Donald McGavran

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Donald Anderson McGavran (born December 15, 1897 in Damoh , India , † July 10, 1990 in USA ) was an American evangelical theologian, evangelical missionary, missionary scholar, speaker, author and founder and director of the School for World Mission and the Institute for Church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena , California .

Live and act

McGavran grew up as the second of four children of evangelical missionaries John Grafton McGavran (* 1867) and Helen Anderson in India, where he initially went to school. During his school days, the family returned to the United States, and he attended secondary schools in Tulsa , Oklahoma and Indianapolis , Indiana . He then studied at Butler University in Indianapolis, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1920. At the Yale Divinity School in New Haven , Connecticut , where the well-known H. Richard Niebuhr taught, he studied theology and graduated in 1922 with a BD. In 1923 he completed his master's degree at the College of Mission in Indianapolis. Between his stays in India, he received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York .

After studying and influenced by John R. Mott , McGavran returned to India as a missionary in 1923. 1927 to 1936 he was head of the United Christian Missionary Society , which was part of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ (German: Christian Church, Disciples of Christ ). As director, he ran a leprosy hospital and coordinated the work of many schools that were part of the mission. In his missionary work, which lasted about 30 years, only about twenty small churches had emerged. So he began to research the causes of church growth. There he met the Methodist J. Waskom Pickett, who in 1928 was asked by the National Christian Council of India, Burma and Ceylon to prepare a religious study and mission analysis for India. McGavran provided information for the Madhya Pradesh province where he served. In 1937 he wrote Founders of the India Church , in which he examined the formation and development of various Indian churches. Only eleven of 145 churches experienced a major growth spurt, with discipleship and believable following of Christ playing an important role in the growth of a church. Since he was no longer active as a mission leader after 1936, he worked directly with the people of the Satnami caste. There he was able to win over a thousand people for the Christian faith and the following of Christ. About fifteen village churches were planted and the Gospels were translated into the local language, Chhattisgarhi .

In 1955 his book " The Brigdes of God " (German: Die Brücken Gottes ) was published. He had observed that people would like to embrace the Christian faith as long as they did not have to cross ethnic, social and linguistic boundaries. This publication is considered the prelude to the Church Growth Movement (German: community growth movement ). In 1958 McGavran returned to the United States to share his missionary and church planting experience in theological seminaries in India. In 1961, McGavran founded the Institute of Church Growth (German: Institute for Church Growth ) at Northwest Christian College in Eugene , Oregon . In 1965, at the invitation of President David Allan Hubbard, he was able to move this institute to Pasadena, California, to the large and well-known Fuller Theological Seminary. There he founded the Fuller School of World Mission and the Institute of Church Growth with the Australian Alan R. Tippett (1911-1988) , and he became their first director. 1970, his major work "appeared Understanding Church Growth " (German: church growth understand ). This book is considered an important foundation work for the entire church growth movement and mission theology and has been translated into many languages. In 1971 he handed over the management of the institute to C. Peter Wagner , and in 1976 at the age of 83 he ended his official teaching activities. He wrote a total of 23 books on church growth and mission.

Private

McGavran was married to Mary McGavran from 1925 to April 5, 1990; she died three months and five days before him.

Fonts (selection)

  • Christian Missions in Mid-India , Lucknow Publishing, Lucknow 1936, 1938 and 1962.
  • Founders of the India Church , 1937
  • The Bridges of God , Friendship Press, New York 1955.
  • How Churches Grow , World Dominion Press, London 1959.
  • Understanding Church Growth , Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 1970.
  • with Win Arn: How to Grow a Church , Regal Books, Ventura 1973.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerald H. Anderson: Tippett, Alan R. (1911-1988), Australian Methodist missiologist, anthropologist, and missionary to Fiji , 1998
  2. ↑ Wilfried Plock: Concept and Trends in the Church Growth Movement, Bible Association, May 15, 2015
  3. ^ Gary L. McIntosh: The Life and Ministry of Donald A. McGavran. A short overview . Churchgrowthnetwork website, March 16, 2015
personal data
SURNAME McGavran, Donald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McGavran, Donald Anderson (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant missionary, missiologist and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Damoh , India
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1990
Place of death United States