Willow Creek Revealed (English)
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The following is a review of the 2007 Willow Creek book, Reveal: Where Are You?[1] A German version of this review is also available.
[edit] Introduction
The book under discussion, the latest publication of the Willow Creek Association, takes as its point of departure the simple observation that quantitative growth of a congregation is not necessarily connected to qualitative growth among its members. This sounds like a pretty common-sense insight, but for the leaders of the Willow Creek Community Church it apparently came as a surprise. For them, it is the result of a multi-year in-depth study of a number of different congregations and their members.
[edit] The purpose of the study: how does a church look like where Christians grow spiritually?
In its main part, the book documents the findings of the research done for Willow Creek by a number of marketing experts. Also, a number of practical suggestions are given for how to put the new-gained insights into the spiritual growth of the church’s members into practice, with the goal of restructuring congregations so that this kind of qualitative growth beyond mere numerical growth is actually fostered and not hindered.
[edit] How does a person grow spiritually?
The first question we want to address here is: how does a person actually grow spiritually? Greg Hawkins, co-author of the study and Willow Creek’s “executive pastor,”[2] writes in the first chapter of the book (12): “… we know God – and God alone – changes a human life. As we’re taught in Philippians 2:13, … How he does that is mysterious and unknowable. And it’s unique to every person.” That God works spiritual growth only by the Holy Spirit in the means of grace (word and sacraments) is apparently unknown (but not unknowable) to these researchers. As Hawkins put it, an “assortment of church activities” – that is what people do at church and around the church – is offered as the traditional alternative to what God does in and through his word and sacraments.
[edit] What is genuine spiritual growth?
What actually is genuine spiritual growth? The study defines the goal of this kind of growth in terms of the double commandment to love God and neighbor (29). Spiritual growth would then obviously be to move closer to this goal of perfection. The original goal of the study was, in the words of Cally Parkinson,[3] “to find evidence of spiritual growth in people, and then figure out what types of activities or circumstances triggered that spiritual growth” (29).
[edit] How can spiritual growth be measured objectively?
The raises another obvious question: how can such growth be objectively measured? The answer to this question is given by Eric Arnson, the third lead-member of the Reveal-team, who formerly worked for McKinsey and now has his own consulting firm (110). In a short contribution, “Is It Possible to Measure the Heart?” (25f.), he answers this question in the affirmative by drawing on the psychological tools employed by consumer research. There, Arnson informs the reader, it is necessary to go beyond the obvious factors of age, race, gender, etc. to get into the mind and heart of the consumer to see what makes him tick, buy what he buys, or attend the church he attends. In other words, what Arnson is after are “the deeper issues – emotions, motivations, and needs” (25). These are “the unseen realities, or intangibles, that cause people to buy what they buy.” These realities are then measured by the psychological standard procedures of sophisticated market research. For, according to Arnson, it is the emotions that make people behave in a certain way (25).
One wonders, however: is Christian love of God and neighbor primarily an emotion? According to 1 John 5:3 (see also Rom. 13:10), love appears to be above all soberly fulfilling God’s commandments. And what about faith as the tree on which the good fruits of love / keeping the law grow spontaneously in the power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:6; Matt. 12:33-35)? About these key things one does not learn anything from Willow Creek here, because one can only “measure” the fruits of the Spirit, not the Spirit or faith itself; this, however, should not lead one to think that the emotional and behavioral fruits of the Spirit are the whole picture. However, where there are not genuine biblical means of grace, as in the case of Willow Creek, there is neither the Holy Spirit nor faith, but also no genuine love, but only short-lived emotional states: human enthusiasm replaces the Holy Spirit and Christian love.
Therefore, is all this no more than sophisticated market research and psychologically grounded economical science? Arnson denies this by pointing out that spiritual growth itself makes all the difference between the church and a typical business (26). One could therefore say that the difference between the church and the economy merely consists in the difference of the products that are offered here and there: the economy offers dish soap, the church offers spiritual growth – both perhaps conceived as means to achieve inner-worldly happiness? The psychological methods employed in the basic market research are, according to Arnson, basically the same and interchangeable. There is, thus, no specific Christian anthropology that would lead to a specific Christian psychology.
In other words, original sin, but also the constant battle of the Christian against the old Adam, the world, and the devil in the power of the Holy Spirit is therefore off the table from the get-go. This is not surprising. For original sin (or the Holy Spirit) cannot be measured by means of reason, including empirical market research; it does not even appear on reason’s radar screen. It has to be believed based on the bible, since it is more than the sum total of individual transgressions (SA III, I, 3). However, considered without original sin, the perfect Christian then is the one who enthusiastically loves the Lord and his neighbor in heart, word, and deed. (And considered with the Holy Spirit, he is the one who does all these things out of his own emotional motivation.) No longer is he the one who constantly accuses himself because he knows that even his best works are mortal sins, as Luther once pointed out (based on texts like Rom. 7), not just in the first of the 95 Theses, but also, e.g., in his elaborations of his theses for the 1519 Leipzig Disputation with John Eck (see WA 2:420).
