning, LCMS, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 9.

"Church Growth is not another program. It is a process. The pastor and people who have 'Church Growth eyes' make up a church that sees the task of ministry as an outreach process that affects every aspect of the church: from ladies' aid to elders."
Kent R. Hunter, LCMS, Launching Growth in the Local Congregation, A Workbook for Focusing Church Growth Eyes, Detroit: Church Growth Analysis and Learning Center, 1980, p. 11.

"We have discovered that the Early Church was an institution that unknowingly saw its world through Church Growth eyes. We have some benefits they did not have in that we can look back today and analyze their successes and failures."
Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, "Church Growth - the Acts of the Apostles," Taught at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Columbus, Ohio.

"In the autumn of 1985 and the winter of 1985-1986, a truly momentous step was taken by the five Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) congregations in the metropolitan area of Columbus, Ohio. The five pastors and lay representatives of those churches organized and incorporated Lutheran Parish Resources, Inc., the first Church Growth institute in the WELS."
David G. Peters, "Lutheran Parish Resources: Pilot Program in Church Growth," Mequon: Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, April 27, 1987 p. 1.
[GJ - St. Paul's was never a WELS congregation, so there were only five WELS congregations there at the time. Prince of Peace was kicked out, so now there are three.]

"Several of our brothers have been warning us to be careful about the leaven of The Church Growth Movement and the insidious Reformed doctrine contained within. Not a few of us have heard their warning and have thought to counter the danger by saying we will weed out the erroneous material and use only that which is proper and beneficial to the Lord's work in our congregations. Fellow-shepherds, there is some evidence to show that that is exactly what the devils wants us to think. That seems to be used to lull us and our members into sleep, and without our intending it, the soul-harming false doctrines creep in undetected, under the guise of religious printed materials and programs."
Michigan District President Robert Mueller, (WELS), "President's Report to the Conferences, Spring, 1991, p. 2.
[GJ - DP Mueller and VP Paul Kuske set up Floyd Luther Stolzenburg in Columbus, to run Lutheran Parish Resources.]

Here Is One Stealth Congregation Set Up by Mueller/Kuske
"Since several brothers have asked about the status of Rick Miller, I provide the following information. Rick has asked for a release from his call at Huron Valley Lutheran High School in order to serve a group of people as their pastor and to help organize them as an independent Christian congregation. The group is composed of some former members of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Plymouth, of some former members of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Livonia, and some people who have left LC-MS churches. The group has stated that it has a different philosophy and style of ministry, which includes drama, contemporary music and a thematic form of worship and liturgy, which allows for greater personal participation by its female members. The group has also stated that it would like to retain fellowship relations with our Wisconsin Synod…."As an independent group it does not plan to use the name 'Lutheran' in its title. It will be known as The Crossroads Christian Church...For the present, Rick Miller is still a pastoral member of the WELS...At that time [January 31, 1992, submission of a constitution] the fellowship question will be determined on the basis of the group's doctrinal statements and practices."
WELS District President Robert Mueller, President's Report to the Conferences, Fall, 1991, pp. 2-3.
[GJ - Rick Miller, Kelly Voigt, and Mark Freier all passed through Crossroads Community Church as pastors.

Mega Church Growth Quotation Collection

"Some 15 years ago, Peter Wagner's equation read 'Cells + Congregation + Celebration = Church.'"
Ken Sidey, "Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas," Christianity Today, June 24, 1991, p. 46.

"But perhaps church growth's greatest challenge in North America comes from research that shows that more than 80 per cent of all the growth taking place comes through transfer, not conversion. The statistic strikes at the heart of McGavran's brainchild, now come of age. Whether by computer or spiritual power, the church growth movement must improve on those numbers. For if it does not, it will stand to lose the credibility and acceptance it has worked so long to gain."
Ken Sidey, "Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas," Christianity Today, June 24, 1991, p. 47.

C. Peter Wagner: "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."
Ken Sidey, "Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas," Christianity Today, June 24, 1991, p. 47.

"In the words of C. Peter Wagner, Professor of Missions at the Fuller School of World Missions, Jesus at Bangkok was the 'prototype of an ideal social attitude,' the 'man for others' whose resurrection and lordship meant no more than that others should be inspired by His example."
Ernst H. Wendland, "Missiology--and the Two Billion," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, January, 1974 71, p. 11f.

"Dr. Donald McGavran, Dean Emeritus and Senior Professor of Mission at the Institute of Church Growth, Pasadena, California, is very much concerned about the Two Billion. He severely censures the leaders of the World Council of Churches as having 'betrayed the Two Billion.'"
Ernst H. Wendland, "Missiology--and the Two Billion," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, January, 1974 71, p. 9.

"CHURCH GROWTH. FIND OUT WHAT REALLY WORKS! Attend the 11th annual Church Growth International Conference. Hosted by Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho. Speakers Include: Dr's Jack Hayford and Peter Wagner...Discover why some churches grow and others don't...Find fellowship and worship with hundreds of pastors and church leaders from around the world." Church Growth International 1990 mailing "The Church Growth Movement has not yet paid enough attention to a critical self-assessment of its methodological presuppositions. Critics of the movement have raised important questions that need to be addressed."
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. 149. (Original title - Look Out, The Pentecostals Are Coming)

"These two lists give us two general categories of signs of the kingdom: Category A: Social signs or signs applied to a general class of people. These include (1) preaching good news to the poor, (2) proclaiming release to the captives, (3) liberating the oppressed, and (4) instituting the Year of Jubilee ('acceptable year of the Lord'). Category B: Personal signs or signs applied to specific individuals. These include (1) restoring sight to blind people, (2) casting out demons and evil spirits, (3) healing sick people, (4) making lame people walk, (5) cleansing lepers, (6) restoring hearing to deaf people, and (7) raising the dead."
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. 16.

"The preacher, in fact, was a fascinating combination of eloquent and illiterate (by his own testimony). In the services I saw fervent singing, joyous clapping of hands, dancing in the Spirit, speaking in tongues, testimonies, prophecies, preaching of the Word, and as a climax the handling of deadly poisonous snakes and drinking of strychnine. I discussed this with several members of the congregation. When I asked why they handled snakes they replied, simply, 'Because Jesus told us to do it as a sign.' Another sign of the kingdom." [Footnote - See C. Peter Wagner, What Are We Missing?, formerly Look Out, The Pentecostals Are Coming, Carol Stream: Creation House, 1973, 1978.]
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. 23.

"Church growth is that science which investigates the planting, multiplication, function and health of Christian churches as they relate specifically to the effective implementation of God's-commission to 'make disciples of all nations' (Matt. 28:19-20 RSV). Church growth strives to combine the eternal theological principles of God's Word concerning the expansion of the church with the best insights of contemporary social and behavioral sciences, employing as its initial frame of reference, the foundational work done by Donald McGavran." [Constitution, Academy for American Church Growth]
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. 75.

"In 1980 the Church Growth Movement celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. The historical even now regarded as the beginning of the movement was Donald McGavran's publication of The Bridges of God in 1955."
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. x.

