What Willowcreek's "REVEAL" Reveals: ON JUST HOW DIFFICULT (IMPOSSIBLE?) IT IS FOR THE MEGACHURCH TO UNDERGO CHANGE
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
There has been much written across the blogworld about Willow creek and its report called REVEAL (most notably Out of Ur's piece entitled "Willow Creek Repents?" which a Willow creek Pastor responds to with a 2nd post). I got my own copy of REVEAL as a gift from a friend. As I read through it I saw the evidence of just how incredibly difficult it is for a mega church to change course. For many of the things Willow creek has been criticized for (marketing technology, defining success, individualizing and consumerizing Christianity) are not addressed, but instead are promoted as the answers to the problems which these things caused in the first place. For me, the lesson here is this: it is hard (nigh impossible) to change a mega church (we thought change in smaller church was hard!). It is not just the huge amount of bills to be paid, paychecks to be distributed, mortgages and 8,000 seat stadiums to be sustained. The ethos/mindset/inertia is incredibly hard to break.
This leads me to the following observations concerning REVEAL. I present them for serious dialogue. I am open to comments on this blog. I am open to serious dialogue with Willow Creek on any of these issues if they would be interested (not saying they would).
1.) REVEAL REVEALS THAT WILLOW CAN'T ESCAPE THE CONSUMERIST HABITS THAT GOT THEM HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
The authors applied consumer research (the co-author, Eric Arnson, is a self labeled a consumer research expert) to "measure the heart" of the people in order to assess spiritual growth. They hoped to measure attitudes; feelings and behaviors in order to decide what behaviors correlate with increased spiritual growth in the heart of their members. They were stunned to discover that increased spiritual growth in both closeness to God and service to their neighbor had little to do with the amount of activities they were involved in the church (Some of us just went "duh").
On p. 51 we read:
When researcher Eric Arnson saw these numbers he was stunned. Using the marketplace as a reference, he explained that typically, the more engaged someone becomes in the product category, the higher their level of loyalty is to their favorite brand. In other words, if I drink a lot of soft drinks and my favorite is Diet Coke, my loyalty and likelihood to recommend Diet Coke to other people is extremely high.Statements like this reveal that Willow creek is tone deaf to their own consumerist habits. They simply cannot remove themselves from seeing the church, the life of His Body, as a consumer product. Likewise, they cannot see that satisfaction of the consumer is simply not a statistic we should be concerned about in measuring either discipleship or faithfulness to the Mission of Christ. How do you measure the feeling at any given time required to pick up one's cross and follow Christ? What we should be measuring is transformed lives for the Mission of Christ, transformed culture for the Mission of Christ and the spreading of the transformed life into neighborhoods, towns, villages and cities. In each case, the person or culture or neighborhood that is transformed will be puzzled when asked the question "are you satisfied with your church?"
In our case, that would mean a rising level of satisfaction with the church should go hand in hand with increasing spiritual growth. Yet we found this wasn't true. Generally speaking, the higher the level of commitment to Christ, the more likely it is that the satisfaction with the church will be lukewarm.
2.) WHAT REVEAL REVEALS ABOUT WHAT IT DIDN'T MEASURE
Willow interviewed 6,000 Willow creekers in 2004 and a sample of 5,000 across Willow and 6 other churches in 2007. One must assume that these were highly motivated Willow Creekers to sit and answer such surveys. IF REVEAL revealed the above findings about the motivated attenders of Willow Creek, what do these results say about the rest of Willow's attendance that did not answer the survey? Some 12-15,000 more people? The ones less motivated? I have argued for years that denominational leadership is way too impressed with huge numbers when in fact the actual church part of the mega-church is much smaller as measured by Christian discipleship, giving, participation in mission. Mega churches are huge orbits of activity generating a stunningly small amount of mission in relation to size of activity, buildings and budget.
3.) SELF-FEEDERS?
