APU Digital Archives (Azusa Pacific University)

Vaughan, John N.

Journal of the American Society for Church Growth 
Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 7 
12-1-1990 
About the North American Society for Church Growth 1990 
John N. Vaughan 
Southwest Baptist University, jv@churchgrowthtoday.com 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg 
 Part of the Christianity Commons, Practical Theology Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology 
and Philosophy of Religion Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Vaughan, J. N. (1990). About the North American Society for Church Growth 1990. Journal of the 
American Society for Church Growth, 1(1). Retrieved from https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg/vol1/
iss1/7 
This About the American Society for Church Growth is brought to you for free and open access by APU Digital 
Archives. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the American Society for Church Growth by an authorized 
editor of APU Digital Archives. For more information, please contact mpacino@apu.edu. 
CHURCH GROWfH 
JOURNAL 
of the North American Society 
for Church Growth 
1990 
1
Vaughan: About the North American Society for Church Growth 1990
Published by APU Digital Archives, 1990
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
CHURCH GROWTH COMING OF AGE 
Elmer Towns page 1 
TOWARDS A CHURCH GROWTH AGENDA FOR THE 1990'$ 
Eddie Gibbs page 8 
CRUSADE DECISIONS: COUNTING AND ACCOUNTING 
FOR LOST SHEEP 
Henry J. Schmidt page 16 
THE CHURCH GROWTH CONTRIBUTIONS 
OF J. WASKOM PICKETT 
David L. Cook page 41 
ETHNIC CHURCH PLANTING 
Daniel Sanche z page 53 
CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES DYNAMIC INCREASE 
IN EFFECTNENESS TO THE WORK OF INTERC ESSORS 
Nancy Pfaff page 81 
2
Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [1990], Art. 7
https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg/vol1/iss1/7
A TRIBUTE 
TO 
Dr. Donald Anderson McGavran 
December 15, 1897 - July 10, 1990 
CHURCH GROWTH JOURNAL NASCG 
1202 East Austin • Bolivar, MO 65613 • USA 
Copyright 1990 
John N. Vaughan 
AU Rights Reserved. Quotes or reproduction or material and information in 
this book by any means is prohibited for any purpose except book revie'll'S and 
brief quotes without written permission. Credits should read: 
3
Vaughan: About the North American Society for Church Growth 1990
Published by APU Digital Archives, 1990
President: 
President Elect: 
Secretary: 
Treasurer: 
Editor: 
The North American Society 
for Church Growth 
The Executive Committee 
Eddie Gibbs 
Fuller Theological Seminary 
135 North Oakwood 
Pasadena, CA 91101 
Bill Sullivan 
Church of the Nazarene 
International Headquarters 
6401 The Pasco 
Kansas City, MO 64131 
Doris Wagner 
Fuller Institute 
44 South Mentor Avenue 
Pasadena, CA 91106 
Carl George 
Fuller Institute 
44 South Mentor Avenue 
Pasadena, CA 91106 
John N. Vaughan 
Southwest Baptist University 
1601 South Springfield 
Bolivar, MO 65613 
Past Presidents: C. Peter Wagner 
George Hunter 
Kent Hunter 1988 
1986 
1987 
Elmer T 0\.\1lS 1989 
The Journal is published annually. Members of the Society receive the 
journal as parl of their annual membership fee. Individual copies may be 
purchased al a cost of $12.50 per issue and ordered from the Editor. Make 
checks payable lo The orlh American Society for Church Growth and mail 
Lo 1202 East Austin, Bolivar, MO 65613. Fax (417)326-1783. 
4
Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [1990], Art. 7
https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg/vol1/iss1/7


English

About the North American Society for Church Growth 1990

The Church Growth Movement in North America is now fifteen Years old and these two days represent the occasion of the fourth annual meeting of the North American Society for Church Growth. As we review the past we can celebrate a great deal of significant achievement in applying Church Growth insights to mobilizing the membership in a giftbased ministry, leadership management, and a new church planting. It occurs to me that, having covered a range of basic issues, and since we are now beginning to see the proliferation of individual concerns according to our various areas of interest, that there is a danger of fragmentation. I believe that we should now take time to think strategically for the 1990\u27s