"Lyle Schaller, for example, now characterizes the emergence of the Church Growth Movement as 'the most influential development of the 1970's on the American religious scene." [In the Foreword to Donald McGavran and George G. Hunter III, Church Growth Strategies that Work (Nashville: Abingdon, 1980) p. 7.]
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel, New York: Harper and Row, 1981, p. xi.

[McGavran became a professor of missions in Indianapolis in 1957, at the College of Missions, where he got his M.A. in 1923. He began teaching at Northwest Christian College in Oregon in 1961. McGavran was invited to move his Institute of Church Growth to Fuller and become the founding dean of Fuller's School of World Mission.]
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 10f.

"The bulletin to which I refer is the Global Church Growth Bulletin, which McGavran began in 1964...One should not confuse McGavran's Global Church Growth Bulletin with Church Growth: America, a magazine edited by W Charles Arn and published by the Institute for American Church Growth."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 11.

"Church growth theorists are not opposed to applying Management by Objectives (MBO) in their work. McGavran is bold to advocate planning as much as fifty years in advance."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 79.

"The fountainhead and headwaters of the church growth river are to be found in a man, an institute, a bulletin, a school, and a book." [But see C. Peter Wagner, "Church Growth, More Than a Man, a Magazine, a School, a Book," Christianity Today, December 7, 1973, pp. 11ff.]

"The man is Donald Anderson McGavran, the son of missionary parents, born in India on December 15, 1897, who was himself a third-generation missionary in India for more than thirty years under appointment of the United Christian Missionary Society (Disciples of Christ). He has a Ph. D. in education from Columbia University."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 9f.

"Church growth consultation began at the Charles E. Fuller Institute in 1975, when it was still called Fuller Evangelistic Association, under C. Peter Wagner and John Wimber. I took over from Wimber in 1978."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Chapter: "Church Growth Consultation," by Carl F. George, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 159.

"Church Growth consultants also draw from the social sciences, including anthropology, sociology, social psychology, psychology, educational psychology, instructional technology, communications, organizational development, management, and marketing."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Chapter: "Church Growth Consultation," by Carl F. George, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 160.

"Win Arn, president and founder of the influential Institute for American Church Growth, is widely respected as a pioneer and major spokesperson for the American Church Growth Movement...He has produced or coproduced almost every film now in use in the area of church growth...'For the Love of Pete.'"
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 230.

"W. Charles 'Chip' Arn is the foremost designer of church growth training curricula and resources used by individual churches and regional districts across the Protestant spectrum...Arn's most significant contribution to date is probably his work in The Master's Plan for Making Disciples, which is the first strategy of evangelism building on and incorporating the principles of church growth into a practical method for equipping laypersons and congregations to effectively reach their unchurched friends and relatives."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 230.

"Kent Hunter is director of the Church Growth Center, Corunna, Indiana... Hunter sees his major contribution to the Church Growth Movement in the area of theology...Kent Hunter contributed two chapters to this volume: chapter 7, 'Membership Integrity: The Body of Christ with a Backbone,' and chapter 11, 'The Quality Side of Church Growth.'"
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 240f.

"Roger Leenerts is an executive with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, serving as associate executive secretary for North American missions on the Board for Mission Services. He has been a key instrument in introducing church growth principles and practices into the LCMS through sponsoring church growth seminars and workshops for key denominational personnel. Under this new emphasis, church planting became the primary mission emphasis for the synod. In the mid seventies only twenty new congregations were being started per year. Currently the number is over 100, and the goal for 1990 is 500 new congregations per year."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 246.

"Donald McGavran is the founder of the Church Growth Movement. See chapter 1, 'A Tribute to the Founder.'"
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 248.

"Elmer Matthias is associate professor of practical theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, an institution of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod...While serving the parish [Zion, Anaheim, California] he enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry program in church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, receiving his degreee in 1977. At Concordia Seminary he became the first trained church growth seminary instructor in Lutheran circles, teaching church growth, evangelism, and parish administration."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 250.

"Lyle Schaller has been parish consultant since 1971 with the Yokefellow Institute, a retreat center in Richmond, Indiana, founded by D. Elton Trueblood. He has conducted approximately eight hundred workshops on church growth, parish planning, leadership, and related subjects."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 260.

"C. Peter Wagner is the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Missions in Pasadena, California. The School of World Mission became a part of Fuller Seminary in 1965 when Donald McGavran, father of the Church Growth Movement, moved his nonacademinc Institute of Church Growth to Pasadena from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon. Since that time, Fuller Seminary has been the institutional base for the Church Growth Movement, first in its global expression and later in its North American expression."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271.

"C. Peter Wagner is the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Missions in Pasadena, California. The School of World Mission became a part of Fuller Seminary in 1965 when Donald McGavran, father of the Church Growth Movement, moved his nonacademinc Institute of Church Growth to Pasadena from Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon. Since that time, Fuller Seminary has been the institutional base for the Church Growth Movement, first in its global expression and later in its North American expression."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271.

"Recognizing the need for professional church growth consultation, in 1975 he [C. Peter Wagner] invited John Wimber to become the founding director of what is now the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth. Wimber got the Institute off to an excellent start, then left to become the founding pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim and Vineyard Ministries Internamtion... Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow (Regal, 1979) is approaching the 100,000 mark... Church Growth and the Whole Gospel (Harper and Row, 1981) is a scholarly discussion of criticisms of the Church Growth Movement from the viewpoint of social ethics, in which Wagner did his doctoral work."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271f.

"Wagner invited McGavran to team teach with him, and the course was a success. Among its students was Win Arn, who almost immediately stepped out in faith and established the Institute for American Church Grwoth, also located in Pasadena. Both Wagner and McGavran were members of the founding board of directors. Arn has given brilliant leadership to the Institute for American Church Growth and ranks as the premier communicator of the Church Growth Movement in North America."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 271f.

"Wagner was instrumental in the organization of the North American Society for Church Growth, and became its founding president in 1984. In the same year he was honored by Fuller Seminary with the Donald A. McGavran Chair of Church Growth."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 273.

"Stephen A. Wagner is senior pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Carrollton, Texas. In addition he serves as chairman of the Church Growth Task Force of the Texas District, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod...He is the author of Heart to Heart: Sharing Christ with a Friend (Corunna, Indiana: Church Growth Center). He is also a contributing author to the Church Planting Manual (North American Missions Department of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 1985), and he has written articles for denominational publications. Currently he is a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree in church growth from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 274.

"In January of 1982, he [Wimber] taught a course at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he is an adjunct professor, called 'Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth.' Wimber taught this course for four years and it became one of the most popular courses at Fuller."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 275.

"Cell. Sometimes called a kinship circle; a small group of 8-12 believers; an important part of the church's struct which has the primary functions of spiritual accountability and intimacy and secondary functions of Bible, prayer, and healing."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 283.

"Body Life. The clustering of Christians together in a shared intimacy to achieve growth by all members of the body working together and building up one another." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 283.

"Body Evangelism. A perspective which emphasizes the goal of evangelism as making disciples who are incorporated into the body of Christ, the result of which is church growth."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 283.

