| abstract | For more than 20 years, many books have been written on the topic of church growth in and for the Postmodern Church. Some of those
texts have been: Church Growth Made Simple, Church Growth on a Shoe String, The 7 Principles of Church Growth, and Dying to Grow or The Book of Church Growth.
This dissertation focuses on how Covenant United Methodist Church used the deep and wide concept to spur church renewal.
The Deep and Wide Concept
- Going Deep starts with a Christian Foundation
- Going Deep starts with Wesleyan Theology
- Going Deep starts with Revisiting the Books of the Old and New Testament
- Going Deep starts with Themes of the Bible
- Going Wide starts with Social Media promoting the Word of God
- Going Wide starts with Technology Hardware Infrastructure
- Going Wide starts with the move of the Holy Spirit who spurs church growth
The Wesleyan Tradition teaches that it is the power of the Holy Spirit that gives increase to God's church. That being the case, it seems reasonable to
theorize that one must return to the basics of going DEEP (effectively using images, semiotics and metaphors) into the Word of God, and once again allowing the
Holy Spirit to generate growth by going WIDE (with a global ap-proach), by using technology and social networking. Since the indwelling Holy Spirit of our Most
High God undergirds the Word of God, and since God's Word does not come back void, preaching in the name of our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazareth the
Christ, has the power to transform a dying world. With the assistance and collaborative efforts of the preach-er/shepherd, the church's Social Media, Technical
Web Directors, Christian Education Staff, and the once lonely outposts within the church, now turns into a collective powerhouse of evangelical focus. The
congregation at Covenant United Methodist at the end of the above project, has gone Deep and Wide, and is operating effectively within the power of God's
Word which now reaches far beyond the local sanctuary.
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