Testing the Claims of Church Growth

Rating:
Summary: Suspicions Confirmed! CG Simply Doesn't Work.
Review: Having spent 20 years in the marketing business before becoming an ordained minister, I think the book pounds a decisive (hopefully) final nail in the coffin lid of the co-called Church Growth Movement. Zwonitzer clearly knows his stuff. Like a well-schooled marketing manager the author prefers evidence instead of anecdote, and he relentlessly exposes the dog-eared clichés and unproductive stratagems of a failed system. There's no "bait and switch" here. The book delivers what the cover promises, which is more than a careful observer can say for the CG gurus.

Rating:
Summary: THE BASIC TRUTH IN THIS BOOK
Review: In the preface, Rev. Zwonitzer basically summarizes his entire book by asking, "Were Jesus, Paul, Martin Luther, and even C.F.W. Walther marketing men as the Church Growth Movement claims? This ex-marketer-turned-theologian says NO! Marketing is an overarching approach that seeks to please the customer, claiming customer king. True theology can have no customer sovereignty. THE PRECIOUS GOSPEL MUST BE SOVEREIGN." Folks, if you don't see the overwhelming fundamental truth in this last statement, don't buy the book. You really wouldn't understand it. I suppose the following statement is how I would summarize this book. Ultimately, the Church Growth Movement leads to the blind leading the blind.

Rating:
Summary: THE BASIC TRUTH IN THIS BOOK
Review: In the preface, Rev. Zwonitzer basically summarizes his entire book by asking, "Were Jesus, Paul, Martin Luther, and even C.F.W. Walther marketing men as the Church Growth Movement claims? This ex-marketer-turned-theologian says NO! Marketing is an overarching approach that seeks to please the customer, claiming customer king. True theology can have no customer sovereignty. THE PRECIOUS GOSPEL MUST BE SOVEREIGN." Folks, if you don't see the overwhelming fundamental truth in this last statement, don't buy the book. You really wouldn't understand it. I suppose the following statement is how I would summarize this book. Ultimately, the Church Growth Movement leads to the blind leading the blind.

Rating:
Summary: Misnomer
Review: Rather than test the claims of the church growth movement the author tests the dated claims of only two church growth advocates. An attack on marketing the church rather than a serious critique. And this coming from one whose webpage uses marketing to encouraging purchases so his church can make money?