"Church. An assembly of professed believers under the discipline of the Word of God, organized to carry out the Great Commission, administer the ordinances, and minister with spiritual gifts."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 283f. Matthew 28

"Church Growth Principles. Worldwide truths which, when properly applied, along with other principles, contribute significantly to the growth of the church."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 284.

"Church Growth Conscience. The conviction that God's will is for the body of Christ to grow."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 284.

"Communicant Members. The hard core of the church, those members who principally finance and support the church's existence."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 285.

"Conversion Church Growth. Those outside the church come to rest their faith intelligently in Jesus Christ and are baptized and added to the church."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 286.

"Conversion. Participation by non-Christians in a genuine decision for Christ, a sincere turning from the old gods and evils spirits, and a determined purpose to live as Christ would have people live."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 286.

"Discerning the Body. Seeing a local church or a denomination as it really is and obtaining and analyzing information about it and its members."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 287.

"Faith Projection. A projected growth goal based on present growth patterns, plus a trust in the Lord for an increase in the harvest. Usually a five year projection." C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 289.

"Fluxuating Receptivity. The responsiveness of individuals and groups waxes and wanes due to the Spirit's peculiar activity in the hearts of people."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 290.

"Follow-up Gap. The difference between the number of persons who make decisions for Christ in a given evangelistic effort and those who go on to become disciples."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 290.

"Felt Need. Describes the conscious wants and desires of a person; considered to be an opportunity for Christian response which stimulates within the person a receptivity to the gospel."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 290.

"Harvest Theology. The presentation of the gosple which results in the actual decision of nonbelievers to follow Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 291.

"Life Style Evangelism. Role modeling by Christians so that non-Christians will identify with the life of Christ in the believer as well as the gospel message, and will better hear the message. This approach to evangelism is rooted in theology and sociology."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 293.

"Perfecting. The process of nurture and development (following discipling) that is required to take believers from the initial acceptance of Jesus Christ to mature faith and obedience; sanctification."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 296.

"Planned Parenthood. A congregation decides to become a mother church and plants a daughter church. Intentional church planting."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 297.

"Social Action. Christian involvement in changing the structures of society in order to help the poor and oppressed."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 299.

"Soil Testing. An evangelistic strategy that seeks out those people who are open to receiving the gospel at the present time." [Note the Mark Braun NWL article about the sower and the seed, employing this soil testing concept.]
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 300.

"Winnable People. Those who are considered receptive to the gospel; those who will respond. See HARVEST PRINCIPLE; RESISTANCE-RECEPTIVITY AXIS."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 302.

"Pastors and lay persons trained in Church Growth are leading Christians to discover their spiritual gifts. They are looking into the Scripture and discovering those verses in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 where some of the gifts are listed." [See C. Peter Wagner, Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow, 1979, "a discussion of gifts which relates specifically to the potential of mobilizing God's people for church growth," p. 33.]
Kent R. Hunter, Launching Growth in the Local Congregation, A Workbook for Focusing Church Growth Eyes, Detroit: Church Growth Analysis and Learning Center, 1980, p. 26.

"Donald A. McGavran, who has been called the father of the modern church growth movement, states in Understanding Church Growth, 'Men and women do like to become Christians without crossing barriers' (p. 227). This experienced scholar and missionary states many examples of the homogeneous principle working in his research throughout the world."
Dr. Paul Y. Cho (with R. Whitney Manzano), More Than Numbers, Waco: Word Books, 1984, p. 46.

"There is no doubt the Body rightly understood, reverently discerned, and scientifically described assists Christian leaders in being better stewards of the grace of God and effective communicators of the gospel of Christ."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 110. 1 Corinthians 10.

"To acquire more expertise in Church Growth thinking, I visited the School of World Mission and Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary. When I inquired concering resources and materials for American Church Growth, I found that Dr. Donald McGavran and C. Peter Wagner were team-teaching a course applying world principles of Church Growth to the American scene. I immediately became a part of that group. As I listened and learned, I realized here was the effective approach to evangelism for which I had been searching. In those hours, I experienced my third birth--'conversion' to Church Growth thinking."
[Winfield C. Arn] Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 12.

"For the Love of Pete,"...presents "The Master's Plan for Making Disciples"...."Planned Parenthood for Churches"...Church growth principles are communicated with warmth and humor.
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 132.

"A Church Growth principle is a universal truth which, when properly interpreted and applied, contributes significantly to the growth of churches and denominations. It is a truth of God which leads his church to spread his Good News, plant church after church, and increase his Body."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 15.

"Discover new ways of thinking about your church and community, develop Church Growth eyes that see more accurately the various parts, the homogeneous units, the responsive segments of the community which can be won."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 17.

"As we begin developing Church Growth eyes and see the possibilities, as we discover methods that prove effective and discard methods that are clearly ineffective, we will find ourselves in a new age."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 19.

"As Christians refine their methods, develop Church Growth eyes, feel church growth responsibility, communicate the Gospel, and educate those who are won until they become responsible Christians, the church as a whole will receive the abundant blessing God wants to give."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 21f.

"God wants his church to grow!" Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 22. "They must not only believe in Jesus Christ but must become responsible members of his church The Bible requires that. If we take the Bible seriously, we cannot hold any other viewpoint."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 30.

"If a person claiming to be Spirit-filled is not evangelizing, one must doubt how full he or she is and wonder what kind of spirit he or she is full of."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 58.

"As we consider various factors and principles relating to Church Growth we need abundant, accurate information about the members of our churches. This basic principle of Church Growth is called Discerning the Body [in italics]. Pastors and lay people need to discern the Body in the congregation in which they are serving. For this, Church Growth eyes are essential."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 61. 1 Corinthians 10.

"Discerning the Body begins with Church Growth eyes. Unfortunately, this is what many leaders, many Christians, do not have."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 63. 1 Corinthians 10.

"I was thinking some hard thoughts about my Presbyterian friends when the Lord said to me, 'Donald, you sat on the executive committee of the Indian Mission of the Disciples of Christ for twenty-five years, didn't you?' I said, 'Yes, Sir.' He said, 'How much time did you spend describing the growth or nongrowth of your church?'"
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 65. It sounds like God graduated from Fuller Seminary!

"How can my congregation develop Church Growth eyes?"
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 72. 1 Corinthians 10.

"Churches grow as they reproduce themselves through planned parenthood." [Title of chapter 8]
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 93.

"The crudest extravagances of revivalism (Methodism, Pentecostalism, Holy Rollerism) have their root in this specifically Reformed doctrine of the immediate working of the Holy Spirit." [Fuller Seminary is known for its Pentecostal extremism, including C. Peter Wagner's "Signs and Wonders" course.]
"Grace, Means of," The Concordia Cyclopedia, L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, P. E. Kretzmann, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1927, p. 299.

"Not only does John Vaughan describe these large churches with fascinating detail, but he also analyzes them with church-growth eyes." [Foreword by C. Peter Wagner; book dedicated to Elmer L. Towns and C. Peter Wagner]
John N. Vaughan, The World's Twenty Largest Churches, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984, p. 12.

"Winning the winnable while they are winnable seems sound procedure."
Donald A. McGavran, Understanding Church Growth, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1980, p. 291.

