History
Church Growth began with the publication of Donald McGavran's book "The Bridges of God". McGavran was a third-generation Christian missionary to India, where his observations of How Churches Grow (the title of another of his books) went beyond typical theological discussion to discern sociological factors that affected receptivity to the Christian Gospel among non-Christian peoples. In 1965, he organized the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, which was the institutional homebase for Church Growth studies until after his death. It has been the training ground for tens of thousands of pastors and missionaries of one hundred mainly evangelical denominations.
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—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
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—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
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—Derek Wall (b. 1965)