Christian Schwarz makes a very bold claim. He thinks what churches grow everywhere in the world because of the same principles. If his research did not show that he can identify these principles, we might be skeptical about his suggestion. Schwarz' understanding of how to grow a congregation does not seem to be the same as Paul's. Certainly Paul sees Christ as one who breaks down the barriers of race, ethnicity and nationalism. A clear statement of this is found in Colossians 3:8-10 where he says in verse 10, "there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!" Yet this is the result of following Christ and not the method by which Paul brought people into the church.
In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 Paul describes his personal approach to church growth. He says, "To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews...To those outside the law I became as one outside the law...To the weak I became weak...I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some." This certainly implies that the strategy Paul used was to explain Christ to people by first understanding their cultural context--their environment.
Although Schwarz uses the concept of biological growth, he asks us to assume that the environment of a church is not an issue. He looks for principles that apply to congregations regardless of whether they are in countries with majority or minority Christian populations. It does not matter if the there is freedom of religion or Christians are persecuted. Schwarz is not concerned whether the culture encourages full participation by women or not.
Given Schwarz' use of the biotic principle, we might be tempted to ask: Will a saguaro cactus grow in Michigan or a maple tree grow in Arizona? To this Schwarz would answer that, surprising as it may be, he has discovered eight quality characteristics that are present in congregations across cultural, racial, ethnic and national lines. Regardless of the environment, these characteristics are present in growing congregations.
The real test of a theory such as Schwarz' is what happens when people apply it. Does the theory produce the results that it predicts? It appears that the answer to this question is yes. After the quality characteristics were identified, Schwarz designed a survey instrument to measure these in a congregation. What he has found is that the vast majority of congregations that work on improving their quality experience increased worship attendance. And, more importantly, every congregation that attains a certain level of quality in all eight characteristics grows. Since the environment is taken completely out of the equation, this means that any congregation can apply the principles and experience growth.
Schwarz wants us to reject a pragmatic approach to church growth that says if something works we should try it. There certainly are other ways to look at congregations and what makes them grow. Yet, Schwarz' best argument is that he can show us something that works.
Ken Bedell
January 9, 2005