





































115

Spencer, Stephen. 2019.

Growing and Flourishing. The Ecology of 
Church Growth

London: SCM Press.

isbn: 978-0-334-05734-5 
ix + 140 pp

Reviewed by Patrick Todjeras
University of Zürich
patrick.todjeras@uzh.ch

Revd Canon Dr Stephen Spencer leads the theological education initiative for 
the Anglican Communion and is based at the Anglican Communion Office 
(since 2018). He was previously vice principal at St Hild College in Yorkshire. 
He also has experience as a parish priest and has written several theological 
books. During his time in the Diocese of Leeds he was Link Officer for the 
diocesan Companion Link with the Dioceses of Mara, Rorya and Tarime in 
Tanzania.

Stephen Spencer presents an inspiring study that discusses church growth 
in an international environment. The purpose of this book is to encourage and 
inform church growth (94). He does indeed achieve his goal.

mailto:patrick.todjeras%40uzh.ch?subject=


E c c l e s i a l  F u t u r e s :  Vo l u m e  3 ,  I s s u e  2

116

It is a work of popular theology, but it is food for thought for theologians 
addressing questions of how to speak rightly of growth in the Christian life. It 
seeks an answer from outside the West. Spencer enables us to hear the Anglican 
diocese of Mara in Tanzania. In doing so, he applies the lessons learned about 
church growth in the Diocese of Mara, Rorya and Tarime in Tanzania to the 
British context and compares them to a fairly typical medium-sized church in 
a provincial town.

His initial understanding of church growth is based on the Anglican 
definition of growth as spiritual and numerical growth including its capacity to 
serve the whole community (Church of England, GS 995). Thus he develops the 
image of an ecology of church growth, meaning the interconnectedness of the 
church and its growth with its environment.

A distinctive feature of the book is the narrative form of the accounts, 
such as the vivid description of church growth in the Mara region (16-19) or 
the extensive quotes from leaders in the Mara region. The Mara region has 
seen substantial growth over the last 30 years – growing from a dozen parishes 
in 1985 to 150 parishes in 2010 (3, 15-16). In interviewing a cross-section of 
people at the heart of this church growth, both lay and ordained, he gathers 
their insights into the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of church growth.

Stephen Spencer discovers six factors for church growth in the Mara 
region. Alongside numerical growth there has been growth of congregational 
relationships, growth of interactive evangelism, an increasing dynamism of 
sacramental life, a strengthening of community service, and a nurturing of per-
sonal discipleship (42). Spencer conceptualizes them in six dimensions that can 
be developed in up to three stages: institutional growth, congregational rela-
tionships, evangelistic communication, sacramental expression, community 
service and discipleship (53-93; see the summary as a graph on page 93).

The ‘numerical growth’ factor is interesting. It was not measured in the 
number of individual conversions but in the number of new congregations. 
This shows a communal approach to evangelism (39).

In a theoretical classification, he interprets the results through the lens of 
Avery Dulles’ survey of ecclesiology in his Models of the Church. This multiple 
correspondence with Dulles’ highly regarded survey of ecclesiology shows that 
what has been happening in Mara region is not an oddity with little relevance 
to the wider church but rather an example of the wider multi-faceted nature 
of the Catholic Church (48). In particular, the role of evangelism rooted in the 
community life of the congregation and its relationships with its surrounding 
community is important.



Patrick Todjeras—Growing and Flourishing

117

For Spencer, what church growth means becomes clear here. It cannot just 
be an increase in the size of the gathered church – viewed as a self-contained 
institution. Instead it is an “increase of interaction with its surrounding com-
munity in which neither side loses itself but in which both build up purposeful 
and life-giving relationships” (51).

In the carry-over of his findings, Spencer discusses studies of the Anglican 
church growth scene and brings up comparables and differences. For example, 
Spencer argues that the evangelistic and sacramental dimensions are missing in 
Michael Moynagh’s reflection on fresh expression of church (98-101).

In the final part of his study, “Bringing Mara growth home”, he discusses 
the church growth initiative of a British congregation that took several inten-
tional steps to address the growth of their church. From after-school clubs, to 
messy church, to godly play, new attempts were made again and again. These 
attempts are discussed and recognized by Spencer with his framework of six 
dimensions.

An outstanding effect of the ecology analog is that the author does not 
describe the six dimensions as steps, but organically. This means that growth 
is not manufactured through an instrumental process but must be cultivated 
in an interactive and response way, like nurturing crops in a vegetable garden 
(112).

Critically, the comparability of the two contexts (Tanzania, Britain) is not 
discussed in depth (4-5) and so does not defuse the criticism of a carry-over. At 
times, the description of transferable insights (such as numerical growth) felt 
as if a more critical edge would help. Finally, the theological normativity of his 
notion of growth requires a critical theological counterweight, which Spencer 
does not provide here enough. For this, I am happy to recommend Martyn 
Percy’s book in the following review by Kristine Stache.




