a stunning realization on the part of both Willow Creek and myself
“In the Hawkins’ video he says, “Participation is a big deal. We believe the more people participating in these sets of activities, with higher levels of frequency, it will produce disciples of Christ.” This has been Willow’s philosophy of ministry in a nutshell. The church creates programs/activities. People participate in these activities. The outcome is spiritual maturity. In a moment of stinging honesty Hawkins says, “I know it might sound crazy but that’s how we do it in churches. We measure levels of participation.”
Having put all of their eggs into the program-driven church basket you can understand their shock when the research revealed that “Increasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”
Hybels confesses:
We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.
In other words, spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.”
[ from Willow Creek Repents? Why the most influential church in America now says “We made a mistake” from Out of Ur ]
To be frank, I’m appalled to read these quotes. Did it really take megachurch leaders thirty years to realize the people in their churches are full of spiritually immature but socially active people? I had assumed the church leaders knew what they were doing but cared more about the numbers and the ego trip of pastoring a massive church.
Honestly, I’d still rather believe that then the alternative, which is that one of the largest and most influential Christian congregation in the US is lead by people so far removed from reality.
—Timoni