On p. 64 REVEAL says that Willow sought to "meet the needs of its people" too much. This creates an unhealthy dependence. The solution the report provides for the problem is that the church needs to teach its people more spiritual practices. At first glance, this appears encouraging. Perhaps Willow has have been listening to those who have been asking serious questions about consumerism and business practices in American church. But then REVEAL goes on to say that as we grow more mature in Christ, we need to teach people to become "self-feeders." In the words of Bill Hybels (in the video), we need to provide coaching, "customized personal spiritual growth plans." As "you go to a health club and you get a personal trainer … to figure out how to care for your health … we need to provide coaches for personal spiritual growth." Here the language might have changed, but the strategy remains the same. We've seen the problem, let's provide a program to meet the individual (customized) need. Here the Christian life is seen as a personal individualist pursuit for some goods that are frankly seen as self-beneficial. Spiritual growth has now become a goal in itself.
If Willow creek follows this course, I predict it will be spending more money on why the mature Christians are leaving their church in another ten years. Because Christian growth has everything to do with community. It cannot be achieved independently of the spiritual disciplines within community including, confession, truth speaking in love, worship, working our one's salvation in fear and trembling and above all prayer. None of these practices can be personalized. These are corporate disciplines, just not achievable in corporate bodies that are extremely large. Furthermore, this kind of spiritual formation occurs only in and through participation in Mission, the journeying together as a people infiltrating and witnessing to the life and ministry of Christ incarnationally in the world. "Personal spiritual growth plans" sounds way too individualized to avoid becoming another form of self-indulgence. True spiritual growth takes on the suffering and hurting and lostness of the world in the ministry of salvation. One cannot undergo such a journey if its goal is personal spiritual growth versus the Mission of God.
Eph 4 is a lesson on spiritual growth. It happens within the formation of the Body of Christ. Here the organic "Body" of Christ works for the edification of our spiritual growth "until we all grow to the full stature of Christ"(Eph 4:13 read the whole chapter). Spiritual growth cannot happen as a "self feeder," it is the outworking of the Body of Christ as we participate in His Mission. The solution proposed here is disastrous for not only the spiritual growth of Willow creekers but for the furtherance of the Mission of Christ.
4.) IN REVEAL - WILLOWCREEK SEEMS TO SUGGEST THIS APPLIES TO ALL CHURCHES?
In REVEAL, the authors talk about their study as applying to "the church." But does this research apply to non-Willow creek churches? I know they had six other churches involved from other denominations. But knowing who some of those churches were (Google REVEAL) it seems they are sympathetic to Willow creek assumptions about what it means to be the church. Wouldn't they have to be if they subscribed to these questions? Then why not just write that REVEAL is about Willow creek style-philosophy churches?
REVEAL reported that the ones with levels of tithing, serving and evangelism that correlate with the most advanced Christians were the ones most likely to report they are considering leaving Willow creek. But is this true of smaller churches, house churches? It seems to me that Willow creek, if they are going to spend three million dollars might want to ask questions like what does size have to do with this? What does liturgical worship versus seeker service worship have to do with this etc.?
5.) DID THEY NEED TO SPEND THREE MILLION DOLLARS?
Greg Pritchard (who did his PhD at Northwestern about the same time as I) in 1995 spent two years at Willow Creek doing doctoral level research on Willow creek engaging theological issues of Willow's approach to Christian discipleship. He generated over 2000 pages of research in a dissertation. It was trimmed to a book for Baker. It said all that REVEAL said but with much more theologically engagement. I'd like to know why this was not listened to? I think REVEAL should provide some feedback on this important and substantial study done under the auspices of Northwestern University Grad School. Why spend three million more dollars… when it was all here in the first place?
6.) REVEAL WILL BECOME THE NEXT CONFERENCE
The REVEAL staff are in the process of surveying an additional 500 Willow Creek Association Churches with the same approach. As I said before, this seems a little self serving and introverted. I suggest there will be conferences to follow for which you will pay 280 dollars to come to see how anyone can use the principles they discovered to transform their Willow creek style church into a discipling church.
