# The Idolatry of Church Growth (Andrew Root) > [!question] Lingering Questions > - Root's periodization (no "church growth" genre before 1970) is a strong, checkable historical claim, not independently sourced in the interview beyond his own reading — worth verifying against the actual founding dates of Church Growth Movement literature and conferences. > - The causal chain from GDP growth to congregational affiliation is asserted more than demonstrated; Root himself concedes he "wouldn't want to be that deterministic" — but only after building the whole interview segment around the correlation as if closer to causation. > - Does this economic-idolatry framing survive being tested against comparative national cases (churches in non-U.S. growth economies) rather than just the American post-1970 story? > [!tip] Article Ideas > - Trace the direct genealogical line from the academic Church Growth Movement (which Root critiques) to the New Apostolic Reformation's business-style apostolic-network resourcing rhetoric — Root's "techno-optimist" failure mode ("we're just one program away from getting our growth back") is close kin to NAR's apostolic-covering-solves-everything logic. > [!link] Cross Reference > - [[3. Resources/MOCs/NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]] — the Church Growth Movement's "right program/pastor/strategy = growth" assumption is the direct ancestor of much apostolic-network resourcing rhetoric > - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Faith & Theology MOC]] — primary home for the theological argument itself > [!quote] Vocabulary > - **dynamic stabilization** (Hartmut Rosa) — the condition where a society, institution, or church can only remain stable by continually escalating its capital, with no terminal point > - **growth of vs. growth into** — Root's own distinction: escalation without end (a puppy that should stop growing at 60 lbs but keeps going to 600) versus relational deepening with a shape and a telos (growth into Christ) ## Metadata - Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/The Idolatry of Church Growth With Andrew Root|The Idolatry of Church Growth with Andrew Root (ep. 730)]] - Author: Andrew Root (Luther Seminary professor, staff theologian at Youthfront), interviewed by the Holy Post Media hosts - Type: podcast/video - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeMowu5HPa8 ## Author's thesis American Protestantism's 50-year fixation on numerical growth is not obedience to the Great Commission but a historically specific, economically-driven idolatry: when the U.S. economy's unique 1870–1970 "special century" of compounding growth ended, the same "dynamic stabilization" compulsion that drives capitalism's M-C-M' circuit got absorbed into church life, and "church growth" was born as a named genre — conferences, consultants, strategy literature — only after growth stopped being a free byproduct of the broader cultural-economic tide. ## Key arguments (≤3) 1. **The 1970 hinge is both economic and religious**: mainline Protestant decline and the "church growth" genre's birth as a strategy literature both date to the same moment the U.S. economy's compounding-growth era ended — before 1970, Root argues, growth simply happened and nobody needed a program for it. 2. **Money functions as a literal idol under industrial capitalism**: via Marx's M-C-M' circuit (money invested in commodities to produce more money, with no terminal end), "money becomes more powerful than God because money in some sense becomes a god" — the mechanism by which church growth becomes idolatrous rather than merely metaphorically excessive. 3. **Two failure modes share one capital-logic**: "techno-optimists" (one program away from restored growth) and "identitarians" (escalating affirmation without end) look opposite but run the same limitless-escalation logic with different currencies — innovation vs. recognition. ## Claim atoms ### Yahweh wants relationship, not escalation > [!quote] ID:rw_root_yahweh_clogs > Yahweh doesn't want clogs in a machine of escalation. Yahweh wants children to be in community with, to be in relationship with. The theological pivot point of the interview — the counter-image to "growth of" logic and the seed of the "growth of vs. growth into" framework. [~1:03:34] ### Money functions as a god under industrial capitalism > [!quote] ID:rw_root_money_god > Money becomes more powerful than God because money in some sense becomes a god. Load-bearing for the book's title claim — the mechanism by which "growth" becomes literally idolatrous. [~1:05:10] ### Techno-optimism believes one program restores growth > [!quote] ID:rw_root_techno_optimist > we're just one program away from getting our growth back Defines the first of Root's two "do better" failure modes — the strongest single bridge to the Church Growth Movement / NAR apostolic-resourcing cross-reference. [~1:23:24] ## Permanent candidates - **A church chasing "growth of" rather than "growth into" has substituted escalation for relationship** — Root's central diagnostic distinction, applicable to any institution (not only churches) that has confused unbounded metric-chasing with a bounded, formational goal. Promoted below. ## Processing checklist - [x] Verify no existing Literature Note covers this doc (checked, none found) - [x] Extract claim atoms and permanent candidate from the existing deep-read - [ ] Verify Root's "no church growth genre before 1970" periodization against primary Church Growth Movement literature dates - [x] Connect into the relevant MOC — [[3. Resources/MOCs/Faith & Theology MOC]] ## Links - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Faith & Theology MOC]] — primary home for the theological/economic argument - [[3. Resources/MOCs/NAR and Charismatic Authority Critique MOC]] — the Church Growth Movement genealogy this episode critiques is a direct ancestor of NAR apostolic-network resourcing rhetoric