Church Growth and Mission Glossary
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ScribdTranslationsChurch Growth and Mission Glossary
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ScribdTranslationsGLOSSARY
1. Social action: Refers to the service that the church provides to the community and society in general. It obeys
the cultural mandate to care for God's creation and also for our neighbor. It is controversial for
some due to the church's involvement in a certain political aspect.
2. Anthropology: Science that studies man. Anthropology helps to better understand the differences.
among cultures to find the optimal ways to communicate the gospel.
3. Cell-celebration: It is the model that highlights small groups that promote fellowship and the
spiritual growth in weekly meetings to then celebrate together the service of worship and preaching.
4. Contextualization: It is the way of communicating the gospel in a certain particular environment and according to the
specific characteristics of it. The church seeks a better insertion into a certain culture
contextualizing the communication of the message in concrete, understandable, and relevant ways.
5. Growth: Every living organism grows in one way or another. When it stops doing so, it dies. The church
As the body of Christ also grows in various ways.
6. Biological growth: It is the increase in the congregation due to the birth of the children of the believers.
7. Conceptual growth: It is the constant increase in understanding of faith, doctrine,
Biblical knowledge and everything that makes the church a more faithful agent to its calling and Christian discipleship.
8. Qualitative growth: It pertains to growth in quality.
9. Quantitative growth: It refers to the numerical increase. The book of Acts shows us how it grew.
The church grew numerically as the Word spread everywhere, reaching more and more people.
10. Diaconal growth: Growth in love that is shown in serving others.
11. Numerical growth: It reflects that more people are being added and incorporated into the Body of
Christ and the church.
12. Organic growth: It refers to the internal development of the church's systems. This includes governance.
of the church, structures, finances, leadership, relationships between brothers, organization, etc.
13. Growth through conversion: It occurs when people who are evangelized and accept Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior join the church.
14. Growth through transfer: Increase in congregants due to moving from one church to another.
15. Ministering body: It refers to the Body of Christ represented in a local church that ministers and serves.
según sus dones y talentos para la extensión del reino de Dios.
16. Statistics: Data that allows measuring the number of attendees at a service, number of converts,
percentage of trained people, etc. They are valuable to see part of the picture of what is happening in
a congregation and make projections to plan various tasks or activities.
17. Explosive Evangelism: It is an excellent, world-renowned evangelization ministry. It trains
leaders to present the gospel in a pleasant and coherent manner while empowering others to mobilize.
whole church. It has training teams in many countries.
18. Apostolic function: The role of the church as sent to the world. 'Apostolos' means
"sent." Hence, the church is sent into the world to fulfill divine mandates.
19. Great Commission: The famous passage from Matthew 28:18–20 in which Jesus commissions his disciples to go forth
everyone to make disciples.
20. Church growth: It is the study of the biblical principles that lead to the growth of the church according to
purposes of God. Starting from the Bible and using all available disciplines, this subject deals with
discern the internal and external factors that lead a church to grow in its quantitative development and
qualitative.
21. Iglecrecimiento integral: Una perspectiva más amplia que busca el crecimiento de la iglesia dentro del
overall framework of God's purposes for humanity and the cosmos. Take the kingdom of God as a starting point
departure and seek its extension in all spheres of life with the impact of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
emphasizing the role played by the local church.
22. Koinonia: Greek word that means 'communion' among the brothers.
23. Kerygma: Greek term that means 'proclamation of the gospel'.
24. Autocratic leader: This is the leader who makes decisions alone. It is a type of dictatorial leader.
25. Catalyst leader: It is the leader who manages to create movement, unite criteria, and initiate a project. This type
The leader is considered ideal for planting new works and starting new ministries.
26. Revitalizing leader: This is the experienced leader who can revive a church lacking vitality and inject it with a
A good dose of enthusiasm and organization to move forward again.
27. Stewardship: It is the church's responsibility to be a good steward of the resources that
God gave it to him.
28. Mega church: Mega means big. Therefore, mega church is a very big church. We can think
in congregations with thousands of members.
29. Mission: It is when the people of God intentionally cross the barriers of the church and head to places
different, from where there is faith to where not a trace of it exists, to proclaim through word and action the
the coming of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. This is done through the participation of the church in the mission
divine to reconcile people with God, with themselves, with others, and with the world, to bring them together
through repentance and faith in the Lord by the work of the Holy Spirit, with a view to transformation
as a sign of the coming of the kingdom of Christ (Van Engen).
30. Transcultural mission: It is the mission that operates in different cultures.
31. Missiology: It is the study of missions and God's redemptive action in all its aspects. This science
has increased and received much more attention in the last century.
32. Model: It is a pattern of action that provides an example to follow for others. Models illustrate
possibilities and are not necessarily transferable.
33. Numerology: It is the excessive exaggeration that gives importance to numbers, so much that they become
as an end in itself.
34. Paradigm: It is a structure of thought. A way of seeing and interpreting reality. A perspective.
or worldview.
35. Pragmatism: Emphasis on the practical and what yields results in ministry. It seeks the instrumentality of
an action that reflects concrete achievements.
36. Principios: Verdades concretas y fundamentales aplicables a cualquier circunstancia. Son transferibles. Una
a norm or thesis that has been verified and is widely accepted.
37. Unreached people: A people or nation that does not have an established church among a certain ethnic group,
cultural or linguistic in particular. Group to which the gospel has not yet penetrated or reached.
38. Open systems: They are organizational units of related and interdependent parts that form a
They are open systems because they are affected by other systems and by the environment in which they operate.
39. Sociology: The study of society and the human being as a social entity. The church growth emphasizes the
knowledge of this science to integrate the ministry of the church into the reality of the human context.
40. Homogeneous units: Groups of people with similar characteristics. McGavran sparked a great debate when
to affirm that the Christian faith operates more effectively when missionary work focuses its efforts
strategically in a specific group.
41. Values: They are principles or understandings valued by a group. They become evident through actions.
that they themselves reflect. Without shared values, it is difficult to experience unity in the group.
42. Vision: Having vision is looking towards the future and seeing a picture of what God wants to do through you.
to fulfill their redemptive purposes. It provides a sense of direction and urgency to those who have it.