The Church Growth Movement began in paganism, conceived in lust and born in iniquity.
Don McGavran, Disciples of Christ, borrowed his method from sociology.
When he moved to Fuller Seminary, his method was looking at large churches and copying how they reached that level of attendance. He formulated various "Church Growth principles" and maxims, all of them hilarious, even when cold sober.
The LCMS, WELS, ELS, and ELCA vanguard found themselves invited to Fuller to waste their synod's money on training. That is why all Shrinkers sound alike.
They were trained in copying the same craziness which intoxicated the earliest users.
Bivens, Kelm, Valleskey, and Stadler were out in California early and learning how to plagiarize.
Their buddy Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, thrown out of the LCMS ministry for cause, invented a Church Growth consulting scam (with Roger Zehms, also divorced), so everyone could copy the Schwaermer together.
The premise has been: "If it is a large church, a fast-growing church, then whatever they did will work for us if we do the same."
Parlow and Kelm were known for taking sermons from the Net, giving them as their own, and posting them on the parish website (Fox Valley, naturally) as their own. Once everyone found out, the sermons no longer appeared on the public site.
Ditto, the sermons at St. Peter Freedom (Anonymouse, fake Ichabod, aka Tim Glende). They no longer appear.
The head of WELS technology gave Willow Creek sermons verbatim, until he was exposed. Then he did it all over again. Who paid the price? The member who objected.
Nobody puts CG in the corner - in WELS.
All the cool ideas in WELS, ELS, Missouri, and even the CLC (sic) are plagiarized from the false teachers. They are copy cats, not cool cats. They are too dumb to alter titles enough to mask the origin. I have even tracked them copying graphics from various Schwaermer websites. Lazy, stupid, and false teachers.
The so-called conservative Lutherans have put up with this in the name of protecting the name of Holy Mother Synod. Which group is worse?
1. The false teachers trained at Fuller, Willow Creek, etc?
2. The pastors who mildly object to CG but run interference for the Shrinkers in the name of a smooth-running organization?
3. The minister who do not care and figure it is not their business that wolves are tearing up the flock from within?
4. The lay leaders who carry water for the Shrinkers, protecting the false teachers while getting rid of confessional ones?
Lutherans have planted a garbage tree and it has grown fast, producing garbage fruit with fertile seed.