Gibbs, Eddie

Journal of the American Society for Church Growth 
Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 2 
12-1-1990 
Towards a Church Growth Agenda for the 1990's 
Eddie Gibbs 
Fuller Theological Seminary 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg 
 Part of the Christianity Commons, Practical Theology Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology 
and Philosophy of Religion Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Gibbs, E. (1990). Towards a Church Growth Agenda for the 1990's. Journal of the American Society for 
Church Growth, 1(1), 8-15. Retrieved from https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg/vol1/iss1/2 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by APU Digital Archives. It has been accepted for inclusion 
in Journal of the American Society for Church Growth by an authorized editor of APU Digital Archives. For more 
information, please contact mpacino@apu.edu. 
TOWARDS A CHURCH GROWTH 
AGENDA FOR THE 1990'S 
EDDIE GIBBS 
Presidential Address to the 
North American Society for Church Growth Annual Meeting 
Thursday, November 16th, 1989 
Dr. Edmund Gibbs currently serves as the Robert Boyd Munger Associate 
Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth at Fuller Theological 
Seminary in Pasadena, California. He received a B.D. from London 
University {1962), a G.0 .E. (General Ordination Examinations tor the 
Church of England) in 1963, and a D.Min. from Fuller Theological 
Seminary, Pasadena, California {1982). 
A number of charter members of the North American Society for 
Church Growth can be described as Church Growth pioneers. Indeed, we 
are honored once again to have our founding Patriarch and International 
Pioneer in attendance. Some of you were in at the beginning, pioneering 
the application of Church Growth insights here in North America. Others 
of you took the North American adaptations and applied them to your own 
theological tradition, denomination or parachurch agency, and thereby 
have become innovators in your particular spheres of influence. 
For a number of us this gathering is rather more than a mere 
professional association in that the insights gained and the friendships 
forged form part of our spiritual pilgrimage. We would not be where we 
are today if it were not for the Church Growth people we have interacted 
with or the Church Growth literature we have devoured. 
The Church Growth Movement in North America is now fifteen 
Years old and these two days represent the occasion of the fourth annual 
meeting of the North American Society for Church Growth. As we review 
the past we can celebrate a great deal of significant achievement in 
applying Church Growth insights to mobilizing the membership in a gift-
based ministry, leadership management, and a new church planting. More 
recently, we have focused attention on the development of nationwide 
Church Growth strategies, power evangelism, leadership and management 
insights, intercession and spiritual warfare, and the emergence of the 
metachurch. Our annual meetings are an enriching experience, providing 
opportunity for us to benefit from the research and reflections of our 
1
Gibbs: Towards a Church Growth Agenda for the 1990's
Published by APU Digital Archives, 1990
9 Gibbs: Towards a Church Growth Agenda 
colleagues in many different areas. Most pioneers in a new science serve 
as generalists, while those who come after tend to focus on particular 
aspects. I think that during the past three years or so, we have just begun 
to enter the era of the specialists, who are focusing on particular aspects 
to provide research based data and in-depth analysis and reflection. 
It occurs to me that, having covered a range of basic issues, and 
since we are now beginning to see the proliferation of individual concerns 
according to our various areas of interest, that there is a danger of 
fragmentation. I believe that we should now take time to think strategically 
for the 1990's. This gathering provides a unique opportunity to identify 
what we consider to be the crucial issues to be faced and perhaps to 
cluster ourselves around these priority topics, forming teams of people who 
will undertake research and correspond with each other in order to 
produce substantive work on specialized topics of strategic importance. 
This evening I would like to set the ball rolling by endeavoring to 
identify a number of key issues which I think warrant our close attention 
during the closing decade of this millennium. 
1. We need to keep abreast of social demographics in North 
America . In postwar years there has been a vast internal migration from 
the North-East to the South and West, so that today for the first time in 
U.S. history the bulk of the population is located West of the Mississippi. 
Such population movement has highlighted the priority of church planting 
in the newer cities and their expanding suburbs and satellite communities. 
Now we must ask, "What will be the significant demographic changes 
taking place in the 1990's?" Clearly church planting must continue to 
