 |
| Photo Credit: Garrett Crawford |
"When I started working at Willow Creek some years ago a staff member I will call Pastor X (not his real name. His real name was pastor Y) thought churches had to choose between evangelistic effectiveness and spiritual depth.
In a question that used to come up periodically from outsiders when I worked there, somebody asked me recently if I thought Willow was a place that sacrificed spiritual depth in order to reach seekers.
The quick answer is no. Actually, that would be the slow answer, too.
I thought the response to the Reveal study was very interesting. I think the core finding was that, at a certain point, increased activity in church programs does not predict increased spiritual maturity. A number of folks who tend to be critical of Willow interpreted that as a failure of Willow Creek, or Willow-style churches, or seeker-oriented ministries.
That’s a total mis-read of the data. EVERY church faces that problem. Even if a church offers nothing but Bible studies 24/7 in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic taught personally by N.T. Wright, they will still face this problem. Willow was simply naming the big kahuna challenge we all grapple with. To be transformed; to have Christ formed in you, is quite different from being church-ier, or more traditional, or better informed. Of course, churches vary enormously in our effectiveness at it. But it’s not about contemporary versus traditional versus emerging."
