The Startling Willow Creek Confession

[The following article written by Bob Burney of Salem Communications (parent company of WAVA) is more critical of Willow Creek than we at Immanuel’s would have been. We are printing it in part because it emphasizes our own values of being a church of the Word of God, a Scripturally-based church, a church deep in the study of the Bible (as well as the living rhema of God)! In the early days of the “seeker-sensitive” movement we took flak for having a cross in our sanctuary, for having communion every week, and for being so “Bible teaching” oriented. But these are our values! —Pastor Charles]

Bob Burney writes:—

For most of a generation evangelicals have been [influenced] by the "seeker sensitive" movement spawned by Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. They and others have been telling us for decades to throw out everything we have previously thought and been taught about church growth and replace it with a new paradigm, a new way
to do ministry.

Perhaps inadvertently, with this "new wave" of ministry came a de-emphasis on taking personal responsibility for Bible study, combined with an emphasis on felt-needs based "programs" and marketing.

The size of the crowd rather than the depth of the heart determined success. If the crowd was large, then surely God was blessing the ministry. Churches were built by demographic studies, professional strategists, marketing research, meeting "felt needs," and sermons consistent with these techniques. We were told that preaching was out, relevance was in.
Doctrine didn't matter nearly as much as innovation. If it wasn't "cutting edge" and consumer friendly, it was doomed. The mention of sin, salvation and sanctification were taboo, and were replaced by Starbucks, strategy and sensitivity.

Thousands of pastors hung on every word that emanated from the lips of these church growth experts. Satellite seminars were packed with hungry church leaders learning the latest way to "do church." The promise was clear: thousands of people and millions of dollars couldn't be wrong. Forget what people need, give them what they want. How can you argue with the numbers? If you dared to challenge the "experts" you were immediately labeled as a "traditionalist," a throwback to the 50s, a stubborn dinosaur unwilling to change with the times.

All that changed recently.

Willow Creek has released the results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of ministry. The study's findings are in a new book titled Reveal: Where Are You?, co-authored by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. Bill Hybels himself called the findings "earth shaking," "ground breaking," and "mind blowing." And no wonder: it seems that the "experts" were wrong.

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and became Christians [was teach them] to take responsibility to become 'self feeders.' We should have taught people how to read their Bible between services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

The error of the seeker sensitive movement is monumental in its scope. The foundation of thousands of American churches is now discovered to be mere sand. Bill Hybels, the one individual who has had perhaps the greatest influence on the American church in our generation has now admitted his philosophy of ministry, in large part, was a "mistake." The extent of this error defies measurement.

Coming out of Willow Creek is a summary statement by Greg Hawkins:

Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all of our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he's asking us to transform this planet.

What we find encouraging in this "confession" coming from the highest ranks of the Willow Creek Association is that they are coming to realize that their existing "model" does not help people grow into mature followers of Jesus Christ. Given the massive influence this organization has on the American church today, let us pray that God would be pleased to put structures in place at Willow Creek that foster not mere numeric growth, but growth in grace.