Oikodomik

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The Oikodomik or the doctrine of the church growth is a branch of practical theology and deals with the origin, formation and change of Christian communities and churches in its various forms in different cultures and since the founding of the church after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ . Although people are involved in church building, the initiative comes from God and the Holy Spirit brings about faith, inner cohesion and growth in the church.

term

The term Oikodomik comes from the ancient Greek οἰκοδομή, which means house building in German . In the New Testament the term is used in relation to the community and is classically translated mostly as edification , building and construction ( 1 Cor 3,9  EU , Eph 2,19–22  EU and 1 Petr 2,5  EU ).

The concept of church building came into German theological discussion through a book by the evangelical missionary Bruno Gutmann (1876–1966) with the title church building from the Gospel , which was published in 1925. As part of the Leipziger Missionswerk , he had built up a church in Tanzania by trying to root the church members in different social groups in the church.

In the English-speaking world, the missiologist Donald McGavran (1897–1990), who grew up in India, is considered a pioneer of the church development and growth movement (English: "Church Growth Movement"). In 1955 his book "The Brigdes of God" (German: Die Brücken Gottes ) was published. In 1961 he founded the Institute of Church Growth (German: Institute for Church Growth ) at Northwest Christian College in Eugene , Oregon , which was relocated to the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena , California in 1965 . 1970, his major work "Understanding Church Growth" was published (German: church growth understand ).

history

The Christianity owned by the Great Commission of Jesus as described in Matthew 28.16 to 20  EU has been handed down since the beginning of the missionary and community-forming religions. Regular visits to the synagogue ( Lk 4.16  EU ) and life in a committed community, the circle of disciples , played a central role for Jesus himself . According to Mt 16 : 13-20  EU , he assigned his disciple Simon Peter an important place in this task. Church was implemented for the first time in the early Christian communities founded by the apostles , whose emergence, growth, conflicts and coexistence were described and thematized primarily in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles . These early congregations were initially very small, relatively independent and of great charisma, so that the Christian faith spread in the Mediterranean region in the first few centuries. Through active love and help for children, the poor and the sick, women and slaves contributed a great deal to the spread of the faith, church planting and church building. Acts 2: 42-47 could be understood as an ideal image of the early church:

“But they remained steadfast in the teaching of the apostles and in the community and in breaking bread and in prayer. ... But all who had believed were together and had all things in common. They sold goods and possessions and distributed them all as needed, and they were together every day in the temple with one accord, breaking bread here and there in the houses, having meals with joy and pure hearts, and praising God and finding favor with all the people. But the Lord gave daily added to the church that were saved. "

This basic description was later often defined with the terms worship (Leiturgia), witness (Martyria), community (Koinonia) and diakonia (Diakonia) and also understood and exercised as central themes and tasks of the church. With the Constantinian turning point , the situation of the Christian communities changed from the oppressed minority religion to the initially privileged and then even the state religion. On the one hand, this resulted in a large influx of new congregation members, on the other hand, many of these new members were naturally less motivated than those who adhered to the congregation even at times of discrimination, so that congregation growth during this time was more likely to be diluted and softened early Christian radicalism, persuasiveness and idealism.

During the Reformation , Martin Luther and the other reformers opposed the church structure determined by the priestly mediator function with the concept of the priesthood of all believers . It says that every baptized Christian can and should become the mediator of God's grace to others. A concept that, on the one hand, replaces the strong priestly centering through the maturity and personal responsibility of the parishioners, but on the other hand also promoted an individualization of the faith not intended by the reformers .

The pietism of the 17th and 18th centuries was a lay movement to which a personal, emotional piety was important. The formation of house, Bible and prayer groups and the resulting missionary and social impetus can be seen as one of the first forms of church building in the modern sense. The Dutch Reformed theology professor Gisbert Voetius (1589–1676), who teaches in Utrecht, created in 1642 with his “de theologia practica” a first concrete draft of how new congregations can be founded, built up and managed.

The Enlightenment , which took place around the same time as Pietism, was accompanied by an initial strong tendency towards secularization . Friedrich Schleiermacher tried to counter this by addressing the "educated among their despisers" in his "speeches on religion".

Another kind of secularization took place at the time of industrialization in the 19th century. Especially in large cities with large working-class neighborhoods, pastors had z. T. to supply 10,000 and more parishioners. Since real parish work was no longer possible under such circumstances, this almost inevitably led to a strong dissociation of many of these parishioners. While the pressing social problems in this situation led to the emergence of the Inner Mission , the awareness of the need for another kind of church work also grew.

Since around 1990 , especially among Anglicans in England, the conviction has grown that the church should go to the people and not the secularized people. With Fresh expressions , new forms of parishes have emerged, which have formed in the different subcultures and living environments of interested groups and people and which also meet there again and again. Belonging and Christian community arise through contact, interaction, commitment and consequences, not through consent to dogmas. These insights are also gaining followers and imitators from different Christian denominations in German-speaking countries.


Concepts

The German Protestant theologian Christian Möller makes a distinction between missionary and popular church development. The missionary church building tries to win people for the church with new models, while the popular church church building wants to win (again) people for the people church .

  • As early as the 1980s, Fritz and Christian A. Schwarz developed a concept for missionary church building within the national church under the title "Manageable Congregation".
  • Christian A. Schwarz and Christoph Schalk have developed a concept called "Natural Community Development" which, based on the community profile, looks for the weakest point in community work and works on it using eight "quality features".
  • The concept of "planting congregations" developed by Bob Hopkins and tested in the Anglican Church relies on smaller congregational units and new foundations within popular church structures.
  • A small evangelical congregation in South Barrington , a suburb of Chicago , grew into a megachurch with over 20,000 worshipers under its Pastor Bill Hybels . The focus of his work is the worship service for "seekers", through which Willow Creek also reaches people who are distant from the church. These ideas are passed on through study trips and leadership congresses, and leaders and church leaders are trained worldwide

literature

  • George Carey et al. a .: Planting New Churches . Eagle, Guildford / Surrey 1991, ISBN 0-86347-043-2 or 978-0-86347-043-1
  • Bruno Gutmann: Church development from the Gospel: Fundamentals for mission and home church , Evangelical-Lutheran Mission Publishing House, 1925
  • Wilfried Härle : Growing against the trend - analyzes of congregations that are looking up , Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-37402-611-1
  • Marcel Hauser, Ed .: New Life in the Church - Impetus for Community Development and Building , Norderstedt 2020, ISBN 978-3-7504-2750-1
  • Michael Herbst : Missionary community building in the Volkskirche , Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-7668-0831-1
  • Bob Hopkins: Planting Church. Church Planting as a missionary concept . Sowing, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1996, ISBN 3-7615-3561-9
  • Ralph Kunz , Ed .: Community development in concrete terms: Fields of work of a living church , Theological Publishing House Zurich, Zurich 2001, ISBN 978-3-29017-225-1
  • Frank Lüdke, Norbert Schmidt: Old wine in new bottles? Community movement and community development since the 1970s , Volume 10, Evangelische Hochschule Tabor, LIT Verlag, Münster 2020, ISBN 978-3-64314-579-6
  • Christian Möller: Doctrine of church building. Volume 1: Concepts - Programs - Paths . 3. Edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991, ISBN 3-525-60368-1
  • Christian Möller: Doctrine of church building. Volume 2: Perspectives - Insights - Outlooks . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1990, ISBN 3-525-60373-8
  • Christian Möller: Introduction to Practical Theology . A. Francke, Tübingen and Basel 2004, ISBN 3-7720-3012-2 , pp. 45-71
  • Martin Nicol: Basic Knowledge of Practical Theology: A Workbook . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-17-015276-9 , pp. 19-44
  • Axel Noack : Community building and community development in the secular society , Frank & Timme, 2018, ISBN 978-386596-440-3
  • Rainer Schacke: Learning from Willow Creek? Church Services for Seekers in German Milieu Contexts . Göttingen, Cuvillier Verlag, 2009. ISBN 978-3-86955-104-3
  • Christian Schwarz: The natural community development . C & P / Oncken 1996
  • Fritz and Christian Schwarz, Rainer Sudbrack: Manageable community. Volume 1-3 . Schriftenmissionsverlag, Gladbeck 2nd edition 1980, ISBN 3-7958-0842-1 , ISBN 3-7958-0843-X , ISBN 3-7958-0858-8
  • Helge Stadelmann and Stefan Schweyer , Ed .: Practical Theology - A Floor Plan for Study and Congregation , Brunnen Verlag, Gießen 2018, ISBN 978-3-76557-714-7
  • Rick Warren : Church with Vision - Congregation that lives God's commission , Gerth Medien, Asslar 2019, ISBN 978-3-96122-432-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.zhref.ch/intern/gemeindeaufbau
  2. ↑ Christian Möller, Introduction to Practical Theology , p. 45
  3. ↑ Wilfried Plock: Concept and Trends in the Church Growth Movement, Bible Association, May 15, 2015
  4. ^ David Bentley Hart: Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies , Yale University Press, New Haven 2009, ISBN 978-0-300-16429-9
  5. ↑ https://www.gemeinde-bewegen.de/136-2/lösungen-des-presbyteriums/4-8-gemeindeaufbau-bzw-gemeindeentwicklung/
  6. ↑ Gerald H. Anderson and Francisca Ireland-Verwoerd: Voetius, Gibsbertus (1589-1676). Dutch Reformed theologian and first Protestant to write a comprehensive theology of mission , Boston University, School of Theology, History of Missiology
  7. ↑ Roland Werner: Little money, new forms, many missionaries , October 27, 2018, website pro-medienmagazin.de
  8. ^ Karl Flückiger: The culture of togetherness radiates, regional church forum
  9. ↑ The beginning that shouldn't be - History of the Willow Creek Congresses , website willowcreek.de