A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

to a possible over-emphasis on sociology, anthropolo- gy and methodology. Delos Miles says "it poses questions of consistent scriptural interpretation, theological pollution, prag- matism and accommodation."'*0 The strong reliance on human initiative as a basic condition for growth, with correspondingly less attention to spiritual factors such as ethical purity and self- denying disdpleship as a condition of the Spirit's moving in evangelism, eclipses dependence on God for the ingathering of people who are saved through repentance and forgiveness of sin through the atoning provision of Christ. God s sover- eignty is replaced by human sovereignty. Conversion is less a process of waiting upon God to extend salvation than of con- vincing the sinner to ask God for the grace which is immedi- ately available. The theology of salvation is detached from the divine initiative of the Holy Spirit (John 1 6:7-1 4), Leadership in the Church Growth Model The Church Growth Theory lodges primary responsibility for growth with a highly centralized and autocratic leadership. The pastoral role is defined in power terms> like the chief ex- ecutive officer of a corporation or the commander of an army. According to Peter Wagner, the leading spokesman of the movement, This army has only one Commander-in-Chief, Jesus Christ, The local church is like a company with one company commander, the pastor, who gets his orders from the Commander-in-Chief, The company commander has lieu- tenants and sergeants under him for consultation and im- plementation, but the final responsibility for decisions is that of the commander, and he must answer to the Com- mander-in-Chief.49 The centralized model of leadership as expounded in 256 MENNONITE BRETHREN EVANGELISM Church Growth literature places much emphasis on motivating and training lay leadership to reach people for Christ. In many cases this centralized leadership model has been highly suc- cessful in producing phenomenal numerical growth, But the examples of quantitative growth, as cited in Church Growth lit- erature, do not provide corresponding data on the spiritual qualities resulting from such growth.50 Nor does the literature contain any reference to known church crises resulting from the overemphasis on numerical increase. The frequent inci- dents of leadership reversals and subsequent radical declines in membership are not described, let alone assessed critically.51 The Mennonite Brethren experience with the Church Growth model of centralized leadership has been both posi- tive and negative. Some churches, especially those located in geogr