Ok … I’ve had five meals today! Got drenched in the S’pore rain a while ago, that was pretty fun! Used up my complimentary TTC phonecard to call May Chin and was amused by Gareth singing away (from my point of view) in the background.
Allow me to unload some stuff from my brain so I’ve got some space for tonight’s session. Dr. Hong, Young-gi’s “The theory & practice of Church Growth” session was my first time listening to an Asian-Korean perspective – in fact almost all the perspectives presented first are from Asians except for Sanneh’s African appetizer during the keynote address .
Ian Prescott (here’s a sample article from Urbana) the respondent threw out some noteworthy paths “Church growth” research could take. In my own phrasing (as I understand him)
1. How’s does the existing or proposed “church growth models” relate to the socio-political context and culture in the different countries and context?
2. What about “church growth” in what we call “restrictive contexts” (i.e. nations where religious freedom is non-existent or hard)?
3. Following up on that, what is our response to the “less responsive or unresponsive” scenarios?
4. What is the relationship between “church growth”, the wholistic gospel and social transformation?
Phew … even before I could unload more. It’s already time for next input.
(here’s Dr. Hong’s articles on “The Charisma of Cho Yonggi and Its Routinization in the Yoido Full Gospel Church of Korea” & ” Modernity, Tradition, and Korean Protestantism: Church Growth and Pastoral Leadership” for 2 samples of his work).