"In 1963 he [McGavran] planned to add to the Institute of Church Growth at Eugene an American Division headed by an American minister of church growth convictions, but the plan did not mature. In 1967 the annual Church Growth Seminar at Winona Lake, Indiana, drew in about 20 American ministers and heads of Home Missions Departments."
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books, 1976, p. 14.

"The basic responsibility for the seminar is mine, but I am also assisted by Donald McGavran, Win Arn and John Wimber of the Fuller Evangelistic Association." [Two week Doctor of Ministry seminar every winter at Fuller School of Theology, on church growth]
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books, 1976, p. 15.

"The conscious attempt to apply church growth philosophy to America was stimulated in the fall of 1972 by Pastor Charles Miller, then a staff member of Pasadena's Lake Avenue Congregational Church. At Miller's urging, I organized and asked McGavran to team-teach with me a pilot course in church growth designed specifically for American church leaders. We did it only as an experiment, but the results were remarkable: One of the students, Win Arn, left his position with the Evangelical Covenant Church and founded the influential Institute for American Church Growth."
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books 1976, p. 15.

"When the roster of pioneers of church growth in North America is drawn up, three individuals will deserve a prominent place on it: One is Win C. Arn, one of the students in the first Fuller Seminary course in American Church Growth...Another pioneer is Paul Benjamin, who in 1974 left his position as Professor of New Testament and Church Growth at Lincoln Christian Seminary to establish the National Church Growth Research Center in Washington, D.C."
C. Peter Wagner, Study Questions by John Wimber, Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: Regal Books, 1976, p. 17.

Professional church growth consultant: "A pioneer in this field is Pastor John Wimber of Yorba Linda Friends Church in Orange Country, California. Wimber has recently resigned his pastorate to head up the newly-created Department of Church Growth of the Fuller Evangelistic Association."
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books 1976, p. 20.

"I know these questions are real because I was asking them myself when I first came, during my second missionary furlough from Bolivia, to study at Fuller under McGavran. Frankly, I entered his program in 1967 as a skeptic. But I emerged an enlightened person."
C. Peter Wagner (study questions by Rev. John Wimber), Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: G/L Regal Books, 1976, p. 35. Acknowledgments to: Donald McGavran, Win Arn, John Wimber, Paul Benjamin, Dennis Oliver, Harold Lindsell...Jack Hyles...Robert Schuller.... C. Peter Wagner, Study Questions by John Wimber, Your Church Can Grow, Glendale: Regal Books, 1976, p. 9.

"Incidentally, during my mission counselor days in California during the 80's, I did take a course at Fuller from Carl George and Peter Wagner. I am grateful for the opportunity to have done so because it helped me to see through the lousy theology espoused by David Luecke in "Evangelical Style and Lutheran Substance" a book, by the way, which has been roundly criticized in WELS circles as your own columns have noted."
Rev. Joel C. Gerlach (WELS) to Pastor Herman Otten, no date. [Gerlach taught at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary]

"Church Growth Eyes Sometimes the term is used in conjunction with the phrase, 'discerning the body.' Professor McGavran uses the terms almost synonymously. Both phrases are examples of how church growth science appropriates the medical model to express itself. Church growth eyes are 'a characteristic of Christians who have achieved an ability to see the possibilities for growth, and to apply appropriate strategies to gain maximum results for Christ and His Church.'" McGavran and Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, p. 127.]
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 51.

"Donald C. McGavran died at home home in Altadena, California, on July 10, 1990. He was 92 years old. Dr. McGavran is widely recognized as the founder of the church growth movement, a movement which has sought to put the social sciences at the service of theology in order to foster the growth of the church. In August of 1989 I borrowed a bicycle and pedaled several miles uphill up from Pasadena to Altadena. I found Dr. McGavran in his front yard with a hose in hand, watering flowers."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, Professor, Martin Luther College (WELS), p. 1.

"McGavran leaned toward me and said, 'The fields are white unto harvest. But you can't harvest a field of what with a penknife--you need a sickle, you need a scythe. Harvest intelligently."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, Parish Consultant for the WELS Board of Parish Services and his district's Coordinator of Evangelism. p. 2.

"For several years I've been a Pete Wagner fan. Although I don't see eye to eye with him on many important theological points (he approves of faith healing and speaking in tongues as long as it promotes church growth and he comes from a Billy Graham decision for conversion doctrinal background), he is the most eloquent spokesman of the Church Growth Movement. A prolific author on mission/evangelism/church growth subjects, Wagner is also an excellent teacher and a crystal clear writer."
Reuel J. Schulz,The Evangelism Life Line (WELS) Winter, 1980,

"Read these books and you might become a Wagner fan too."
Reuel J. Schulz,The Evangelism Life Line (WELS) Winter, 1980,

"So, what should the members of St. John evangelism committee do with [C. Peter Wagner's] Your Church Can Grow?...They can probably pick up a few helpful hints. They might, for example, appreciate research which provides an insight into the way unchurched people think."
Prof. David Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement, Just Gathering People or Building the Church?" The Northwestern Lutheran, May 5, 1991, p. 185.

"2. The distinction between a witness and an evangelist. a. Some are evangelists (Eph. 4:11-12) 1) C. Peter Wagner: 'The average church can realistically expect that approximately 10 per cent of its active adult members will have been given the gift of evangelist' ("Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow," Glendale: Gospel Light, 1979, p. 176)...3) but don't expect everyone to have that gift - Wagner (op. cit.): 'It is a misunderstanding of biblical teaching, in my opinion, to try to convince every Christian that he or she has to be sharing the faith constantly as a part of their duty to the Master."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A.p. 51.

"Church Growth Eyes. A characteristic of Christians who have achieved an ability to see the possibilities for growth and to apply appropriate strategies to gain maximum results for Christ and the Church."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 284.

"There are other church growth programs which have been developed along more conservative lines. Here we are thinking of adaptations of McGavran's principles such as developed by Waldo J. Werning of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. In his study entitled "Vision and Strategy for Church Growth" Werning has modified some of McGavran's extreme positions. Using some of his own adaptations Werning has conducted many seminars and workshops in applying church growth principles to a local congregational setting in America." [Werning is Who's Who in Church Growth]
Ernst H. Wendland, "Church Growth Theology," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1981, 78, p. 117.

"A second example of this homogenization is Waldo J. Werning's Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, published by Moody Press in 1977." [Ed. note: The foreword is by C. Peter Wagner. Werning studied at Fuller.] "Werning is a Missouri Synod Lutheran executive. Although Werning's denominational publishing house did not publish his book, it is nevertheless an attempt by Werning to create an instrument for church growth among Missouri Synod Lutherans. If you read Werning, you can readily see that he is exceedingly eclectic, drawing from everywhere, including his own tradition."
Delos Miles, Church Growth, A Mighty River, Nashville: Broadman Press, 1981, p. 33f.

