Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Stolzenburg and Church Growth in Columbus, Ohio - WELS




"IT'S COLOSSAL! IT'S GIGANTIC! IT'S SPECTACULAR! A PERSONAL NOTE FROM WM. J. BRITTON, RE: CHURCH GROWTH SEMINAR, FEB. 24-25, 1985. Registration is 347! We prayed for response - the Lord gave it to us!...Win Arn says, 'We are not here to make you work harder, but only to help you work smarter.'"
CG Conference, attended by 46 St. Paul, Columbus, members, pastor, and vicar Mike Nitz.


"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 L. 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."
Vicar David G. Peters, "Lutheran Parish Resources: Pilot Program in Church Growth," Mequon: Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, April 27, 1987 p. 1.

"There is no Church Growth Movement Program in our synod. Our church body is opposed to the false theology of the Church Growth Movement. We have no programs inside or outside the budget with that name. Nor do we have any programs with a different name which utilize Church Growth theology."
Wayne D. Mueller, Administrator for the BPS, WELS, "A Response to 'Saving Souls vs. New Programs,'" The Northwestern Lutheran, November 1, 1991, February 1, 1992 p. 50.