Months of misleading headlines and rumors floating in the blogosphere have prompted one influential megachurch to set the record straight about the major changes the church is making.
Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., recently morphed their midweek services into university-like classes, catering to everyone from those just starting to explore Christianity to more mature believers who want to go deeper in their study of theology and Scripture.
That's just one of many changes the megachurch is implementing after a churchwide study showed long-time and fully devoted attendees weren't as satisfied as those new to the Christian faith and were stalled in their spiritual growth. While many were participating in church programs and activities, attendees were not necessarily growing more as disciples of Christ, the study found.
Although the study, published in Reveal: Where Are You?, was groundbreaking and an eye opener, the release of the findings and Willow Creek's leaders admitting they made a "mistake" led to a storm of online discussions and reports that say Willow's leaders made shocking confessions.
"If the most shocking confession to come out of Willow in 32 years is that we did research and came out with tools to help people toward full devotion to Christ, I feel really good about our church,” said Senior Pastor Bill Hybels, according to a statement. “I don’t call it shocking; I call it honest. We have never wanted to play church here; we have always wanted to be the real deal."
"We learn and grow at Willow. We make no apologies for wanting to get better at leading this church. We are dead serious about helping seekers come to know Christ, about helping Christians grow to be Christ-centered," Hybels said last month in response to inaccurate reports. "And any time we can find a more effective way, any time we gather more information that informs us to be able to lead this church better, we humble ourselves before God, we humble ourselves before our own congregation, and we say 'we think we found a way that we can serve you better. So our apologies for not waking up to this sooner but we're doing the best we can. And our church usually applauds and says 'thanks for your honesty and lead on.'"
Some reports indicated that the seeker-sensitive church was shifting their focus from seekers, or those exploring Christianity, to more mature believers.
Nancy Beach, vice president of the Arts Willow Creek Association, said last month that such reports were "terribly inaccurate in their assessment of what we're learning and exploring these days."
"Let me be very, very clear," she said during WCA's annual Arts Conference. "We are never ever going to abandon reaching nonchurched people. This has been a part of our DNA since we started this church. It was built on the foundation of saying 'we want to reach our friends.'"
"And if you cut us, we bleed evangelism," she added in an emotional response to misinformation. "This is a place that wants more people, as many as possible to come into heaven with us."
Hybels also stressed that they are still highly focused on seekers and are further looking to increase evangelism effectiveness. "We have had the same one-sentence mission statement for 32 years – we're trying to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers to Christ. We have never been more committed to either side of that mission statement." Continue >>
RSS
"This is what seeker-sensitive really is."
Nope...foul ball. The basis of both Saddleback and Willow Creek is that Jesus is the ONLY way to the Father and we have no hope in this life without Jesus.
Go check the statement of beliefs.....
This is actually a VERY good sign. Our church is a merge of two models-Saddleback and Willow Creek. The goal is to get the baby Christians to a point where they want more than just milk (milk is just about all most of America can stomach now-days). So, to have a large group of people who WANT spiritual steak is a really healthy sign!
One thing that many people do not consider is that their 'mature church' is made up of only a couple hunderd at best on average. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands across the country fall through the cracks.
Groups like Saddleback and Willow Creek have simply recognized that America is a mission field too.
"which is the "find a need and fill it" approach to sales"
Isn't that exactly what Jesus did?
JHS
You have said....
"....the rest of this is big business and frankly is doing more harm to this country than good."
I would not be so concerned with the effect that it has on the overall country.
Our focus is on taking care of our own, those who have already made the decision for Christ who could become misguided.
The rest of the country, and world, will watch and learn.
Unfortunately, I think the whole Mega church deal is flawed from the ground up.
It's pretty hard to hold people accountable when there are 20,000 faces that surround you. Sure there are small groups that get to know each other, but that makes only a small difference. A pastor comes in to meet and greet the group - so what? Where's the accountability in that?
A church ought to be small enough that people can get to know everyone, and the pastor(s). This leads to accountability.
Dr. Hybels staff has been very straight forward when I make inquiries about something. If we have a problem, we need to go to our brother we have the problem with. Willow Creek Community Church will tell you they are not flawless. Neither am I. I can give Willow Creek a good report. Thank you Dr. Hybels for your Pastor Care Pastor's quick reply to inquiries I have made. I am impressed. I did not know the whole counsel of a situation and your Pastor Care Pastor set the record straight.
I want a church like that, James.
I applaud Mr. Hybels for his passion for the lost, but not his continued marketing approach (which is the "find a need and fill it" approach to sales). Our faith is about growing to love God more and not about progressing through "steps" as if this was a training course to make me a better person.
And that is part of the problem with using marketing - it is customer driven and consumer focused. If our faith is about giving up our selves for Christ, about finding Him in both our sufferings and joy, then shouldn't the focus be on Him and Him glorified, not on me and me growing?
Until Willow and other seeker sensitive churches move to seeking Him glorified and honored a praised above all, even self, then it will continue to struggle with discipling. The need to look at what type of soil they are as they sow.
For me - growing is a by product of GOING.
Christians must realize that personal growth in God's Word is going to take longer than a one-hour dose at services. Bravo to the church that encourages Bible study, and to Christians who have developed their own times for Bible study and meditation.
The big problem with this is, no matter how strong the encouragement, there are many in church circles who sincerely think that one-hour a week is all it takes! Lord Jesus, help to open our eyes to Your truth.
My church is a bible teaching church. Our sermons are straight from the bible. the complete text studied is read before the sermon starts and the message is backed by what is in the text. No one verse 2 hour sermon tooken out of context. We also have core bible study classes on wedenesday instead of service. I love it. The more I understand God's words, the more I know I must vote against Obama. His views are outrageous, and the Sermon on the mount was awesome. More churches need to give more attention to the soul of believers as well as professing thier faith to nonbelievers
SolaScriptura-
Amen, brother (or sister).
Welcome to todays evangelical big business christianity, whether it's Fundamentalist John Macarthur or Schuller, Swindoll, Copeland etc, except for maybe Warren who gave away 90% of his money, the rest of this is big business and frankly is doing more harm to this country than good.
Sounds to me like some of these other comments here are people with "church size envy".
One love, one God, One Way.
Nobody should buy this PR gimmick from Hybels. He and Warren and the Schullerites are responsible for the 57% of So called Evangelical Christians (in last week's Pew Research Poll) who denied Christ as the ONLY True Way to heaven!! This is what seeker-sensitive really is.
And to show how "serious" Hybels is about making his Cross-less "church" more "Christlike", he had that 'great classical theologian' Brian MacLaren do the WillowCreeek Youth Conference this past March in Barrington!!
Yes! That will really disciple the next generation to Christ!! Not just MacLaren was there, but Dan Kimball and the entire usual suspects who are emerging into darkness.
So, pardon me, Doc, I ain't buying nothing from these guys.
God bless!!
HAPPY JULY 4TH!
Grace & Peace
Willow Creek just discovered that teaching the Bible to people gives them spiritual depth - this is truly a shocking revelation - I am glad they did research and surveys to find this out.
The church needs to show greater responsibility for the souls God has already brought into the Kingdom.
Helping to feed the poor and needy is nice, but helping to feed souls is greater.
Man shall not live by bread alone.
I'm glad Willow Creek is responding to this message.