Growth

Indeed, the church, having failed to become good news for the oppressed, may at times even be bad news! It seems to be forgotten that God’s kingdom is the message not the church’s kingdom. The message is not the church. To put it rather baldly and perhaps badly, we need kingdom growth and kingdom good news, not church promotion and church growth.— Shalom, page 139

<idle musing>
Amen! That's an excellent observation. Yoder was writing over 20 years ago, but the church growth movement has been even more damaging since then, what with mega-pastors, not just mega-churches. Of course, with mega-pastors has come mega-egos and mega-failures if a mega-pastor falls into mega-sin.

Whatever happened to micro-churches with a mega-God? and micro-people with a mega-God? That seems to be more biblical, doesn't it?
</idle musing>