"Waldo Werning is director of the Stewardship Growth Center of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and an adjunct professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. He teaches a seminar course and conducts seminars which focus on 'supply side stewardship,' integrating church growth principles with a stewardship program."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 274. Lutheran members of the North American Society for Church Growth: Harold S. Drageger, Grace Lutheran, Visalia, CA; Bradley Hoefs, King of Kings Lutheran, Omaha, NE; Kent Hunter, Church Growth Center, Corunna, IN; Elmer Matthias, Emeritus Concordia St. Louis, MO; Dale Olson, Cross of Hope Lutheran, Ramsey, MN; Waldo J. Werning, Stewardship Growth Center, Ft. Wayne, IN; Gregory L. Jackson, Columbus, OH. Doris M. Wagner, Fuller Theological Seminary, December 10, 1991.

"C. Peter Wagner writes that 'the indispensable condition for a growing church is that it must want to grow.'" [C. Peter Wagner, "What Makes Churches Grow?" Eternity (June 1974), 17.]
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 158.

"Donald McGavran offered us the following essay on 'The Unique and Radical Nature of the Church Growth Movement.'"
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 159.

"Dr. McGavran offers the following 'Ten Prominent Emphases in the Church Growth School of Thought.'" [Six and one half pages of direct quotes from McGavran follow.]
Waldo J. Werning, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 160.

"Waldo Werning has made an outstanding contribution to the church growth movement in America with Vision and Strategy for Church Growth...Working out of the models established by Donald McGavran and the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary, Waldo Werning breaks new ground in developing ways that church growth principles can be applied directly to American churches." [Foreword by C. Peter Wagner]
Waldo J. Werning, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, Second Edition, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p. 5.

Church Growth Principles

"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." C. Peter Wagner
Ken Sidey, "Church Growth Fine Tunes Its Formulas," Christianity Today, June 24, 1991, p. 47.

"What do people mean when they talk about effective church growth principles? Do we make God's kingdom come? 'God's kingdom certainly comes by itself,' Luther wrote. Ours is to sow the seed. We hamper the kingdom if we sow carelessly or if we do not sow at all. But we do not make it grow."
Mark Braun, The Growing Seed, What Do People Mean When They Talk about Effective Church Growth Principles? The Northwestern Lutheran, September 1, 1991, p. 300. Mark 4:26-29.

Robert Preus: "This is not a handbook on how to do certain things, not offering us gimmicks, procedures, models, and the like, although there is much of practical material to be found throughout. It is rather a theology of church growth and missions." [foreword by Robert Preus]
Waldo J. Werning, LCMS, The Radical Nature of Christianity, Church Growth Eyes Look at the Supernatural Mission of the Christian and the Church, South Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1975, p. 9.

"In an initial burst of enthusiasm reflecting Preus's concern for missions, the Fort Wayne faculty had petitioned the 1977 convention of the Missouri Synod to have each of its subdivisions or districts "make a thorough study of the Church Growth materials." What is more, the districts were to be urged to "organize, equip, and place into action all of the Church Growth principles as needed in the evangelization of our nation and the world under the norms of the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions." By the time of the 1986 synodical convention, however, the same faculty, while appreciating the "valuable lessons of common sense" to be learned from Church Growth, asked that "the Synod warn against the Arminian and charismatic nature of the church-growth movement."
Kurt E. Marquart, "Robert D. Preus," Handbook of Evangelical Theologians, ed., Walter A. Elwell, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1995, pp. 353-65. Reprinted in CN, 6-26-95, p. 21.

"For the Love of Pete,"...presents "The Master's Plan for Making Disciples"...."Planned Parenthood for Churches"...Church growth principles are communicated with warmth and humor.”
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 132.

"A Church Growth principle is a universal truth which, when properly interpreted and applied, contributes significantly to the growth of churches and denominations. It is a truth of God which leads his church to spread his Good News, plant church after church, and increase his Body."
Donald A. McGavran and Winfield C. Arn, Ten Steps for Church Growth, New York: Harper and Row, 1977, p. 15.

"In late 1976, 80 district mission and evangelism executives and board members attended special Fuller Seminary sessions and by the late 1970s, courses on Church Growth principles were taught at both LCMS seminaries." [Toward a Theological Basis, Understanding and Use of Church Growth Principles in the LCMS. 1991. p. 1]
Rev. Curtis Peterson, former WELS World Mission Board, "A Second and Third Look at Church Growth Principles," Metro South Pastors Conference Mishicot, Wisconsin, February 3, 1993 p. 10.

"A number of experts on church growth principles added muscle to the conference. Among the experts were George Barna, George Gallup Jr., Lyle Schaller, and Tom Sine--icons in the church growth movement...Of the four church growth experts mentioned above, I have heard three of them speak at some length." [On opposing page, letter about Church Growth which Wayne Mueller answered]
James P. Schaefer The Northwestern Lutheran, October 15, 1991, p. 363.

"Introduction to the Church Growth Movement by Lutheran authors, Hunter, Kent R., Foundations for Church Growth (New Haven, MO: Leader Publishing Co., 1983) - the author, an LC-MS clergyman who has now set up his own church growth consulting service, performs the valuable service in this 204 page book of presenting an introduction to church growth goals and terminology. Werning, Waldo, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1977) - Werning, active for years in LC-MS stewardship work, explains the foundations, presuppositions and principles of church growth and then shows how a congregation can benefit from making use of certain church growth principles - of the two books listed in this category, Werning's is the more practical."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A, p. 6.

"Roger Leenerts is an executive with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, serving as associate executive secretary for North American missions on the Board for Mission Services. He has been a key instrument in introducing church growth principles and practices into the LCMS through sponsoring church growth seminars and workshops for key denominational personnel. Under this new emphasis, church planting became the primary mission emphasis for the synod. In the mid seventies only twenty new congregations were being started per year. Currently the number is over 100, and the goal for 1990 is 500 new congregations per year."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 246.

"Church Growth Principles. Worldwide truths which, when properly applied, along with other principles, contribute significantly to the growth of the church."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 284.

"Waldo Werning is director of the Stewardship Growth Center of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and an adjunct professor at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne. He teaches a seminar course and conducts seminars which focus on 'supply side stewardship,' integrating church growth principles with a stewardship program."
C. Peter Wagner, ed., with Win Arn and Elmer Towns, Church Growth: The State of the Art, Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1986, p. 274.

"In the light of church growth principles as they are promulgated in many mission schools these days, the question naturally arises as to whether or not our approach to world mission work is in need of reassessment or improvement."
Ernst H. Wendland, "Church Growth Theology," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, April, 1981, 78, p. 108.

"Waldo Werning has made an outstanding contribution to the church growth movement in America with Vision and Strategy for Church Growth...Working out of the models established by Donald McGavran and the School of World Mission at Fuller Seminary, Waldo Werning breaks new ground in developing ways that church growth principles can be applied directly to American churches." [Foreword by C. Peter Wagner]
Waldo J. Werning, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, Second Edition, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, p. 5.

Valleskey and Commentary

Theses very close to Valleskey's Quarterly article (Spring, 1991, p. 117). Questionnaire mentions CG "underemphasizing the Means of Grace as the power of the Holy Spirit." David J. Valleskey, P.T. 418, The Church Growth Movement--An Evaluation, Summer Quarter, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, June 23-July 11, 1986.

