This will be quite a shift for the members of the church — going from fluff to substance.
After modeling a seeker-sensitive approach to church growth for three decades, Willow Creek Community Church now plans to gear its weekend services toward mature believers seeking to grow in their faith.
The change comes on the heels of an ongoing four-year research effort first made public late last summer in Reveal: Where Are You?, a book coauthored by executive pastor Greg Hawkins. Hawkins said during an annual student ministries conference in April that Willow Creek would also replace its midweek services with classes on theology and the Bible.
Whether more changes are in store for the suburban Chicago megachurch isn’t clear. Hawkins declined CT’s interview request, and senior pastor Bill Hybels was unavailable for comment.
Evidently the church model wasn’t working for them anymore so they’re switching to actually feeding their sheep. They thought they could attract people who were seeking the Lord, find him at their church and then tell others about Christ, but instead they discovered this:
But the analysis in Reveal, which surveyed congregants at Willow Creek and six other churches, suggested that evangelistic impact was greater from those who self-reported as “close to Christ” or “Christ-centered” than from new church attendees. In addition, a quarter of the “close to Christ” and “Christcentered” crowd described themselves as spiritually “stalled” or “dissatisfied” with the role of the church in their spiritual growth. Even more alarming to Willow Creek: About a quarter of the “stalled” segment and 63 percent of the “dissatisfied” segment contemplated leaving the church.
I’m surprised they needed a study to tell them that since it’s obvious that it would be those who are “close to Christ” who want to share him with others. And why would anyone be surprised that those people would want more than fluff and Christianity 101? Hasn’t this been the critism of the church over the last how many years it’s been in business? This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who takes Christ’s instructions to the church seriously:
ESV Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The only way to grow the church in depth is to teach Christ’s people who is and the importance of sharing that knowledge with others. That any church would need a study to tell them that is pretty sad.
posted May 16, 2008 at 10:54 am
The Liberals and Progessives are busy outlawing Matthew 28:19. Et al Matthew through Revelation inclusive. And BTW, isn’t what Jesus said here a hate crime now in most of the Blue states?
Have you ever sepeated the wheat from the chaff?
You get a lot of “stuff” and a small amount of seeds. Following Christ comes from the seeds.
posted May 16, 2008 at 11:07 am
I love you Michele. You’re so cute. Have you ever considered fornication?
posted May 16, 2008 at 11:19 am
Of course the real question is going to be how is Willow Creek going to afford to pay the upkeep on that huge facility without vast numbers of people giving money to them?
posted May 16, 2008 at 11:44 am
“I love you Michele. You’re so cute. Have you ever considered fornication?”
Something tells me this is a Donny impersonator. It’s telling that it would take this tack.
posted May 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Wow, groundbreaking information Michelle. You do realize that this has been covered in other blogs for months? As a religion blogger shouldn’t you be more on top of things instead of rehashing old news?
posted May 16, 2008 at 12:08 pm
“Wow, groundbreaking information Michelle. You do realize that this has been covered in other blogs for months? As a religion blogger shouldn’t you be more on top of things instead of rehashing old news?”
I’m just responding to the post I found on Christianity Today which is dated this week. Maybe this might be something you might want to take up with them. I don’t generally read religious blogs except for Justin Taylor’s so that maybe the problem with me not keeping up with these issues.
I’m not concerned with being in the forefront of any of this and comment when I get around to it.
posted May 16, 2008 at 12:18 pm
CT had a editorial on it in March.
posted May 16, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I must have been studying and didn’t get a chance to see it.
posted May 16, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Michele, have you ever considered looking at events and trying to put forth what you have learned at seminary and give us readers your own understanding of the events? Try to give us your theology, try to give us your understanding of what “god” has to say about it, try to be unique and don’t just become an anti-Obama parrot.
posted May 16, 2008 at 4:06 pm
“Michele, have you ever considered looking at events and trying to put forth what you have learned at seminary and give us readers your own understanding of the events? Try to give us your theology, try to give us your understanding of what “god” has to say about it, try to be unique and don’t just become an anti-Obama parrot.”
What do you think I did here?
Listen, I post what I find amusing, I can’t help that the guy is such a font of posts because he’s so funny. I don’t get up in the morning and say, “What can I post about Obama today?” I just go with what’s out there. In fact the days that I resolve to post about anything but Obama and then the guy says something stupid. In fact there are a couple things I’m not posting just because I’m tired of blogging about him.
posted May 16, 2008 at 5:16 pm
“he’s unsure Willow Creek can provide greater depth to mature believers by its moves, especially since more traditional churches wrestle with the same issue.”
Willow Creek planned “to get deeper” about 10 years ago … “They got more challenging” by bringing in teaching pastors like John Ortberg, Atwater said, only to see attendance drop.
Willow Creek would also replace its midweek services with classes on theology and the Bible.
We know that Christians don’t like theology.
posted May 16, 2008 at 5:57 pm
What I’m saying it that you are studying at Westminster Theological Seminary. I think it would be interesting to find out what you’re studying and how you are taking what you are learning and using your own interpretations to explain it to us. What are you learning about ethics in modern liberal democracies? What sort of liberation theologies are you learning regarding God and Jesus? That’s all I meant to say.