occupy a priority place in any Church Growth strategy. As we move with 
high tech further into the information age, we see a significant relocation 
of smaller businesses which are either the result of the break-up of a giant 
corporation or are new start-up companies developing a new range of 
products. A significant number of these are likely to be located in smaller 
towns, producing population growth which must not pass unnoticed in our 
preoccupation with the expansion of existing centers of population. 
2. Population growth to the West and South has resulted in the 
decline of a number of the large cities of the North and East. While 
Phoenix grew by 55%, Houston by 45% and San Diego by 37% during the 
1970's, Cleveland declined by 8%, Detroit by 2%, and New York by 9% 
2
Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [1990], Art. 2
https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg/vol1/iss1/2
Church Growth Journal 10 
during the same period. In addition, we are faced with rural decline and 
the stagnation of smaller towns which have been built around a single 
industry which is now on hard times. As I speak, I am reminded of a drive 
through Duck Town, Tennessee, which depended for its livelihood on the 
strip mining of copper. As the deposit was mined to the point of economic 
non-viability, the community experienced recession and numerical decline. 
We cannot avoid the challenges of the older stagnant communities. 
Church Growth is not just for the burgeoning suburbs. In addition to 
developing church planting insights. we now need to focus attention on 
strategies for the renewal of existing churches. 
3. The rapid development of information technology will result 
in a significant percentage of the work-force operating out of their own 
homes for most days of the week rather than being office based. 
According to conservative estimates reported in John Naisbitt's Trendletter, 
between 26 and 31 million will become telecommuters, that is about one 
of every five adult workers. They will be linked by computer modem to 
their regional headquarters. 
U.S. companies in the vanguard forthe movement 
include The Travelers Corp. , which hires home-based data 
processors, and J.C. Penney Co., whose at-home 
telemarketers are provided with computers to handle 
catalogue orders. Hundreds of Pacific Bell engineers, 
public relations people and others spend at least part of 
their week at home. 
These companies and others say that 
telecommuting not only saves office-space expenses, but 
also boosts worker productivity by 20 to 100 percent and 
makes it easier to recruit and retain good employees. 
Los Angeles County is studying a program to 
relocate 2,000 of the county's 17,000 employees into at-
home workers . . .. More recently, the states of California 
and Washington launched similar test programs. 
In decades ahead, telecommuting will have a 
sweeping impact--on transportation systems, office-
development proposals, rural home prices, education-
3
Gibbs: Towards a Church Growth Agenda for the 1990's
Published by APU Digital Archives, 1990
11 Gibbs: Towards a Church Growth Agenda 
facility requirements and a host of community land-use 
issues.2 
The church in Europe was taken completely by surprise with the 
demographic changes brought about by the industrial revolution. We have 
been slow to respond to the technological revolution. And the information 
revolution is likely to be equally widespread and traumatic. This shift in 
work habits may lead to a greater emphasis on the local community. 
Whereas commuters are too weary to venture from their homes to 
midweek activities, those who are home-based will welcome the 
opportunity to venture out of an evening. The smaller, community-based 
church may experience a new lease on life as a consequence. Some 
megachurches may become vulnerable to such changes if they continue 
to rely upon a centralized, programatic ministry model. Carl George and 
John Vaughan's research into the metachurch is of particular importance, 
as it projects a model of church-life centralized acts of celebration linked 
to and resourcing a multiplicity of community and mission-based groups. 
These have come into being as a result of grass-roots initiatives. Ge_orge 
Gallup, writing in Grapevine observes that "the laity want a greater role in 
shaping the church."3 
4. Those sections of society most relied upon to provide lay 
leadership and the voluntary work-force to operate church programs 
will no longer be available in sufficient numbers, and the decline in the 
numbers of those training for full-time ministry means that there will not be 
such a large pool of clergy persons to develop programs. The four-fifths 
who continue to travel back and forth to their work place are more likely 
to be working flexi-hours and shift work, which will mean fewer people 
available to run church programs during the evening and week-ends. 
Many churches still have not recovered from the fact that the women they 
relied upon to provide volunteer labor are no longer available as the 
