Church Growth

  • The Church and Psalm 81 by W. Robert Godfrey

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2013

    What does the church most need today? In answering this important but rather general question, Psalm 81 is uniquely important and helpful. This psalm obviously contains beautiful promises and clear directions to help the people of God. But careful study …Read More

  • The Glory of Plodding by Kevin DeYoung

    FROM TABLETALK | May 2010

    It’s sexy among young people — my generation — to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic …Read More

  • Corporate Reverence by Gene Edward Veith

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2007

    The church growth movement mandates “contemporary worship” styles, which means, in practice, replacing hymns with “praise songs.” These consist of simple lyrical phrases, often repeated, set to a simple tune in the style of pop music. The problem with …Read More

  • Pragmatic Principle by R.C. Sproul Jr.

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2007

      It goes against my own principles to argue from the perspective of the pragmatic. Pragmatism, after all, is a worldly thing. We have been called to faithfulness. God tells us what to do, and we are to do it …Read More

  • The Ordinary Means of Growth by Ligon Duncan

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2007

      We are living in a confused and confusing time for confessional Christians (Christians who are anchored by a public and corporate theological commitment to be faithful to the Bible’s teaching on faith and practice as expounded by the great …Read More

  • God-Given Growth by Mark Dever

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2007

      Everybody wants their church to grow. When a church doesn’t grow for a while, some begin looking for those to blame. Some might say “our sign is too old.” Others might say that the church is doing evangelism all …Read More

  • Good Intentions Gone Bad by R.C. Sproul

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2007

      The adage tells us that there is a destination, the road to which is paved with good intentions. It is the destination that we would prefer not to reach. Good intentions can have disastrous results and consequences. When we look …Read More

  • Church Growth and the Sovereignty of God by Burk Parsons

    FROM TABLETALK | October 2007

    It seems that every time I meet a pastor from another church, he asks me the common, unsolicited, ecclesiastical question of the twenty-first-century: “How big is your church?” Most pastors are usually a bit confounded when I respond: “I …Read More

  • Recycling the Compromise of Liberalism

    FROM TABLETALK | May 1992

    Christian history is a two thousand-year conversation between the church and the world. As Christians we are called to be in the world but not of it. Christians have lived out this tension in many ways. Some are neither of …Read More

  • Church Growth—First Things First by Os Guinness

    FROM TABLETALK | March 1992

    When all is said and done, the church-growth movement will stand or fall by one question: In implementing its vision of church growth, is the church of Christ primarily guided and shaped by its own character and calling—or by …Read More

  • Church Growth—Weaknesses to Watch by Os Guinness

    FROM TABLETALK | February 1992

    Like many movements, the church-growth movement is a grand mixture of things good, bad, and in-between. After stressing its significance last month, I will not comment further on its good parts—except to say that anything that “goes without saying …Read More

  • Church Growth—the Movement of the Nineties

    FROM TABLETALK | January 1992

    The King is dead! Long live the King!” As with royalty earlier, so with popular movements and trends today —the passing of one signals the prevailing of another. Thus in the early 1990s the Christian Right is clearly on the …Read More