welcome to the story.

Excerpts from a paper by Dr. Wayne Johnson of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. One such trend is the rise of Triumphalism and the Church Growth movement. It has, for example, become common to hear bold proclamations that God is about to do "something great" through the Church which will "win" or "take" whole societies for Christ. Not unrelated are the pervasive assumptions of "Church Growth" philosophies which seek to increase influence through increased size of churches. At the heart of both of these is the assumption that the glory of the church is measured by its influence over society and its size. In contrast, the "theology of the cross" tells us that the Church's glory does not lie in its size or its influence over society but in its faithfulness to God. As Hays insightfully notes, "The death of Jesus carries with it the promise of the resurrection, but the power of the resurrection is in God’s hands, not ours. Our actions are therefore judged not by their calculable efficacy in producing desirable results but by their correspondence to Jesus’ example" (p. 197). Growth and influence, therefore tell us little about the faithfulness of our churches. Even more to the point, the desire for growth and influence can lead to a valuation of "technique" over faithfulness. Such utilitarianism is a direct threat to the way of the cross because "what works" is simply another way of speaking about power. Prioritizing techniques is just a subtle (and well researched) form of the "will-to-power". Instead, as we examine the practice and speech of our churches we must ask questions like: Do we understand and practice the priority of reconciliation? Do we speak the truth in love? Do we see frequent examples of the "strong" deferring to the "weak" among us? Are the leaders themselves eschewing worldly models of leadership ("lording over") and embracing Jesus model of servanthood? Are enemies (either internal or external) being used as means for consolidation of power and influence or are they the objects of our benevolence and reconciliation?