Willow Creek Rethinks Its Model

For years, many churches have patterned their ministry after the ministry of Willow Creek Church (http://www.willowcreekchurch.com/), in Illinois. There's even an association of Willow Creek Churches (http://www.willowcreek.com/. WCC, and its Senior Pastor, Bill Hybels, have been successful in reaching tens of thousands of unchurched people by being sensitive to the presence of the non-Christians among them.

Recently, though, WCC has realized that its more spiritually mature members are disappointed with their church. WCC's Greg Hawkins and his team also learned that participation in church activities did not correlate to increases in spiritual maturity. The combination of these two revelations has rocked WCC's world.

To their credit, WCC performed a detailed study of their members. They also studied 29 other churches, and found similar currents of discontent among their spiritually mature members. Watch this video, in which Pastor Greg Hawkins discusses the initial findings of the WCC study:http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=48 . The preliminary findings of the studies are available through WCC in a book called REVEAL: Where Are You?

I have heard complaints from spiritually mature Christians about the WCC model for years, and am excited that WCC has initiated such a thorough, introspective, and public study of their ministry. I can't wait to read REVEAL.

It's not easy for us to look at ourselves and accept that we may have to make major changes. I applaud WCC for its courage. All of us may benefit from their findings.