Church Growth and Evangelism from Holistic Perspective of Mission
The study of church growth takes effective strategies of evangelism seriously, because of its theological foundation that ‘Church Growth is Faithfulness to God. ’ Church growth theorists believe that this growth of the church will be accomplished only through constant works of evangelism and proclamation. Such evangelistic endeavors will eventually produce the growth of the church In this study, therefore, the writer attempts to summarize a few important methods of evangelism which was dealt in the study of church growth. Moreover, based on constructive critiques from the holistic view of rnission, the writer attempts to present holistic strategies of evangelism, which leads to the concept of holistic church growth. The first strategy of evangelism developed by Church growth theorists is its emphasis on evangelism based on the concept of ‘people group.' The concept of people group has been firstly introduced by Donald McGavran and became the essential elements of church growth theory . Secondly, based on its new discovery of people groups, homogeneous unit principle became the most important strategy of evangelism in church growth theory. Thirdly, the theory of receptivity is examined and critiqued in its positive and negative contributions in the study of church growth. In spite of its significant contributions of discovering and utilizing strategies of evangelism, church growth theory is still open to valid criticism due to its too much emphasis on numerical growth. Therefore, based on new emphasis on holistic view of church growth, the writer attempts to employ Eddie Gibb’s dimensions of church growth and had adopted and developed these concepts for developing holi stic strategies of evangelism and church growth in this study. They are; 1) strategy of growing up of didacke, 2) strategy of growing together of koinonia, and 3) strategy of growing out of diaknoia. Based on these elements, the true and holi stic church growth will be accomplished.