THE WAY FORWARD
I am taken aback by the REVEAL report. I wish other voices could be heard on the spending of such huge resources (even if they were specially underwritten by Christian people). Yet I do know some mega churches that are seeking change. These churches once 5,000, 6,000 and more have said this isn't the church and we have to change. In each case they have pursued a version of getting smaller to a degree. Some have pursued keeping the machine going well enough to fund the missional communities, communities of spiritual transformation and the communal places of spiritual practices that perhaps REVEAL is hinting at. But this is incredibly difficult and normally takes an emotional breakdown by senior leadership in a manner that they survive to live for another day of ministry. The fact is it is incredibly difficult to make any change to the mammoth machine that might disrupt its ongoing capital performance. And so I respect Willow Creek for asking these questions. The report itself reveals just how difficult it is to turn around such a big ship.
One more question for REVEAL. If the people who are leaving Willow Creek are the mature Christians, could this mean Willow's role was never more than a good old-fashioned evangelistic organization? It was never meant to be church. For one thing is true, I see more and more Christian leaving large mega churches seeking missional community. Is there anything wrong with that? Could this be Willow's role in the renewal of the church?
Posted by David Fitch | 7:54 PM
COMMENTS:
Hi David. Found your blog through Bill Kinnon, and glad for your post.
I appreciate your deeper analysis. My sense of things is that some of us who've been critical of the consumerist "methodological model" used by Willow Creek now have more evidence that it is actually something far deeper. It is what I'd call a "paradigm perception parallax," for lack of a better term. Their entire system of perception is skewed/displaced/off-kilter from a biblical view, and so the only recourse to perceived problems is still within the same tainted paradigm: individualism, segmentation, reduction.
Absolutely NO amount of plastic surgery "tweaking" on the supermodel will ultimately make any difference when there's cancer in the marrow of the bones...
5:49 AM
David,
Thanks for an insightful analysis of the Willow issue. I resonate with your analysis. But after weeks of reading critiques of Willow, I am forced to consider my own inadequacies, and wonder if I have anything constructive to tell them to help them.
Given that megachurches exist, and given that Willow, for better or worse, honestly tried to assess their own performance and be real and honest about their shortcomings, I want to put in a word of commendation to them. I pastor a small church, have self-consciously avoided their model of ministry - but am I free of my own blind spots?
Often I feel my own critique of large churches is lazy: I am not in their shoes.I don't know their issues, or how to operate in their environment.
Here is my question to myself: is there a way to help the megachurch become more balanced and biblical? Do we have any constructive suggestions for them as to how to go about it? They spent a lot of money, which horrifies us as we think of the actual amount. But it does show their desire to change. I applaud that, even if I could pay for our church building almost twice over with their survey budget!
I am guilty of a lack of love and concern for them, too often, at the expense of trumpeting 'I was right all along about their model!' And that spirit of self-righteousness in me is as wrong and grieving to God as anything Willow has done over the past 30 years.
So I raise a voice pleading for us to get beyond the conversation right now - which is fast becoming a deconstruction of all things Willow- and talk about how to help them, and the thousands of others like them who, for better or worse, are the functional influencers/leaders of the church, to find a better path. They are, I hope, fast becoming an irrelevant dinosaur in the history of the church. But for now - is there any hope for them? I sure hope so.
Dan
7:40 AM
David, excellent analysis of Reveal. I found Arnson's words that you cite concerning the Diet Coke analogy of brand loyalty amusing. He said:
"In our case, that would mean a rising level of satisfaction with the church should go hand in hand with increasing spiritual growth."
Increasing spiritual growth? How does he get to this assumption connecting brand loyalty and spiritual growth? The only reality in the analogy is that people would be "loyal" to the particular church (product) and therefore invite others to join them to consume the services being offered.
7:45 AM
Well said, David. I think you hit the nail on the head with grace and hope. Well done.
Peace,
Jamie
12:02 PM
Thanks for the comments everyone.
To Brad #1 ... I shy away from using the word "biblical" because I find it to be thr trump card that ends all conversation. I am 100% sure that Willow believes it is being Biblical. Thr problem is the communal nexus we bring to trhe interpretation of Scripture which the critique of Biblical simply cannot assault. This is where postmodern hermeneutics can come to the rescue IMO.
