- How true! When was the last time a congregation went to their pastor and said: "Hey, pastor, please teach us this (name one) false doctrine." Scott E. Jungen
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GJ - I remember a kindly WELS pastor saying to me, "Church Growth is the first fad that has come from the top down." DP Seifert pushed him out of the ministry, but Seifert specializes in undercutting pastors.
I studied the origins of CG in all the denominations and saw how carefully Fuller Seminary marketed it to each particular group - the answer to their woes. The leaders all looked into the Palintir of statistics, which showed them enough to terrify them.
The all-seeing statisticians said, "Your denomination will shrink rapidly due to a number of factors. Our sample is so large that we cannot be wrong."
The leaders ran around with their hair on fire, "What shall we do?" Fuller Seminary said, "We have the answer, but it will take a boatload of money and training for all your people."
The wolves lined up like sheep for the slaughter, their lupine brains thoroughly washed, rinsed, and washed again. The top wolves had their middle management wolves trained. The middle management wolves got their underlings trained.
Soon the ambitious saw an easy DMin from Fuller as the ticket for advancement in each sect, yea, even the Roman Catholic Church. They looked in wonder as generic, non-confessional sects grew by attracting generic, non-confessional members of other congregations.
The Shrinkers first got one another established, at denominational expense, in positions of authority. Next they began driving out anyone who questioned their wisdom.
The foundation of Church Shrinkage was lack of faith in God's Word. The denominational leaders were easily terrified because they were entirely pragmatic and materialistic.
UOJ was goose grease under their feet. Knowing the efficacy of the Word would have made them laugh out loud at CG presentations. Instead, they said, "Tell us more. How much will this cost?"
