교회성장운동과 조사연구의 상관관계 연구

Study on the Correlations between Church Growth Movement and Research

The church growth movement, which is one of the most influential school of mission theology in the 20th century, was born in the postcolonial turmoil which traditional Western churches began to experience stagnation and decline on the home front in North America as well as Europe. In this climate of uncertainty, the research of Donald A. McGavran who had been influenced by the research project of J. Wascon Pickett for the church growth in India, questioned the status quo in missions. This produced The Bridges of God (1955) which suggests new ways to envision the missionary task of the churches. Later on McGaveran’s church growth theories based on research continually challenged the traditional mission strategies and suggested more effective and culturally sensitive ways to win people to Christ. Under his influence, church growth, together with his strong recommendation to adopt research for the church growth, became an indispensable and essential] condition of missions. It is because effective mission strategy based on research for church growth is an indicator of faithfulness to God's command to him. Whereas early church growth movement was mainly concerned with the two−third world church, in 1970s it had been applied into the North American church. Later on many institutes of church growth and church growth scholars have influenced missiology through the different research models. However, it is notable that, while social scientists focus on the contextual factors over which the church have no control, McGavran’s research paradigm usually emphasizes on institutional factors over which the church has control. Nevertheless, it does not discard its contextual factors. By accepting the methodologies of social sciences, the church growth movement has continually developed the effective manuals for research to standardize the research procedures. Although research is not a perfect tool for church growth, strategic research for church growth may well be the most important legacy of church growth movement.