To Dan ... what can I say except that the possibilkities for this kind of change of which you speak is excruciatingly painful and nigh impossible. Haaving said that there are some pastors and mega churches who have prophetically critiqued what they are doing and said it must change. And they are making some progress. It is the kind of progress that reverses being used up by the machine, to using the machine to further Missional communities. I have no liberties to use names, but if any of you are out there, and you know who I am talking to, please chime in here on these comments and help us here. And I might add, to pastor Hawkins and the others seeking God at Willow, I am willing to make an effort to have an edifying and Spirit seeking coffee and conversation about this.
To Brad #2 I believe the logical moves they make from consumer research to "soul" research are more subtle than maybe we give them credit for. Nonetheless, it becomes glaring in isolated statements like this.
Jamie... peace bro .. I have prayed for you often these past months even though I have never met you. God bless you and wife in Mission ..
3:34 PM
David, I wonder if this is the best three million dollars ever spent in the last twenty years in the church. Sadly it often takes that much money to help people see the train wreck. But...they did see the train wreck. How will they respond? It will be interesting to see.
And Willow isn't a small time church. People will listen. And if it cost three million to get a large group of churches to begin to see the necessity of discipleship, then it was worth it.
12:09 AM
Jonathan,
I understand what you are saying, but living in an inner city community like I do, that is a hard pill to swallow. Just my gut reaction.
Peace,
Jamie
3:52 AM
People are always going to want that which they were first attracted to. If a church's ministry model is "give people what they want," then this idea of people later turning elsewhere to get what they want (i.e., self-feeding) is crazy.
In Acts, Peter approaches the man seeking alms outside the gate and tells him that he cannot provide the man silver and gold, but he can give him Jesus. Have we forgotten this? I think the big-box churches have. They think they can give people gold and then expect them to stop desiring it.
Anyway, great post.
7:05 AM
David,
I had many of the same reactions that you did. Their position seems to be, "What we are doing with the seekers and young Christians is working pretty well." (Hybels says almost these exact words.)
In addition to the issues that you raised, there is this: They seem to think that they can attract people using one strategy (consummerism) and then get people to eschew a passive mindset once they reach a certain maturity level.
I give them high marks for admitting that they were wrong. But they seem to be wrong about what was wrong.
Rod
12:35 PM
Jamie, if what happens to them filters down and makes your work easier to do, will you say the same thing?
2:47 PM
Jonathan,
With all due respect, I am sure you did not mean it to sound that way, but filter DOWN to us? Your answer is in your question.
Peace,
Jamie
7:18 PM
David, as always this was a great post. I feel like I'm at the point where I'm numb about what groups like Willow do. On the one hand, I'm proud of them. But on the other, I'm frustrated about their process of self-revelation and the resulting change.
A while back, Willow repented about their use of the homogeneous unit principle, thereby deciding to persue diversity. I was happy about that. But at the same time, I realized that they were setting up a bad precedent: grow really big with unethical means, and then change later. We see this again here.
The truth is, the only people really interested in reveal are people that have followed Willow's model. We now have large suburban homogeneous churches that are learning from Willow how to be diverse, and how to disciple mature Christians. Just like we have large suburban homogeneous churches learning how to pursue justice from Saddleback.
In many ways, this is all good. But the problem is that each of these attempts end up reinforcing the previous steps. In other words, I think REVEAL and the PEACE plan (from Rick Warren) reinforce many of the bad things about the seeker mega church movement, but now with some well-needed "plug-ins."
But hey, it is better than nothing. And I'm glad for that.
7:44 AM
Regarding "trickle down." I'm with you Jamie. That way of thinking sucks. Nevertheless...it ain't going to happen. The truth is, if Willow "succeeds" they will retain exactly the sort of people who used to leave to be a part of communities like ours.
I also think that Reveal signals an attempt for willow to diversify its porfolio. Here's what I mean: earlier this fall, I was asked to lead a workshop at their group life conference. From interacting with folks there, I learned that Willow is trying to empower some of its interns to start missional, contextual small groups that could take on a life of their own. Willow is experimenting with different types of small groups, house churches, missional communities, etc.