majority are now in the work place or struggling to support a family as a 
2
John Naisbiu, John Naisbitt's Trend/etter (Washington, D.C.: JNTL, 3 
August 1989) n. pag. 
3
Georgc Gallup Jr., "America's Faith in the Nineties," Grapevine, n.d., n. 
pag. 
4
Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [1990], Art. 2
https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg/vol1/iss1/2
Church Growth Journal 12 
single parent. Leadership emergence is likely to undergo significant 
changes with important implications for seminaries. Current enrollments 
should be seen as a warning sign. 
5. The church of the nineties is likely both for internal and external 
reasons to be less programatic and church-facilities based in its 
approach to ministry than in the sixties and seventies. One of the 
strengths of the North American churches has been the strength and 
sophistication of their church-based programs: the all-age Sunday school, 
youth programs, and a multiplicity of special interest groups. The success 
of such programs in terms of effectiveness for evangelism and church 
growth depended upon a large "external constituency" of nominal 
adherents or notional Christians, who by being drawn into those programs 
experienced the new birth, or were revived, or restored. As society 
becomes increasingly secularized the ranks of the "external constituency," 
which heretofore has been more numerous here in the U.S. than in any 
other Western nation, has become seriously depleted. Programs which 
were once the heartbeat of the church's life become a milestone around 
its neck, taking up more and more time from a depleted committed core 
of workers, and isolating the church from the communities it is called to 
serve. To be effective in the 1990's, churches will have to evaluate and 
prune their programs in order to release the people of God to exercise 
more of their ministry in the world. We will need to get out of our barns 
and into the fields--which is where the bulk of the sowing and harvesting 
is meant to be done. 
6. We have to come to terms with the fact of an aging population. 
According to Tim Stafford in an article he wrote for Christianity Today, 
Today about 11 percent of Americans are over 65. 
That proportion will gradually rise over the next 15 years, 
and take a big jump when the baby boomers start turning 
65 in 2010 .... Ultimately, the proportion of seniors should 
peak between 18 percent and 22 percent--about double 
what it is today. 4 
"Tim Stafford, ''The Graying of the Church," Oiristianily Today, 6 
November 1987, 17. 
5
Gibbs: Towards a Church Growth Agenda for the 1990's
Published by APU Digital Archives, 1990
13 Gibbs: Towards a Church Growth Agenda 
Many churches are already there. According to a recent stl.Kly by 
James Ellor of Chicago's National College of Education, church attenders 
will include about 1 o percent more elderly than the community at large. 
About one-quarter of Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Methodists are over 
65, and about half are over 50. 5 We will need church growth and church 
planting specialists in ministry to senior citizens and early retirees. In the 
short term, the retirement age has been raised to keep people from 
drawing on social security, but in the longer term we are likely to see 
significant numbers being given compulsory early retirement, especially 
among those in top-level management to ensure that younger executives 
do not leave the company through frustration. Whereas the church of a 
previous generation depended on women who were not in the commercial 
work-force to render volunteer service, the church of tomorrow is likely to 
utilize the services of early retirees. 
Senior citizens are more prosperous than the population at large, 
and it is this segment of society which is contributing generously to the 
support of the churches and to the education of their grandchildren. 
Churches and denominations which fail to recruit significant numbers in 
excess of their attrition through death and transfer are likely to face 
increasing financial shortfalls. Time magazine devoted a whole issue to the 
Graying of America. It speculates that 
Every year, as the baby boomers age and the 
nation's center of gravity shifts upwards, the allocation of 
resources becomes ever more difficult and the potential 
for conflict between generations even greater .... 
Without a change in the present system, pensions 
and health-care costs will account for more than 60% of 
the federal budget by 2040. 6 
Home care for the elderly and chronically sick will become much more 
common providing opportunities for caring ministries by the local church 
in the new era of volunteerism. 
5lbid., 17. 
""Grays on the Go," Tune, 22 February 1988, 66, 70. 
6
Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [1990], Art. 2
https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg/vol1/iss1/2
Church Growth Journal 14 
7. We need an in-depth analysis of the contribution made by the 
independent-charismatic churches and the recent movements whose 
