If you are like me, the words ‘biotic,’ technocratic,’ and ‘spiritualistic’ are a little disconcerting. ‘Automatisms’ sends me to the dictionary. We will discuss all four of these words during the first week of the study of Natural Church Development. To make sense of what Christian Schwarz writes it is certainly necessary to figure out how the translators have put his ideas into English. The book reminds me of reading the bible in the King James translation. The same ideas are there whether I read the New Revised Standard translation or the King James translation, but sometimes it takes a little work to make sense of the King James translation. So visit the Review that is posted the first week for discussion starters about ‘biotic, technocratic, spiritualistic and automatisms.’
I think that another difficulty with reading the book is that the author makes broad assumptions about a number of topics. That is true about every book and every conversation, but in this case the author is a European Christian and so his assumptions about what might be obvious to the reader may not always fit Americans.
Added to these difficulties is the fact that he has written a book that at first appears to be both ‘congregational studies’ and ‘church growth.’ Many books have been written about ‘congregational studies.’ University or seminary professors who are trained in sociology usually write these books. They take a scientific look at how congregations function and what are the social dynamics of religious organizations. Sometimes these studies suggest reasons that churches grow or decline, but often their purpose is to explain churches rather than prescribe ways to grow.
'Congregational studies' books come in two varieties: Those that include consideration of environmental factors and those that do not. A study that considers environmental factors might look at whether the congregation is in a neighborhood with a homogenous population or an area with a strong economy or stable population. Congregational studies that do not consider the environment only look at factors that can be controlled by the congregation like style of worship or leadership style. The research that Natural Church Development is based on does not consider environmental factors.
A good argument can be made for this approach. If the goal is to identify strategies that can be used to help a congregation grow, the congregation will only be able to change things about itself. The congregation cannot change its environment.
Natural Church Development is based on a scientific study of congregations around the world. However, the book we are studying is not a traditional ‘congregational studies’ book. Those books explain the nature of the research and provide information about all of the churches that were studied. Christian Schwarz conducted the research, but then wrote his book using results from only 27% of the congregations. As he says on page 21, “However, the answers given by churches falling into these four specific categories (27% of those studied) in my opinion communicate most clearly the practical significance of the principles behind the questions.” In other words, he has chosen to write a book about ‘church growth’ based on the data from 27% of the congregations in a ‘congregational studies’ project.
‘Church growth’ books are written for people who want to help the church prosper. In this pre-study review I will reflect on ‘church growth’ books and how this book is related to other books. There are four broad categories of ‘church growth’ books:
1) There are books that are written by pastors or observers of successful congregations and they share their ideas about why they were successful in making a congregation grow. The recently popular book, Purpose Driven Church, is a good example of this kind of church growth book. The obvious advantage of these books is that if something worked someplace then there is a chance that it will work in other places. Sometimes authors of these kinds of books are very aware of their context and setting. In the case of Rick Warren this is certainly the case. While he was in seminary he carefully research the whole country to find a place with a growing and wealthy population. Then he started a new church there. Not every church leader has the luxury of starting from scratch in a rapidly growing, wealthy area. Rick knows this so his book is about the principles that he thinks he has discovered in his journey. One of the problems with this type of church growth book is that the only thing we are getting is the best wisdom from someone about why they think they were successful and what they think others could learn from this. In Rick Warren’s case there is no way for us as the reader to figure out what is specific to his situation in California and what can be more generally applied.
2) There are church growth books that are written from a specific area of expertise. In this case the author knows a great deal about a subject like worship or justice ministries and writes a book to explain how attention to these areas can help the church grow. A good example if this type of church growth book is Building a Church of Small Groups by Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson. They are pastors at the 20,000 member Willow Creek church near Chicago. Within the context of this rapidly growing congregation they tell how small group ministries are developed. These books, like the books in the first group, usually propose theories and suggestions that have only been tested in a very small number of contexts. Often the authors have experience in a church such as Willow Creek where it is difficult to tell what the impact of their particular area of ministry is on the total growth of the congregation.
3)
The modern church growth movement started with a
book by Donald McGavran published in 1955 called The bridges of God. It proposed a theory of how to make churches grow.
Since that time there have been hundreds of books that begin with a
theological, sociological, psychological or political theory and then build an
argument for how to help churches grow. McGavran’s suggestion continues to be
popular. He said that people are the best suited to share the Gospel with the
unchurched who share their culture and interests.
4)
Finally,
there
are books about church growth that look at what worked in a number of
churches.
Recently the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America conducted an
extensive
study of looking at congregations that are growing and attempting to
discover
what were the things that they had in common. Often these studies
provide
helpful and surprising results. But, they are also extremely difficult
to
interpret because in the end, the reasons that a particular
congregation may be
growing is probably due to some factors that are unique to that
congregation.
Also, it is often difficult to determine what factors are the result of
growth
and what are the cause of growth. For example, a study of United
Methodists
congregations conducted in 2000 discovered that congregations that used
drums
in worship are more likely to be growing than congregations that do not
use
drums. Yet it would be silly to say that if a church is serious about
growing all it needs to do is go out and buy drums to use in worship.
Christian Schwarz’s book
is interesting because it does not easily fall into any of the usual categories
of church growth books. Obviously the book does not belong in group one or
two. In many ways it is in the fourth
group. He bases his ideas on the results of extensive surveys of what happens
in congregations and which congregations show numeric growth. Yet, the book depends heavily on a theory
that he proposes which puts it solidly into the third group.
I think that the best
way to read Natural Church Growth
is to see it as a book based on a theory or a number of theories about how
churches grow. The book is filled with graphs and numbers that make it look as
if it is based on scientific study, but the science is not clearly documented with
enough detail for the reader to be able to evaluate whether it is good science
or not. On the other hand, the theory is explained in detail so it is possible
to understand it and to evaluate whether it makes sense.
So I think that as we
read through the book we should pay the most attention to the theory that it
presents, whether the theory makes sense to us, and how that theory might be
applied. What do you think? Put your comments or ideas in the pre-study
discussion area.
Ken Bedell
December 2004