In some ways, this is good. But in other ways, it is just like what Google does. They find small companies that have a unique market, and then they absorb it into Google. Willow may be becoming more decentralized, but in much the same way that Google is decentralized.
7:49 AM
Mark,
Interesting insights into Willow. The analogy to Google is fascinating, and a bit eerie. But your first post said Willow grew big 'by unethical means.' What are you referring to?
7:56 AM
I hope I'm not being too harsh when I say "unethical"...but I think it was unethical that they intentionally utilized the homogeneous unit principle to grow. The principle basically says that people don't like crossing cultural boundaries to hear the Gospel, so start churches focused on specific cultural groups. That makes sense in some ways, but in suburban Chicago it meant focusing on somewhat affluent white suburbanites. It meant not factoring in the poor or ethnic minorities in one's strategy. Eventually, Willow realized that the biblical vision is to embrace ethnic diversity when doing church and repented of their old ways and became a church that embraced diversity.
8:17 AM
The essence of this is summed up for me in two quotes: "The mind can only take pictures using the film with which its loaded" (Rohr) and "The medium is the message."
But really.. its terribly sad and this morning I feel that weight..
9:16 AM
Way to go Mark, don't plan on any more Willowcreek gigs in the near future ... (just kidding)
6:27 AM
Can someone tell me what a post-modern hermeneutic is?
George
8:08 PM
Your readers may be interested in this post.
http://teampyro.blogspot.com/
2:44 PM
David, Thank you for this, I share most of your opinions on the difficulty for WC to actually re-orientate to actually reflect the things they are beginning to say... Super-tankers have huge turning circles! I have been more struck by some of the things they have been doing under the radar... the Table communities they have been experimenting with where they say that "The Table became the vehicle for doing church in the community rather than bringing the community into a church building... part of the table experience is about intentionally creating an environment - a sacred space"
Unfortunately the main WC web-site seems to say nothing about either "Reveal" or "The Table"
Oh and TeamPyro... that is not a comment, nor does it link directly to a relevant post... IMHO it's Spam! and if it appeared on my Blog comments I would delete and report it as such.
9:14 AM
My comment will be brief - What is to be gained from what Willow HAS accomplished? Does mean they are poor leaders, or poor administrators, or even that thousands of lives have not been touched by God through their ministry? My goodness people - how is it are so many responding like spiritual carrion feeders? I suggest that only one question matters: How are you evaluating the effectiveness of YOUR ministry, and do you have anything constructive to share with Willow?
If you are an athiest, then just keep right on shooting at them; but if not, praise God for Willow's candor and get on with the business of the Kingdom.
R.C.Roby. Minnesota
3:39 PM
I remain very cynical of any “new insights” that Hybels or anyone at Willow Creek comes up with as they, “rethink all our old assumptions.” Hybels’ Seeker-Driven Church Philosophy of Ministry has been so devastating and destructive over the past decades that his mere claim of “earth shaking,” “ground breaking,” and “mind blowing” findings from this new “multiple year study” does little to ease skepticism. I rejoice when any person, group, or church for that matter, leaves a lifestyle of ungodliness and returns to a Biblical Christ-centered walk of obedience. But is this what is/has happened with the Willow Creek way of thinking? Or, could it simply be that they’ve realized their “customers” are “valuing” something new and so the “business” needs to change accordingly? God knows, and time will reveal.
10:48 PM
At Willow the singular importance of reading and study of the Bible is undisputed, and urgings to daily prayer are frequent and emphatic. The recent study's findings that these two aspects of religious practice are most beneficial do not contradict the established tenets of Willow Creek Church. Nor do these findings denigrate the value of small groups and worship services in establishing personal relationships with, or the desire to be in the service of Jesus. So, why the consternation?
I've noticed before indications of an evangelical schism that manifests itself most clearly in attacks on Willow Creek Church by self-styled representatives of Southern Baptist and Reformed churches. I greatly appreciate Willow, have immense respect for Bill Hybels and I think the exponents of the Churches of Apartheid and Lynching should be concerned with their own fielty in the service of Christ rather than with the sincere strivings of Willow Creek Church and the Willow Creek Association. They kind of remind me of the United Mine Workers Union. "Our communities have been despoiled and devastated, most of us have been laid off and the rest of us will die of black lung disease or in cave-ins, but we've been very successful in recent negotiations." Well, keep up the good work.
Thanks, Mr Hawkins, for responding in far more measured tones than I can:
A response from Greg Hawkins of Willow Creek
Friends,
I’m thrilled to see the high level of interest and energy behind the blogosphere comments about REVEAL. But I’ve read enough postings to think that it might be helpful to provide a few facts on three issues that keep coming up. Trust me. I’m not into “spin control” here. I just want to fill in some gaps.
1. It’s Not About Willow
• REVEAL’s findings are based on thirty churches besides Willow. In all thirty churches, we’ve found the six segments of REVEAL’s spiritual continuum, including the Stalled and Dissatisfied segments. And these churches aren’t all Willow clones. We’ve surveyed traditional Bible churches, mainline denominations, African-American churches and churches representing a wide range of geographies and sizes. Right now we’re fielding the survey to 500 additional churches, including 100 international churches. So, while REVEAL was born out of a Willow research project in 2004, the findings are not exclusive to Willow Creek.
2. Willow Repents?
• The first blog started with this question, and the answer is “yes”. But repenting is not a new experience for us. We’ve made a number of major course corrections over the years – like adding a big small group ministry for the thousands of new Christians coming to faith at Willow, and adding a mid-week service for our Christ-followers. We’ve always been a church in motion and REVEAL is just another example of Willow trying to be open to God’s design for this local church.
3. Is Willow Re-thinking its Seeker Focus?
• Simple answer – no. My boss would say that Willow is not just seeker-focused. We are seeker-obsessed. The power of REVEAL’s insights for our seeker strategy is the evangelistic strength uncovered in the more mature segments. If we can serve them better, the evangelistic potential is enormous, based on our findings.
I hope this was helpful. In any event, I’m enjoying following the dialogue. Keep it up! And let me know if you have any questions you’d like me to address.
Greg Hawkins
2:53 PM
great thoughts well said david.
go to stopconsuming.org
you will see that we are kindred and should collaborate further.
lisa wentzel, cofounder the shemamovement
4:53 PM
David,
This is a great thought and one that deserves exploring.
" One more question for REVEAL. If the people who are leaving Willow Creek are the mature Christians, could this mean Willow's role was never more than a good old-fashioned evangelistic organization? It was never meant to be church. For one thing is true, I see more and more Christian leaving large mega churches seeking missional community. Is there anything wrong with that? Could this be Willow's role in the renewal of the church?"
Perhaps Willow cannot be all things to all people. Perhaps they shouldn't try. I know that the "Now Discover Your Strengths" book was being read by staff all around Willow. The gist of it was to do what you're good at. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association doesn't disciple and they are certainly a needed and fruitful ministry.
Greg,
I can't imagine this thought hasn't been tossed around at some leadership team meetings. If it's a matter of that model not feeling like a well balanced church, why not reinvent Willow into something else, but not a "church". Perhaps you could fold it fully into the WCA. There is already a really fine and sometimes indistinguishable line between the WCA and WCCC, at least in the congregation's mind, and it wouldn't change the core mission of the church to "turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ". It might even free Willow from some of the criticism that is aimed at it.
I came to Christ at Willow, (as did thousands of others), I grew to adolescence there, and then I moved out of the nest to mature. Why not do what you do well, as one part of the Body, and then let other Body parts do their part.
Many Blessings
10:12 AM
I am a leader of a small local church in my area that has used many of the same principles as willow creek, saddleback, etc... While I am glad this is coming out, I have to urge caution. Maybe willow creek, saddleback and churches like mine arent creating spiritual giants, but we are leading people to Christ. Speaking of Christ, He didn't exactly create any spiritual giants; in fact, he did a lot of the same these churches are doing. He planted the seed and moved on for the most part. Same with Paul, and many other "missionaries" of the Bible. My point is, we need to be careful not to crucify these churches that have effectively spread the gospel.
7:01 PM
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