Willow Creek Community Church, led by Bill Hybels near Chicago, became a megachurch before “megachurch” was a word.
Part of their strategy has been to make sure that people get involved in church activities as a means of producing followers of Christ. “The church creates programs/activities. People participate in these activities. The outcome is spiritual maturity,” says one blogger.
Willow Creek decided to do a study and see if that was actually the case. The results are in:
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.
Bill Hybels said:
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.
One of the overriding goals in the way we do things at Grace Fellowship is to develop these disciplines (like biblical literacy) among our people. I say this not to pat Grace Fellowship on the back, but to underscore that our goals seem to be taking us in the right direction—for now. Let us be careful that we don’t waver; how well we fulfill those goals remains to be seen. One day, like Willow Creek, we will get a report card too—and it won’t be from Christianity Today or Leadership Journal.
Now let me take the gloves off: It’s easy to take a certain air of smug satisfaction at seeing the “big guy” proven wrong, kind of like watching the Yankees lose in the playoffs. In that vein, I was tempted to title this blog entry “Oops,” but I repented of that before I got too far: I welcome Willow Creek’s transparent repentance on this question. What this tells me is that Hybels and his team have been sincerely intent on making disciples of Christ all along, but their size and their methods—which have drawn lots of attention—simply failed to produce the results they were looking for. More than that, the reaction coming from Willow Creek seems to be very humble and centered on fixing the fact that they’re not instilling the character and priorities of Christ into their people as effectively as they thought they were. Let us pray that God will give them success as they work to remedy their situation, which will undoubtedly involve some unpleasant changes and a lot of hard work for a lot of people.
I wonder what the fallout from this confession will be for other megachurches that have patterned themselves after Willow Creek—and little churches like ours that fall outside that category.
HT: Justin Taylor, Marc Backes
How refreshing to see the honesty in WC’s leadership about what didn’t work! Wow, no excuses, just realization. Love it! Good for them.
Um, does this mean no more casual-Sunday dress?! :0)
True humility is always refreshing and so absolutely necessary for a church to stay healthy. I wonder what the catalyst was for the initial study by Willow Creek. I’ll be interested to see the ripple affect of their decision to rethink their methods. Whatever the reason, praise God!
I have to admint I’m somewhat skeptical. I suppose time will tell but Willow Creek is the king of opinion-poll driven Christianity and pragmatism. The fact that they’ve changed direction based on the results of a “study” and the belief that something they’re doing was not “working” seems more to be business as usual rather than repentance. What happens in a year or two if a new “study” suggests that this too doesn’t “work”?
I know that Saddleback when through something similar a few years back when we were there. We left because we were burnt out, and I remember that Rick Warren said in a ministry meeting that 5% of the people there were doing the serving. There really wasn’t much “maturity based” teaching going on to feed that 5% because everything was so seeker driven. During the time after we left they seemed to have turned that around and found a better balance. We have many friends who still minister and worship there who have seen the shift. I suppose that is part and parcel of the growning pains of a REALLY big church in the seeker-sensitive movement. I think part of the problem is that pastors of churches like that hope and pray that eventually people are going to move on to more maturity based churches, making room for more new believers, and so on. Trouble is, people stay! Hence the 5% serving the rest. Sounds to me like they are moving in the right direction in remedying it…I’m just surprised that they didn’t get there before, being as though Saddleback was modeled after Willow Creek – a church reaching out specifically to the unchurched. They were seeking to fill a unique niche…I don’t think anyone realized at the time that the niche would get so big that it would cease to be one.
I have to admit, I am a fan of Bill Hybels. Now, some would say, “Why? For his theology?” No, but I do think he is extremely sincere in what he believes (BTW, I get the whole “but sincerity is not being truthful” flip-side). “For his vision?” No, but I think his passion for souls is something thoughtful people should emulate. I am a fan of Bill because he seems to consistently want to be authentic and really minister regardless of the cost or impression he may make on the greater Christian community. Bill does not seem to be pigeon-holed as a “We need to be bigger” type of guy. The size of “Willow” seems to relate more to the fact that they have reached people with the Gospel and needs are being met, this is why it is a big church. Mega-churches that get big because they want people to know and grow deep in their walk with Christ are great (remember the early church was a mega-church and God never disapproved). The issue is what is your focus, not the size of your church. Remember, there are some churches that are very small and very unhealthy while there are large churches that are very healthy.
So, I appreciate Bill as a person who has poured his life into something and yet is willing to share with the world that they have been rowing in a wrong direction in some areas, but now will make a mid-course change. So,why am I a fan of Bill Hybels? One word, “leadership.”