GJ – That is like saying that Lutherans underemphasize the Assumption of Mary. The attempt to disguise differences in doctrine is a sign of unionism.

Bob: "..I'd like to share with you a book I came across the other day. It's interesting, easy to read, and may be the answer to our problem..." [GJ - Could this be the Bible, The Book of Concord, What Luther Says?] "Its title is Your Church Can Grow, and it's filled with all sorts of practical hints that could help us turn things around here." Author: "Bob didn't realize it at the time, but in his browsing he had stumbled upon one of many similar books written from the perspective of the church growth movement, books with such titles as How to Grow a Church, Ten Steps for Church Growth, Church Growth: Strategies that Work, and Leading Your Church to Growth."
Prof. David Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement, Just Gathering People or Building the Church?" The Northwestern Lutheran, May 5, 1991, p. 184.

GJ – Why would the future president of the WELS seminary want to introduce Church Growth books to the entire denomination?

"So, what should the members of St. John evangelism committee do with [C. Peter Wagner's] Your Church Can Grow?...They can probably pick up a few helpful hints. They might, for example, appreciate research which provides an insight into the way unchurched people think."
Prof. David Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement, Just Gathering People or Building the Church?" The Northwestern Lutheran, May 5, 1991, p. 185.

GJ – Yes, a Pentecostal Baptist like C. Peter Wagner can teach Lutherans all about the Means of Grace.

"This downplaying of the importance of the means of grace on the part of many in the Church Growth Movement would seem to stem from several factors." David J. Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement: An Evaluation," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1991 88, p. 105. Holidaysburg, 10-15-90

GJ - That is like saying that many Lutherans downplay the infallibility of the pope.

"There is a fourth option, which is the choice of this writer. It is the same kind of approach Lawrence Crabb, a Christian counselor, advocates over against the use of secular counseling resources. He calls it 'spoiling the Egyptians' (Exodus 12:36, KJV), after the action of Israel at the time they left Egypt, when they took from the Egyptians what would stand them in good stead on their journey."
David J. Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement: An Evaluation," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1991 88, p. 115. Holidaysburg, Pa, 10-15-90. Exodus 12:36.

GJ – Crabb is a favorite author for the Fuller Seminary crowd, so Valleskey is using a Fuller disciple to promote Fuller seminary.

"Yet this writer is confident we won't go astray in adopting a 'spoiling the Egyptians' approach to the various Church Growth Movement sociological principles and the research that produced them."
David J. Valleskey, "The Church Growth Movement: An Evaluation," Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly, Spring, 1991 88, p. 116. Exodus 12:36.

GJ – When this was stated at the pastors’ conference, I questioned whether the Israelites stole the garbage from the Egyptians. Valleskey frowned. Later, I asked him about going to Fuller Seminary. He denied it, looking frightened.

"The instructor may find it best not to distribute the Spiritual Gifts Analysis (pp. 33-49) until the end of the course, when the time has come for class members to work through it."
David J. Valleskey, Gifted to Serve, Parish Services, WELS.

GJ – This was cloned from Fuller Seminary. So was Valleskey’s program called Encouragement.

"The term 'spiritual breathing' originated with Dr. William Bright in his booklet, 'Have You Made the Wonderful Discovery of the Spirit-filled Life?'"
David Valleskey, Forest Bivens, New Life in Christ, September, 1981 p. 1.

GJ – Is any comment needed here? This is Baptist/Pentecostal.

"Useful Ideas for My Ministry from the Church Growth Movement...The Church Growth Movement--Strengths and Weaknesses...The Church Growth Movement--An Evaluation...Church Growth Sounds Good, But...Dangers of the Church Growth Movement...Friendship Evangelism...Rationale for Friendship Evangelism..."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A.

GJ – Valleskey tried to act as if Church Growth was new to him when he wrote the WLQ article. Later he said this class notes were bequeathed to him by another professor. However, he did not change them, which was his right.

"3. Establish your goals. a. definition: goals are those things that are required for an organization to carry out its objectives ('How') 1) short-range targets 2) SMART, Specific...Measureable...Acceptable...Realistic...Timed...."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A p. 101.

GJ – More Fuller Seminary blather. They really love Drucker’s Management by Objective at Fuller. ELCA grooved on MBO, too. ELCA is losing members almost as fast as WELS.

"But a cold heart can beat close to a correct mind. There are too many churches with impeccable credentials for orthodox theology whose outreach is almost nil. They are 'sound,' but they are sound asleep." Leighton Ford, The Christian Persuader. Valleskey asks: "true to a certain degree of us?" Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A p. 24.

GJ – This is typical Pietism, contradicting itself but very appealing to the Church Growth Pietists of WELS. Luther trusted that orthodox doctrine, the doctrine of the Bible, would always bring about God’s will in His time.
Ford is a Baptist.

"Assignments:...2. Prepare a term paper on the subject of evangelism and/or church growth."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A, p. 3.

GJ – No one can escape Church Growth at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. The place drips Reformed/Pentecostal doctrine and a loathing of Lutheran doctrine.

"2. The distinction between a witness and an evangelist. a. Some are evangelists (Eph. 4:11-12) 1) C. Peter Wagner: 'The average church can realistically expect that approximately 10 per cent of its active adult members will have been given the gift of evangelist' ("Your Spiritual Gifts Can Help Your Church Grow," Glendale: Gospel Light, 1979, p. 176)...3) but don't expect everyone to have that gift - Wagner (op. cit.): 'It is a misunderstanding of biblical teaching, in my opinion, to try to convince every Christian that he or she has to be sharing the faith constantly as a part of their duty to the Master."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A, p. 51.

GJ – Why is a Pentecostal Baptist so significant for Valleskey?

"David Hubbard, president Fuller Seminary: 'Not all of us have the gift of evangelism. I admire people who can lead others to Jesus Christ right on the spot...." Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A, p. 52.

GJ – David Hubbard was the anti-inerrancy liberal who took Fuller to new heights of commercial success.

"a receptivity rating scale (adapted by Win and Charles Arn in 'The Master's Plan for Making Disciples,' p. 91...."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A, p. 58.

GJ – This is too funny. Why trust the Gospel Promises when a Receptivity Rating Scale is so…effective?

"Introduction to the Church Growth Movement by Lutheran authors, Hunter, Kent R., Foundations for Church Growth (New Haven, MO: Leader Publishing Co., 1983) - the author, an LC-MS clergyman who has now set up his own church growth consulting service, performs the valuable service in this 204 page book of presenting an introduction to church growth goals and terminology. Werning, Waldo, Vision and Strategy for Church Growth, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1977) - Werning, active for years in LC-MS stewardship work, explains the foundations, presuppositions and principles of church growth and then shows how a congregation can benefit from making use of certain church growth principles - of the two books listed in this category, Werning's is the more practical."
Prof. David J. Valleskey, Class Notes, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, PT 358A, p. 6.

GJ – Hunter and Werning both studied at Fuller Seminary. Werning admitted it to me on the phone, then denied it. That is a familiar pattern among the Lutherans.

