Donald McGavran

Donald Anderson McGavran (December 15, 1897 – 1990) was a missiologist who was the founding Dean (1965) and Professor of Mission, Church Growth, and South Asian Studies at the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. A child of missionaries in India and later a missionary himself (1923–1961), McGavran spent most of his life trying to identify and overcome barriers to effective evangelism or Christian conversion.

McGavran identified differences of caste and economic social position as major barriers to the spread of Christianity. His work substantially changed the methods by which missionaries identify and prioritize groups of persons for missionary work and stimulated the Church Growth Movement. McGavran developed his church growth principles after rejecting the popular view that mission was ‘philanthropy, education, medicine, famine relief, evangelism, and world friendship’ and become convinced that good deeds – while necessary – ‘must never replace the essential task of mission, discipling the peoples of the earth’.

McGavran was born in Damoh, India, in 1897. As a third-generation missionary, McGavran’s family totaled 279 years of service in India by 1954. Donald McGavran credited his early missionary training and experience to the friendship and guidance of his father, John McGavran.

McGavran received his early education in Central Provinces, India. After his family returned to the United States, he went to school in Tulsa, OK and Indianapolis, IN. He attended Butler University (B.A., 1920), Yale Divinity School (B.D., 1922), the former College of Mission, Indianapolis (M.A., 1923), and, following two terms in India, Columbia University (Ph.D., 1936).

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