earticle

영어

The purpose of this article is to study the foundations of the missional ecclesiology from a theological perspective in order to lead diverse efforts to the growth of the true church. Even though the Korean Church grew rapidly in the past, it is undergoing a serious stagnation since the 1990s. It is because most of the Korean Church has pursued church growth only in a just pragmatical angle. Theologically right angles have been ignored from the beginning. Seeing church growth from the viewpoint of missional ecclesiology, we cannot recognize all kinds of church growth to be positive unconditionally. Local churches must be born again to be the missional church to grow rightly. The growth of the missional church is based on four signs?unity, catholicity, holiness, and apostolicity􀁮of the true church that were fixed in the creed of Council of Nicaea. Those four can be admitted as criterions for evaluating local churches from a standpoint of the true church. This theological work of church growth makes us overcome the limitations of pragmatic approaches and can provide a new paradigm of church growth.