Email: Susan C 3/11/03 -  I am writing to briefly give some historical data on the Church Growth Movement. I have been studying it extensively for 3 years. Before that I assumed that the thinking people around me were not extensively influenced by it. Now I know that I was wrong. I will write in relation to myself and where I have been in my Christian life.

The CGM arose out of experiences and relationships which Donald Macgavran had in India as the child of missionary parents recruited during the Student Volunteer Movement of the late 1800s, and while his father was teaching in a denominational school in the USA, and while he himself was a missionary in India. He wrote an influencial book in 1954 or 1955. In 1961 he began to teach about church growth in a denominational college in Oregon. A couple of years later he went to teach at a Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California.

In 1971 I attended the candidate school for a mission agency. It was held at Fuller and at least 2 of the Church Growth professors spoke to us.

Now to skip ahead a few decades. In 1995 while glancing through the Inqiurer's class notebook at church I saw a page dealing with "the business model of the church." This was very disturbing, but it explained why the church seemed to be treated as a business. The explanation was that there needed to be some way to organize as the church had grown to about 2000. A few months ago I came across a file with handouts printed in 1985. There was the same information...and the church was much smaller then.

Three years ago I was challenged to examine the Purpose Driven Church book. The pastor of the above church wrote an endorsement. As I looked at diagrams, some I recognized. As I read and thought about what this type of church would be like, I realized that it was follwing an "operating system" so similar to the church mentioned above. There were some cosmetic differences but the underlying philosopy concerning change and innovation were identical. Even some of the phrasings were the same.

Both of these churches as well as Willow Creek and others became involved with a non-profit 501c3 organization from Texas in the mid 1980s, Leadership Network (begun by Bob Buford and heavily influenced by Peter Drucker). They were prototypes, centers of innovation. Having belonged to one as it changed was very stressful. Even simple questions were unwelcome. In December on CNBC a one hour documentary was aired about 10 times. This was about the life and influence of Peter Drucker. The Buford Foundation, 2002 helped to fund the project. The last 10 segment was about Drucker's influence with Rick Warren and Saddleback. Clearly Drucker's influence on government and on business was applied to the social sector (in this case to the church). One part of this is the emphasis on "partnering." on "collaboration," of all three sectors. This is all wrapped up in the lanuage of the Bible, or in the language of communitarianism, or in the language of civil society, or all at once depending on the market/audience/consumer/human resource being addressed.

In 2000 I read a working paper from a major evangelical organization/network/movement/system which also included the same type of busines/Total Quality/General Systems language and presuppositions. I began to research the World Christian Movement in the evangelical world. This has been highly influenced by The US Center for World Mission in Pasadena. But the USCWM did not happen in a vacuum One day as I was tracing influence back in time for the World Christian Movement and the Church Growth Movement I realized that they are two sides of the same thing...same people, same teachings, same foundations. To question one is to question the other. Pray for the true work of God around the world.

And I realised that my entire Christian life has been shaped by these leaders and influencers. This has lead to so much soul search. [SC]