"In Christ, God has effected a universal justification, a universal reconciliation, a universal ransom, a universal atonement. Different terms, but all communicating the same message: God in Christ has declared the whole world to be not guilty."
David J. Valleskey, We Believe--Therefore We Speak, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1995, p. 71.

GJ – All the heathen are forgiven. All the pagans are forgiven. Everyone in Hell has the status of a saint. UOJ, Gospel reductionism, and Church Growth go hand-in-claw. ELCA calls it Gospel reductionism. The Universalists, a little more honest, just say everyone is saved.

"The King James Version, however, rendered it 'teach all nations.' This is a possible meaning of the word (cf. Matthew 13:52, where the same Greek word is used and is properly translated 'instructed')."
David J. Valleskey, We Believe--Therefore We Speak, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1995, p. 127 Matthew 28:18-20; Matthew 13:52.

GJ – Note the U-turn in the quotation below.

"Accordingly, when Christ says, Disciple (matheteusate) all nations by baptizing them, matheteusate can mean nothing other than to make disciples, to turn unbelievers into believers; for that is the Spirit-produced effect of baptism."
David J. Valleskey, We Believe--Therefore We Speak, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1995, p. 127. Matthew 28:18-20.

GJ – Since the verb means “disciple all nations,” we have to twist its meaning into “make disciples,” an entirely different concept, but one in harmony with Reformed doctrine and Fuller Seminary.

"Is the mission of the church to preach the gospel or to make disciples? The two—preaching the gospel and making disciples—are closely connected. Making disciples is the goal, or end result, our Lord had in mind. He does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance and faith. He wants all to be saved, to come to a heart knowledge of the truth. Preaching the gospel (employing the means of grace) is the means by which the Lord will achieve his goal of making disciples and so of gathering in his elect before he returns."
David J. Valleskey, We Believe--Therefore We Speak, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1995, p. 134.

GJ – “Making disciples” is the goal. I thought the Parable of the Sower was about casting the seed, broadcasting the Word and letting God accomplish His will. “He wants all to be saved”? Valleskey said the world was already pronounced not guilty. And what is a “heart knowledge”? That is another key word for Pietists, not Lutherans.

"It is true that only God the Holy Spirit can effect the end result of making a disciple out of an unbeliever; all we can do is sow the seed. But it is also true that our Lord, by speaking specifically of making disciples in his commission to his church, is encouraging it to keep that intended goal in mind when it does its seed sowing."
David J. Valleskey, We Believe--Therefore We Speak, The Theology and Practice of Evangelism, Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1995, p. 135. Matthew 28:18-20.

GJ – “Yes, but..” means No! This is the U-turn practiced so often by Kelm and Olson. Perhaps they learned it from Valleskey. Jesus never said, “Manufacture disciples!” The Great Commission says:

Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (KJV)

The King James was heavily influenced by Luther’s German Bible. “Make disciples” is from the Reformed.

How Many WELS Pastors Have Studied at Fuller?

Olson Count - Three
"To the best of my knowledge, only three WELS pastors have ever taken classes at Fuller Seminary: Reuel Schulz in the 1970s, and Robert Koester and I in the 1980s."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

Or Maybe – A Dozen
"You may reply that by 'Fuller-trained' you mean anyone who has attended a workshop presented by the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth, an agency which is independent of the Seminary. If that is the case, your attribution of 'Fuller-trained' is still simply not true. It would surprise me if even half of the two dozen people on your 'WELS/ELS Who's Who' list have attended a Fuller workshop; I personally know of only five who have."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

Plus David Valleskey
Valleskey admitted to CLC Pastor David Koenig that he studied at Fuller Seminary.

Plus Frosty Bivens
Bivens told the Midland Circuit, Michigan District, that he attended Fuller Seminary. He was quick to defend Paul Kelm at a pastors’ conference.

Plus Kelm, Huebner, and Olson
James Huebner confessed that the troika was trained at Fuller Seminary to be consultants.

Plus Norm Berg
"I did attend a Pasadena forum on Church Growth featuring Win Arn and others. That this does not imply 'studying' and thus absorbing and advocating CG philosophy or theology is borne out by the stated objective of my attendance in my role as home mission administrator, to be personally informed as to this popular 'home-mission' related movement. During my attendance I publicly challenged the theological basis of some of the CG principles. That I found some pertinent non-theological observations does not imply any acceptance of the Reformed theology involved. None of my writings re mission methods or stewardship principles deviate from the Law/Gospel Lutheran approach to justification and sanctification. Please check them honestly!"
Rev. Norman W. Berg, former DP and Home Mission Exec, WELS Letter to Gregory L. Jackson, 3-27-96.

"Neither things I shared with you nor any of my writings, published or not, substantiate the implications that I am an advocate of Church Growth theology. I did attend a Pasadena forum on Church Growth featuring Win Arn and others...I therefore request a public apology from you for making an unfounded accusation against me based on the fact that I attended a Church Growth conference. My attendance is no greater proof (by association) of my alleged Church Growth advocacy than your attendace at and degree from Notre Dame is proof of your acceptance of Roman Catholic heresy!"
Rev. Norman W. Berg, WELS, former mission board chairman Letter to Gregory L. Jackson, 3-27-96.

Plus Joel Gerlach
"Incidentally, during my mission counselor days in California during the 80's, I did take a course at Fuller from Carl George and Peter Wagner. I am grateful for the opportunity to have done so because it helped me to see through the lousy theology espoused by David Luecke in "Evangelical Style and Lutheran Substance" a book, by the way, which has been roundly criticized in WELS circles as your own columns have noted." Rev. Joel C. Gerlach (WELS) to Pastor Herman Otten, no date. [Gerlach taught at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary]

Plus Many Others
"...and in the process we got a look at the inside of his study. [WELS pastor David Reichel, Mandan, ND] He's got all the standard reference works you'd expect to find in a confessional Lutheran pastor's office. But the handiest shelf, right at chest level, was reserved for a long row of binders from annual seminars at Fuller." Source: Pastor Paul Naumann, CLC. April 1, 1996, e-mail.

Conversation with Lawrence Otto Olson, D.Min., Fuller Seminary

"We cannot add anything to the Word, but we may be able to remove the human barriers which might be in the way of the Word." Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church,"
EVANGELISM, February, 1991, p. 3.

GJ – Larry, I am confused about your statement. You just said we can make the Word of God more effective by what we do. By the way, isn’t Evangelism a Church Growth publication?

"Make no mistake; I am under no illusions here. I fully expect to be publicly pilloried in print again. You will no doubt do so with some wit, with a good selection of quotations instantly imported into your world processor from your ready-to-go database, and with my own words twisted and used against me. So be it; I can live with that."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

GJ – Larry, all I have to do is quote you verbatim, in context.

"While I would not encourage it, it would not surprise me to see my name in some future writing of yours. If it does appear there, please use my given [underlined] name, Lawrence."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

GJ – Lawrence, I’m sorry. I forgot how touchy you were about your name. I decided to include your middle name, too. I think it adds a touch of class. You can call me Gregg. Or Dr. Jackson. Or Your Excellency.

