Not sure if you guys heard about this or not, but there was a big study that Willow Creek did a few months ago called Reveal. Basically a few of the main conclusions were this.
-Church growth does not equal spiritual growth
-Member involvement does not equal spiritual growth
-The financial stability or healthiness of a church does not equal spiritual growth
(There was much more to the study but these were the main points)
Not terribly shocking to a lot of us, but terribly realistic. This is what our idea of church has become. How good our programs are, how many people we have in attendance, and how much money is accumulated every Sunday. If this is what we are concerned about (and our actions say that it is), then we simplified God's kingdom to a list of earthly standards. The current system that is church now, 3 hours a week at a building, only imparting knowledge about the bible in those 3 hours, and expecting to grow spiritually and become passionate about the message of the cross in 3 hours, will not sustain. Creating an open and honest community of believers is only part of what must happen. This community of believers must become the church to the people around them where those people are now. The church will not grow if we continue to be focused internally and not externally. Sure we all know we are supposed to be missionally minded, but what are the church's actions saying? "We meet 3 hours a week in a beautiful building, to learn about what we are supposed to be doing outside of these walls, and you need to come be a part of that." The first century church never once had a meeting on how to "market" the church, or be attractive to the community around them.
In your opinion, what direction does the church need be headed in? For the church to thrive as it once did, and as Christ's unadulterated bride, what does that look like?
I went to the Reveal seminar at Willow Creek in Chicago in Sept. 08 to hear about this movement and took away an interesting observation from the speakers we heard and the data we studied. The seeker movement is running out of gas after 5 years and those who were initially seekers want to go deeper. They are tired of cool bands and programs. I was shocked to hear Bill Hybels say, (in my words) "We messed up. We've been going about this in the wrong way. People were leaving and we did't know why... now we do. It's changed the way we do everything in our church."
ReplyDeleteIt was a great experience, but I was overwhelmed coming from a conservative background. It was good to be uncomfortable all weekend. :) Love you bud. Keep the good thoughts and encouraging words coming.
i think it would be really interesting to go through the book of Acts or perhaps Jesus' ministry to see how "growth" was measured. i think you're spot on--i can't recall either ever being involved in any marketing strategies or programs. Yet the message spread like wildfire. It seems likely that there's something they were doing then that we're just not doing now.
ReplyDelete--Guy