From a Reader -
Hello Pastor Jackson
I would like to share with you some information I found about a Church Growth program in the LCMS called 'Church Unique'.
Recently I was told that a page appeared in an LCMS church's website announcing a initiative called 'Church Unique'. That is the name of a book by Will Mancini, a former Reformed minister. Here is a link to Will Mancini's website:
'Church Unique' is also the name of a program. According to the Church Unique website "Church Unique was written by church consultant Will Mancini, an expert on a new kind of visioning process to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement."
Here is a link to the Church Unique website:
"Church Unique is primarily about your church's identity. It show church leaders how to identify and unlock their congregation's individual identity as a tool for unleashing their one-of-a-kind potential."
Here is a link to the website of the consulting company (Auxano) he formed to train people in the Church Unique program:
After browsing thru these websites it is clear to me that the Church Unique program is pure Calvinst, Church Growth Movement, Enthusiasm. I don't understand how or why a LCMS church would become involved in something like this.
I did an internet search using dogpile.com (this doesn't work with Google) using the following keywords
+LCMS +"church unique"
and it returned a couple of pages of links to LCMS churches which are involved in the Church Unique program and to LCMS meetings in which Church Unique was discussed. It appears that Church Unique may have support from the LCMS hierarchy, not only from the district hierarchies.
The LCMS has its own in-house Church Growth entity called Transforming Churches Network (TCN). TCN was founded about 8 or 9 years ago and was very high-profile for a few years, but I don't recall hearing anything about it recently. Perhaps the TCN fervor ran its course, and now Church Unique is the
hot Church Growth program in the LCMS.
I hope this information is interesting to you. In your blog you mention the CGM activities in the WELS, but it appears that the LCMS is not immune.
GJ -
Missouri is whole hog into Church Growth, with five named people in the dubiously titled Church Growth Hall of Fame, or is that Shame?
Waldo Werning, who was Herman Otten's "secret agent," promoted CG throughout WELS, the Little Sect, and the LCMS.
Robert Preus, earlier a rabid advocate of UOJ, had Werning on his faculty and endorsed Church Growth.
I tend to name WELS false teachers more often, because I know a greater percentage of them. UOJ and Church Growth go together like Sam and Ella - salmonella, get it?