impressive growth is a result of a mixture of new church planting and 
making available franchises to existing groups in search of a more 
significant identity, such as Calvary Chapel, Abundant Life, and the 
Vineyard. Charismatic renewal and the Third Wave may have contributed 
significantly to the halting of church decline. In many parts of the Western 
world, we have seen an exodus of frustrated believers from older mainline 
denominations to the independent churches. Lyle Schaller claims that the 
mainline is rapidly becoming sideline. Although renewal has arrested the 
decline , in no country has it been significant enough to turn the tide to 
produce overall growth. I have examined the churchgoing data of North 
America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand in this regard . (I had hoped 
that the last mentioned, a small country which has experienced widespread 
charismatic renewal among the Anglicans and Baptists, would have 
provided the first such evidence, but was disappointed). This being so. we 
must not simply assume that church renewal, at least in the forms in which 
it has manifested itself thus far, is the answer to church growth of national 
significance. 
8. In the definition of Church Growth formulated by this Society, we 
have declared that the bottom line is growth which results in 
"responsible church membership." This being so, we must address the 
challenge presented by "skin-deep Christianity" which according to the 
data supplied by the Gallup organization is endemic in the United 
States. While only 4% of the population is totally "non-religious" and a 
large majority of Americans believe in a personal God, believe that Jesus 
Christ is God or the Son of God, believe their prayers are answered, and 
say that religion is "very" or "fairly" important in their lives,7 we are 
confronted with a society in which homelessness and impoverishment is 
prevalent , broken families are common. where materialistic values are 
vaunted, and where morals and ethics are continuing to decline. Church 
invol vement alone does not seem to make a great deal of difference in the 
way we live our lives. It is only when we isolate the one-tenth of the 
population that is highly committed, that a distinctive life-style becomes 
1Georgc Gallup Jr., "America's Fa ith in the ineti es," Grapevine, n.d., n. 
pag. 
7
Gibbs: Towards a Church Growth Agenda for the 1990's
P blished by APU Digital Archives, 1990
15 Gibbs: Towards a Church Growth Agenda 
evident. As a Church Growth movement, we need to give far more 
attention to furthering biblical literacy and living a discipleship l~e-style. 
9. Here in the United States we find it particularly difficult to strategize 
at the national level due in part to the size of the country, but even 
more due to the bewilderingly fragmented state of the Christian 
Church. It was interesting to contrast the approaches of the various 
country strategy groups at the Manila Lausanne II Conference. Some 
countries, because of the homogeneity of the Christian constituency were 
able to begin to draw up well-conceived strategies for the evangelization 
or re-evangelization of their country. They could identify the principal 
denominations and para-parochial agencies, knew who were the shakers 
and movers, and were addressing its key issues. The challenge is much 
greater in the case of North America made up of such diverse peo~e 
served by a conglomeration of church groups, some with importe_d 
histories, and many more indigenous to North America. The domestic 
issues of the need for church revival and the development of more effective 
evangelistic strategies cannot be avoided by concentrating on the other 
agenda of America's role in World Evangelization. 
My time has gone, so we must conclude at this point. You may 
disagree with my selection of issues and my analysis. But I have offered 
no more than my personal musings. My earnest hope is that we might 
make time to think strategically to arrive at an agreed range of topics and 
that we will be able to structure ourselves to begin to address these issues 
at some depth in order to equip the church to face the unprecedented 
changes and opportunities which I believe God is already bringing over the 
horizon. The day of the Lord is at hand. 
8
Journal of the American Society for Church Growth, Vol. 1, Iss. 1 [1990], Art. 2
https://digitalarchives.apu.edu/jascg/vol1/iss1/2


Towards a Church Growth Agenda for the 1990\u27s

Dedication of Moneta Japanese Baptist Church, which was originally founded in 1914. Later known as Gardena Valley Baptist Church

Moneta Japanese Baptist Church

Group of people with bicycles in front of Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission, which was founded in 1904. Later known as Wintersburg Presbyterian Church

Azusa Pacific University

Not a member yet

About the North American Society for Church Growth 1990

Towards a Church Growth Agenda for the 1990\u27s

Moneta Japanese Baptist Church

Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission

Heine, Heinrich

Byron, Lord

716

1,556