Christian Book Notes

Murphy, Martin. The god of the Church Growth Movement. 1996. 93 pp.  $8.95.  Purchase at Amazon.

Review

Martin Murphy served as pastor/teacher for over twenty years and has been instrumental in planting many churches.  He obtained an M.Div from Reformed Theological Seminary.  As one who strives to see God’s church continue to grow, he takes to task the modern movement of church growth.  He writes at RationalChristianThoughts.com and can be found on Twitter at

He first describes what the church is according to scripture (hint: it is not a building) and presents a succinct history of the problem of modernity infiltrating the church in the first three chapters of the book.  The final four chapters take a look at the goals and philosophy of the church growth movement through literature espousing church growth and what is being said from the pulpit of these types of churches.

Throughout the book, Murphy writes some excellent exhortations.  For example, on page 13 he writes, “Christians should reconsider the nature of the church and reexamine what the Bible says about the nature of the church.”  In most cases, I find this statement to be absolutely true.  Many in our churches today have no idea what the Bible says about the church.   He goes on to write on page 22 that the “primary purpose of the church…is worship.”

Also throughout the book, he makes some very strong indictments against the consumer mentality found in many churches and pulpits.  He takes to task the CEO model of church staffing and even calls out para-church organizations to come under the authority of the local church.  Some of his statements are extremely strong, but I believe ought to be listened to with a discerning ear.

While I hope Mr. Murphy would expand some of his chapters in the future (for example, give some examples of the poor preaching he rails against in chapter 6), The god of the Church Growth Movement is a nice introduction to a biblical response to the idolatry taking place in many church buildings and denominations.