scholarly journals Dunbar’s Number goes to Church: The Social Brain Hypothesis as a third strand in the study of church growth

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
R Bretherton ◽  
RIM Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Church Growth ◽  
Active Member ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Church Growth Movement ◽  
Member Involvement ◽  
Growth Movement ◽  
The Church

The study of church growth has historically been divided into two strands of research: the Church Growth Movement and the Social Science approach. This article argues that Dunbar’s Social Brain Hypothesis represents a legitimate and fruitful third strand in the study of church growth, sharing features of both previous strands but identical with neither. We argue that five predictions derived from the Social Brain Hypothesis are accurately borne out in the empirical and practical church growth literature: that larger congregations lead to lower active engagement from members; that single-leader congregations are limited to around 150 members; that congregations of 150 are further stratified into smaller functioning groups; that congregations expanding beyond 150 members undergo internal tensions and are forced to reorganise; and that congregations larger than 150 will require structural sub-divisions to retain active member involvement. While these assertions are reflected in the church growth literature and articulate the common sense assumptions of church growth experts, the Social Brain Hypothesis offers a coherent theoretical framework which unifies these observations and thereby represents a distinctive contribution to church growth studies.

scholarly journals The Importance of Hypotheses in Church-Based Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Robert Dunaetz
Keyword(s):  
Church Growth ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Related Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
Church Growth Movement ◽  
Growth Movement ◽  
The Church

The role of hypotheses is central both in church-related research and in Christian ministry. Hypotheses guide the collection of data to determine what is true in research and provide tentative guidelines for action in ministry, even when they are not yet confirmed. Well-constructed hypotheses are based on previous research and provide clear potential solutions to research problems. They succinctly posit a testable relationship between two or more variables. Such hypotheses can be tested through appropriately designed research. Statistical techniques can indicate to what degree the evidence collected supports the hypotheses. In church-based research, hypotheses to be examined can come from a body of literature (e.g., the Church Growth Movement), a practitioner’s experience, theories from other domains (e.g., the Social Brain Hypothesis; Dunbar, 1993), and modeling phenomena using analogies (e.g., modeling the church lifecycle as an epidemic; Hayward, 2015, 2018).

scholarly journals DIFFERENCE AND THE ESTABLISHMENT: AN ASIAN CANADIAN SENIOR PASTOR’S EVANGELICAL SPATIALITY AT TENTH AVENUE ALLIANCE CHURCH IN VANCOUVER, BC

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Justin K. H Tse
Keyword(s):  
Church Growth ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Senior Pastor ◽  
Complex Spaces ◽  
Christian And Missionary Alliance ◽  
Church Growth Movement ◽  
Growth Movement ◽  
The Church

This paper explores how the evangelical spatiality of an Asian Canadian senior pastor at a historically Anglo-Saxon congregation has transformed it from an ethnically homogeneous, aging church to a heterogeneously-constituted gathering in an evangelical Protestant tradition. This piece challenges the conventional wisdom of the church growth movement and the new religious economics in the sociology of religion, both of which advise religious groups to construct homogeneity and consensus in efforts for numerical growth over against secularizing forces. The paper argues instead that Pastor Ken Shigematsu’s evangelical spatiality from the mid-1990s to the present must be understood as a theological embrace of difference in a church gifted to him by God over which he prayerfully pastors along with his staff. This paper understands Shigematsu’s evangelical spatiality through his own New Testament exegesis, his denominational affiliation with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, his ancient spiritual practices of indiscriminate hospitality, and his mystical reception of Tenth as a welcoming space toward a multiplicity of ethnic, class, and religious backgrounds. This article contributes to Asian Canadian Christian studies by discouraging a future where pan-Asian churches in Canada are homogeneously constructed and by exploring the concrete possibility of non-strategies in which heterogeneous, complex spaces that include Asian Canadians are received by pastors and studied by academics as a divine gift.

White Evangelicals as a “People”: The Church Growth Movement from India to the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-146
Author(s):  
Jesse Curtis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Church Growth ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
White Evangelicals ◽  
Church Growth Movement ◽  
Growth Movement ◽  
The Church

ABSTRACTThis article begins with a simple question: How did white evangelicals respond to the civil rights movement? Traditional answers are overwhelmingly political. As the story goes, white evangelicals became Republicans. In contrast, this article finds racial meaning in the places white evangelicals, themselves, insisted were most important: their churches. The task of evangelization did not stop for a racial revolution. What white evangelicals did with race as they tried to grow their churches is the subject of this article. Using the archives of the leading evangelical church growth theorists, this article traces the emergence and transformation of the Church Growth Movement (CGM). It shows how evangelistic strategies created in caste-conscious India in the 1930s came to be deployed in American metropolitan areas decades later. After first resisting efforts to bring these missionary approaches to the United States, CGM founder Donald McGavran embraced their use in the wake of the civil rights movement. During the 1970s, the CGM defined white Americans as “a people” akin to castes or tribes in the Global South. Drawing on the revival of white ethnic identities in American culture, church growth leaders imagined whiteness as pluralism rather than hierarchy. Embracing a culture of consumption, they sought to sell an appealing brand of evangelicalism to the white American middle class. The CGM story illuminates the transnational movement of people and ideas in evangelicalism, the often-creative tension between evangelical practices and American culture, and the ways in which racism inflected white evangelicals’ most basic theological commitments.

Mission

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Ross
Keyword(s):  
Church Growth ◽  
Missio Dei ◽  
Local Churches ◽  
The World ◽  
World Christianity ◽  
Church Growth Movement ◽  
Growth Movement ◽  
The Church

This chapter discusses Anglican practice of and engagement in mission, concluding with some suggested future trajectories. The Five Marks of Mission are considered in some detail along with other contextual trends such as the church growth movement, mission-shaped church and Fresh Expressions of church which have been influential throughout parts of the Anglican Communion. The theology of missio Dei is discussed along with the importance of contextualization for mission. Migration and migrant churches are described as a mission issue along with their impact on the growth of local churches as well as its influence on the shape of World Christianity. The chapter concludes with reflections on the role and place of Anglicanism within the world church.

God's Royal Power in Zaire: An Evaluation of the State of the Church

1978 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
Donald A. McGavran
Keyword(s):  
Church Growth ◽  
The State ◽  
Church Of Christ ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
Church Growth Movement ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Growth Movement ◽  
The Church ◽  
Past Summer

This past summer, the pioneer and elder statesman of the church growth movement was invited by seven major communities of the Church of Christ in Zaire (Protestant) for ministry and consultation. Here he shares with our readers his observations and his recommendations for the near future — all in his inimical style, reflecting both his realism and hope-filled optimism, as well as his deep commitment to church and mission.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document