Willow Creek Repents?

This morning I was sent a link to a blog by Christianity Today's Leadership Weekly with a headline that proclaimed, "Willow Creek Repents?". The article linked to two interesting videos that I suggest watching if a.) you have the interest in churches and how they develop mature believers, and b.) you have the time. What the well-known Executive and Senior Pastors at the 30,000-strong Willow Creek church outside of Chicago discovered, was that they were doing a poor job at helping believers grow in their faith.

Willow Creek has had an enormous influence on evangelical churches over the past three decades, inspiring others to make church something that non-Christians would be willing to come to, to hear the message of Jesus' love and sacrifice for all of us. They spent millions of dollars on programming, sure that this was how mature believers were developed. When they finally surveyed their congregation a couple years ago to confirm their belief, their worlds were rocked, resulting in REVEAL, a surprising look at modern churches.


"The people who love God the most, are most disappointed with their local church." Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor


"We should have taught people how to become self-feeders...how to read their Bible between services, do spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own, because what's happening is these people, the older they get, the more they expect the church to feed them." Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor