Church and Faith Trends
June 2012 / Volume 5 / Issue 1
ISSN 1920-0439
by Sam Reimer, Professor of Sociology, Crandall University
The church growth movement got its start in 1965 at Fuller Theological Seminary. Since then the movement has taken different forms and embraced different models and programs. While many church growth strategies focus on internal congregational factors, sociologist Sam Reimer argues that external and inspirational ones are just as important. This paper, written from a sociologist’s perspective, draws on the Canadian Evangelical Churches Study data to identify the factors, internal, external and inspirational, that make for vital congregations.