Willow Creek flipflops on the whole seeker sensitive thing

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.