Willow Creek: A Big Mistake?
Filed in: Leadership, Church
I found a post on the Church Marketing Sucks site, a blog that I often read, about a discovery by Willow Creek. Willow Creek has been a big influence in the “World of Church.” Their idea of creating programs to increase involvement thus creating spiritual growth has been accepted by many churches in the U.S. However, after a study done by Willow Creek to see just how well their programs were “working” they expressed an apology. Click here for the full story on the Christianity Today’s blog site, Out of Ur.
I’m not trying to beat up Willow Creek. In fact I don’t know very much about Willow Creek except that they are a large church offering lots of tools and training to church leaders. Instead I’m examining the notion of performance = spiritual depth.
This past weekend I attended the Youth Specialties youth workers convention. I went to many seminars about middle schoolers and pop culture. All in all it was a great weekend, filled with some great insights and ideas. However, the biggest thing that impacted me was something that Chap Clark from Fuller Seminary said in one of his seminars. He said that in today’s world adults are pushing students into a performance mindset. That when you perform, or you show you have some sort of ability that we see as beneficial then I’ll decide your worth something. But until you perform you aren’t worth much to me. Chap explained that this pop-culture idea is leaking into the church. For example, the youth that can play instruments get to play on the youth band or the students that play sports get their youth pastors showing up at their games. Chap says, What about loving kids for who they are and not what they can do for you.
I see the realization with Willow Creek as being an example of performance doesn’t = importance. The idea of if you’re involved then you must be a great Christian and you must be a Christian that really knows his stuff has been shot down. Instead, performance = playing church. You’re involvement in a Church doesn’t necessarily make you spiritually deep nor does it make you a “good” Christian. Just like sitting in a pew every Sunday listening to your pastors sermon doesn’t make you a Christian more then someone who sleeps in.
Your spiritual depth relays on the time you spend becoming spiritually deep. Bible study, devotions, prayer, worship, etc. The depth of your spiritual growth isn’t on the weight of your church, it’s programs and events, nor is it on the weight of your pastors sermons. The depth of your spiritual growth relies on you.
6 Responses to “Willow Creek: A Big Mistake?”
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Preach it brotha!!!
haha. I totally agree…and it’s scary how much the performance thing is true…wow…eye opener. So how do we reach out to kids who don’t need to perform? how do we give them more attention, especially if (scenario) they hide in a corner and refuse to talk to anyone and are scared of light and sounds?? ^_^
you get the picture.
food for thought. I love your blogs scott, they always make me think!!! u rock!
~jen
Great post, Scott! Cool that you got to go to Chap’s seminar!
The only thing I would add to becoming “spiritually deep” is a commitment to community. I think the mindset that I can grow spiritually deep by myself is an unfortunate result of Modernity’s focus on individualism. But Christianity is to be lived in community. That doesn’t necessarily mean going to church on Sunday morning, but it does mean being in some way committed to gathering with a group of other disciples and learning to follow Jesus together.
[…] to Scott over at Living Dusty, I discovered this article on Christianity Today’s blog, Out of […]
We had a really interesting sermon this morning on a pretty close topic to that. We were talking about spiritual gifts all morning, and we got to a point where Pastor Tim was talking about actually using these gifts. His main premise was that everyone has a spiritual gift, and everyone should be using them because that’s why God gave them to us. Well, that’s more or less a summary. But basically it all came down to the point that if you are truly devoted to God, you use your gifts to serve Him. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be involved in a church, but it means that you need to live your life for God’s glory. I personally think that this is easier when you’re with other people in a church situation, simply for purposes of accountability. However, it isn’t entirely necessary. As you said, Scott, a deep spiritual relationship with God depends on what a person decides to make it. You have to work for your relationship with God, not just show up.
[…] Creek’s apology that I wrote about in Willow Creek: A Big Mistake? is a perfect example of this. It’s not about what you do; it’s not a checklist of items […]
[…] on Christianity Today’s blog Out of Ur. I’ve mentioned this blog in the past in my post Willow Creek: A Big Mistake? and have continued to check it out every once in awhile. Upon searching their site for ideas about […]