[edit] The basic insight of the study
[edit] Lasting spiritual growth comes, not from participating in church activities, but from engaging in personal spiritual practices
Back to the study itself, the first and foundational insight is that frequent participation in church activities does not automatically lead to the hoped-for qualitative, spiritual growth of the members, neither on the side of attitudes / emotions / motivations nor on the side of Christian activities such as tithing, evangelism, or service (35). However, what also emerged in the study was something described as a “spiritual continuum” that could be divided up in four phases or target groups with specific attitudes / beliefs / needs. In addition to those four groups, however, there are two more groups, totaling 25% of all those polled; these are the “stalled” and the “dissatisfied.” While the “stalled” ones were located in the middle of the continuum, that is, they represent those who, after some initial growth, got stuck due to some difficulties, the “dissatisfied” ones were those who, after reaching a peak of development, have grown unhappy with what they are getting from / in the church.
It furthermore became apparent in the study that long-term spiritual growth really is not dependent on participating in “church activities,” but on the increase of “relational closeness to Christ” (38), which is fostered, not by activities at the church, but by “personal spiritual practices,” such as prayer, confession of sins, scripture reading, taking “time to listen to God” (43). (Again, pious human activities, which are not all bad, are offered as substitute means of grace, as is done also in the religions of the world.) This also means that the church is especially important for the beginners in the faith, while those who are more advanced do better on their own. And it is here that the authors of this study see the greatest need for change at Willow Creek and its associates: how can the church become and remain relevant for the spiritually advanced? It is suggested that the church, instead of being a “spiritual parent,” become a “spiritual trainer” (54-56, 65).
[edit] What drives spiritual growth: man's being created to seek God
Interestingly, the study proclaims that the spiritual growth along the “spiritual continuum” is not driven by the Holy Spirit (as seen above, he has already been replaced earlier by the motivational power of human emotions). The decisive momentum rather stems from within man himself:The human spirit is wired by God to search for him, just like birds are wired to fly south for the winter. This deep, internal desire to fill a spiritual void in our souls fuels the momentum behind the spiritual continuum. People want to find God. This natural spiritual wiring propels us along a spiritual growth path that is enriched by influences beyond the church when we enter the more advanced stages of spiritual development (44).
[edit] The implications of this natural drive for worship and ecclesiology
This natural gift for seeking God, that is here asserted in spite of Rom. 3:11, certainly explains not only the “seeker-sensitive” design of Willow Creek’s weekend services tailored specifically towards those who seek God (the “believers’” services take place during the week): they are quite devoid of explicit theological teaching, but, by means of Jesus songs in the style of secular love songs, highly emotionalized. This is apparently meant to overcome an attitude of negativity or skepticism seekers might feel toward Jesus and replace it by a positive emotional relationship to Jesus and the church (as seen, emotions guide behavior).
The natural gift of seeking God in truth also explains the observation as to why church becomes more and more unimportant for those who wish to be Christians in earnest: after all, we are created by God “first and foremost to be in a growing relationship with him – not with the church” (39). A congregation’s problem is thus quickly redefined as a theological virtue. Apparently no one noticed that this redefinition also theologically elevates Western individualism: modern man (ever since Zwingli and the radical Pietists) regards religious-spiritual individualism (religion in the privacy of the home or at least in the small of group of like-minded individuals) as being more edifying to churchly forms of piety. Other recent polls of American religious sociology have confirmed this.[4]
Flawed doctrines of original sin and means of grace (the work of the Holy Spirit, as seen, fell by the wayside with the latter) thus lead to ecclesiological errors: The confession concerning the church as the life-long mother of all believers (LC II, 42) is as foreign to Willow-Creek thinking as is the one according to which, precisely because of the old Adam’s continued existence in the Christians, everything in Christendom is ordered around the daily distribution of the forgiveness of sins in the means of grace (LC II, 54-56). Yet a saving relationship with Christ is not established or deepened by prayer or other pious practices arising from man to God, as asserted by the world religions, but only by the gospel in word in sacrament (AC III-V). For the law is not only given to confirm like a friendly coach that “spiritual growth” in heart, word, and deed has indeed occurred. It is given first and foremost to uncover spiritual shortcomings and deformations (sin), even and especially in advanced Christians, in order to destroy all human pride (SA III, II, 4). Where this is not clearly recognized, there we find the confusing contemporaneous existence of antinomianism (sin is not uncovered in all its depth) and legalism (growth-seekers are pointed to their own pious practices and not to Christ in the gospel), that can be seen in Willow Creek’s approach, but is also typical of all world religions.
