ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Church Growth Methods,
Because They Care about Your Miserable Soul
"Lupine? No I am ovine.
Baaa-ah. See?"
bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "New Gurgle-Patterson Site Less Than Three Bunny Ho...":
CGer disregard what are known as "parish boundaries." This was a major complaint against the Methodists and other revivalists (CG heroes) of the past--that they'd set up shop right on the doorstep of the traditional churches from which they wanted to, and would, draw members. In other words, Methodism didn't grow so fast legitimately, and any net gain of Methodists meant a net gain of zero Christians for Christendom. CG is a zero sum game at best.
CGers influenced by synodicalism still put church growth way ahead of the idea of serving a wider area of the US just so current WELS members wouldn't have to travel as far to church. Nor are they above competing with, or duplicating the efforts of a like-minded church in its own parish.
Synodicalism for CGers means not putting a church right across the street from a church of the same synod, while synodicalism for everyone else means serving the next town over.
A CGer who is slightly synodical will merge two churches into one (Kokomo), a CGer who is a bit more synodical will put his venue a block away (Appleton), while a CGer who wants to continue using the synod as an ATM will put a church 2 to 3 miles away (Austin), and a CGer who is about as synodical as they get will put a CG church a whole 5 miles away from other synod churches, provide it's smack dab between two WELS parishes on major roads (Rockford).
