phil and i were just talking about this new posting about willow creek repenting. to this i don't know what to say, "duh" or "i feel sorry for you." i always had reservations about willow creek & some of their practices, but i never discounted that they were serving God.
n the Hawkins’ video he says, “Participation is a big deal. We believe the more people participating in these sets of activities, with higher levels of frequency, it will produce disciples of Christ.” This has been Willow’s philosophy of ministry in a nutshell. The church creates programs/activities. People participate in these activities. The outcome is spiritual maturity. In a moment of stinging honesty Hawkins says, “I know it might sound crazy but that’s how we do it in churches. We measure levels of participation.”
Having put all of their eggs into the program-driven church basket you can understand their shock when the research revealed that “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.”
i suggest watching the videos. in there executive pastor greg hawkins says this of their research findings. "is this just us? or are other churches out there the same way?"
to this pastor hawkins i have to say. "duh. it is all the churches you taught to do things like you."
i don't have much more to say after that. except that i observe they are still approaching things in their old programmatic ways with research & structural analysis. it doesn't look like they are changing in the form of 'we are too big' which would be, in my opinion, a way to "look at this differently." especially since pastor hawkins keeps counting people.
what are your thoughts?
