Study Guide: Receptivity of Individuals and Societies
Chapter 14 of Understanding Church Growth
1. What kind of receptivity is a most prominent aspect of human nature and society?
2. When are young people raised in a Christian home most ready to accept Christ? When are skeptics?
3. When does McGavran say that different segments of the population and societies ripen to the gospel?
4. What kind of ripenings does McGavran say are common?
5. What is the relationship between waxing and waning of receptivity?
6. What six causes of receptivity does McGavran list?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
7. Why are immigrants and migrants often receptive?
8. What are the two reactions to conquest by the conquered people? Who among them is more likely to have the more positive reaction?
9. What great world religion lost many adherents in the twentieth century?
10. What questions should be asked to determine if a homogeneous unit is receptive?
11. What does Wagner say is just as important to discover as growth?
12. In North America to whom should local churches give priority in targeting?
13. What kind of axis is Edward Dayton known for designing?
14. What does McGavran say is the correct policy toward fields of low receptivity? What kind of organizational arrangements need to be made regarding such lands?
15. When people are neither highly receptive nor highly resistant, how should they be approached?