"Please stop exaggerating the amount of study that I have done at Fuller. After four years of study at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, which involved sixty-two different courses and a year of vicarage, I graduated in 1983. From 1987 to 1989 I took four courses where I was in a classroom with a Fuller instructor. That is the extent of my Fuller coursework...In addition, I have taken two courses at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and one at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Because of Fuller's liberal (would you expect anything else?) policy on transfer of credit, and because of two independent studies I undertook, I could complete the degree by simply writing a dissertation."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

GJ – Lawrence, I think you forgot something. Your paper was also part of your study at Fuller. I read it at the Martin Luther College Library in New Ulm. That was a requirement for a coveted D.Min. degree at Fuller. Calling it a dissertation is a bit much. The point is, you wanted a degree from Fuller Seminary. You wrote fawningly about meeting Don McGavran, a minister in the ultra-Left Disciples of Christ denomination. You and your friends in WELS have turned “mark and avoid” into “register and attend.”

"Contemporary social and behavioral sciences are a working out of the reason which God has given to humanity. Granted, the assumptions of some sociologists or anthropologists may be inconsistent with the Christian faith. That calls for discernment, but it does not invalidate the proper use of the social sciences by the church; it is, however, essential that they be used in a 'ministerial' manner."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, p. 3.

GJ – Lawrence, the Scriptures judge all books. This comment from you seems to imply God needs man’s help to get the message across.

"While only the Word is efficacious, the methods we use to minister to people with that Word may vary in their effectiveness."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, p. 2.

GJ – Lawrence, this is another contradiction. You have spent way too much time with Paul Kelm. He always starts out in one direction and then does a U-turn. Let me guess how effective your methods have been. WELS is flat broke, even with all the Schwan money. The seminary is shrunken down. The synod's membership has been going down ever since the leadership fell into the scrofulous embrace of Fuller Seminary.

"Donald C. McGavran died at home in Altadena, California, on July 10, 1990. He was 92 years old. Dr. McGavran is widely recognized as the founder of the church growth movement, a movement which has sought to put the social sciences at the service of theology in order to foster the growth of the church. In August of 1989 I borrowed a bicycle and pedaled several miles uphill up from Pasadena to Altadena. I found Dr. McGavran in his front yard with a hose in hand, watering flowers."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, p. 1.

GJ – I can only imagine the thrill, Lawrence. Now that you have given up Lutheran doctrine for the Church Growth Movement, how much has it helped any denomination, especially the Lutherans?

"McGavran leaned toward me and said, 'The fields are white unto harvest. But you can't harvest a field of what with a penknife--you need a sickle, you need a scythe. Harvest intelligently."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, p. 2.

GJ – That must have been a thrill, Lawrence. The late Donald McGavran spoke to you. I have one little question. If the fields are white unto harvest, why broadcast weed seeds everywhere?

"The church growth movement has made inroads into nearly every denomination in America. Once considered only the turf of conservative evangelicals, you will now find church growth practitioners in the United Methodist Church, in the Presbyterian Church in the USA, and among the Episcopalians. The LCMS has more pastors enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary, the seedbed of the movement, than are enrolled in the graduate programs at their Fort Wayne and St. Louis seminaries combined, and most of them include church growth as part of their studies."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "See How It Grows: Perspectives on Growth and the Church," EVANGELISM, February, 1991, p. 1.

GJ – Lawrence, this sounds like gloating to me. I am glad you admitted that Fuller was the seedbed of the movement. You bought a lot of seed there, doubtless with the help of synod mission offerings. I know they really got behind training at Fuller Seminary for future professors, for world missionary types, and for the American missions people. Today they are bringing home the world missionaries, closing missions, and not starting American missions.

"When Frederick Horn faced that situation, the Holy Spirit moved him to accept the call, and for the last few years he has served as the [lay] Minister of Discipleship for Grace Lutheran in downtown Milwaukee." (Pastor James Huebner, Fuller alumnus)
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary,, "Another Kind of Minister, There's a lot to do in a church, and a staff minister can do a lot of it," The Northwestern Lutheran, March, 1994, p. 9.

GJ – Lawrence, one thing I have noticed from the Fuller crowd. As soon as they appear, there are ways to get around having an ordained pastor.

"To believe, teach, and confess that truth is not inconsistent with being able to recognize that one approach to ministry may be more effective than another. It is more effective to hold worship services at 10:30 am on Sunday than at midnight on Tuesday; this is true, even though it is the same Gospel that is preached at either time." [another example, preaching in German to an American audience]
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

GJ – I am sure this sounded good in the locker room at Fuller Seminary. The problem is, you have replaced the efficacious Word of God with foolish, man-centered methods.

"Faithfulness is the standard by which God judges those he calls into the public ministry. That faithfulness may or may not be 'effective' in terms of visible results; results are up to God, not us. But part of faithfulness ought to include striving to be as 'effective' as we can be in the methods that we use to take the Means of Grace to people."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

GJ – There you go again, Lawrence. This is another Paul Kelm U-turn. Man must work to be effective to rev up the Word. That is terribly Reformed and rationalistic. You must know that from your study at Trinity, Fuller Seminary, and wherever else you have collected weed seeds.

"To the best of my knowledge, only three WELS pastors have ever taken classes at Fuller Seminary: Reuel Schulz in the 1970s, and Robert Koester and I in the 1980s."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

GJ – Lawrence, that is very coy. You bragged in Evangelism about all the recruits Fuller has. Your favorite seminary even sent out a letter boasting about all the WELS pastors they trained. It was a boatload. Frosty Bivens, David Valleskey, and many others studied there. Norm Berg wrote to me that he studied at Fuller Seminary. So did a former professor at your seminary (Joel Gerlach). You are in denial, Lawrence. I collected 500 WELS Church Growth quotations from WELS-produced material. That did not happen by accident.

"You may reply that by 'Fuller-trained' you mean anyone who has attended a workshop presented by the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth, an agency which is independent of the Seminary. If that is the case, your attribution of 'Fuller-trained' is still simply not true. It would surprise me if even half of the two dozen people on your 'WELS/ELS Who's Who' list have attended a Fuller workshop; I personally know of only five who have."
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, "A Response to Gregory L. Jackson, Ph.D.," Christian News, 3-28-94, p. 23.

GJ – I see, Lawrence. Three turned into five once you thought about it. The ELS pastor who raved about Fuller was on their colloquy committee. Can you imagine anything more hysterically funny than a Reformed/Pentecostal trained pastor examining someone to see if he is fit to join the prestigious Evangelical Lutheran Synod? Wait, you can imagine something funnier: a Fuller trained WELS Lutheran, both denying and bragging about his D.Min. degree, teaching Reformed evangelism to Lutherans.

"But when our Lord told us what our mission should be, he was quite clear: 'Make disciples.'"
Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, The Evangelism Life Line (WELS), Summer, 1988, p. 3. Matthew 28:19.

GJ – Lawrence, you and Valleskey and Gerlach love to manufacture disciples. The Reformed think they need to “make disciples.” The verse clearly means “to disciple all nations.” The object of the verb is “all nations.” The verb does not even imply “making something.” The verb means to teach, to bring someone into a learning relationship.