[edit] The implications of an individualistic ecclesiology for Christian love and service
The problem of an individualistic ecclesiology is not mitigated by the fact that the maturing spiritual individualist volunteers to serve his neighbor (after all, Willow Creek defines spiritual maturity also by the commandment to love the neighbor): Here too the point for the individual Christian will be to find self-realization based on his free choice in wholesome groups and events, that is, in those that are new and organized by the church. He will likely not choose to embrace his God-given calling in God’s ancient created orders that are damaged by sin (state, church, family-economy) and seek to serve his neighbor faithfully in these. Here too Willow Creek is within the American trend: people are willing to help their neighbor on a volunteer basis, but the existing institutions are felt to be corrupt; one therefore self-organizes in parallel volunteer groups.
[edit] The Willow Creek Association: Addressee of the study and model for the church of the future
The Reveal study is primarily intended to assist the members (pastors, congregations) of the Willow Creek Association mentioned above. This organization with about 11,000 members in the US and abroad is not a denomination. Apparently, it is not held together by a common body of beliefs, since here congregations and individuals from different denominational backgrounds have voluntarily banded together to benefit from the rich church-growth insights of Bill Hybels and his team at Willow Creek, selecting freely what they want to adopt and what not. This suggests that the results, e.g., of the Reveal study are entirely objective-neutral and that they can, with only a little theological tweaking, easily be used in different theological contexts.
Yet this review has pointed out that the study and its results cannot be separated from certain basic theological decisions. The Willow Creek Association, therefore, does seem to have certain theological commonalities which eclipse or marginalize the traditional theological differences between denominations. It is perhaps therefore not surprising that the Willow Creeks Association seems to appear to many a church leader as a bright example of how to restructure one’s own church body: One no longer understands oneself as a church firmly united around a common confession of faith, as a church that gives expression of that common faith also by a common liturgy and hymnal, but also by means of church discipline and closed communion. One rather envisions oneself as an association of loosely connected and theologically diverse local congregations which, after paying their membership dues, have free access to various resources (programs, materials, liturgies, services, etc.), so that they can freely select from these whatever seems to work best in its local circumstances.
[edit] Concluding remarks: polls, marketing, natural religion, and the church
[edit] Polls in the church
In conclusion, some general remarks are in order. About 30 years ago, Bill Hybels founded Willow Creek Community Church. Already back then he trusted in opinion polls in order to find out what the people were expecting a church to be that would be relevant to them. Back then, he still conducted these polls by himself by going from door to door with his wife in order to ask the pertinent questions. Today, his organization has the money to hire well-paid specialists. Although Willow Creek believes man’s sinfulness, sin, in their view, does not seem to distort man’s beliefs and expectations concerning God or the church, at least not in any significant way. Therefore, one can interview people in the expectation of getting not only a sincere, but also a theologically normative answer. Being created by God to seek God, these individuals still today know what is good and right for them, not only when the questionnaire is about healthy food but also when eternal salvation is at stake.
As to the sincerity of such polls, it has been known for some time that people, when asked about religious matters, regularly tells the untruth by exaggerating their own religiosity or piety. This certain is proof of a convicting conscience in man; but it is also proof of man heart’s being “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;” it cannot be understood by man and his scientific or pseudo-scientific methods (Jer. 17:9). Man, especially religious man, needs to be told by God in his word time and again what his true condition is. – With the reliability of such polls that seek to probe man’s heart of course also falls the theological normativity that is repeatedly claimed for religious-churchly polling: It may well be that men believe, do, or expect this or that; however, based on God’s word, one will have to resist and contradict time and again certain expectations, beliefs, and practices felt to be helpful, lest the church cease to be church (see John 6:15; Acts 1:6).
[edit] Against the economization of the church
The 1933 Bethel Confession – authored by, among others, Hermann Sasse and Dietrich Bonhoeffer – objects to a mingling of the divinely established orders of state, church, family-economy: They each have their divinely given tasks and purposes, and their specific means to accomplish the purposes by God’s grace even under the conditions brought about by the fall of man into sin for the good of the neighbor. Back then, the “total state” of the Nazis was the preeminent threat to the order of creation; today, the “total economy” might be just as big a threat: the total economization and psychologization of all orders of life is hailed as the silver bullet to solve any and all problems. It is worth noting that the “total state” as well as the “total economy” need the emotional mobilization and manipulation of the masses in order to work.
Due to this ideology, economists are granted influence way beyond their proper area of expertise, e.g., in church and state, even though they cannot be, and normally are not, truly competent in these areas due to the significant differences between the individual divine orders of creation. The Willow Creek study, with three economists as lead authors, makes this abundantly clear. What is more, it normally leads to economic-psychological disasters when pastors are to be trained in economical-psychological basics either in continuing education or already during their seminary training. Here everybody should mind their own business and not become a meddler beyond his specific areas of training and expertise (1 Peter 4:15). This is how God ordered his creation.
[edit] The best advertisement: success
Theologically questionable and even wrong as they may be, what gives a crucial updraft to ecclesial organizations like Willow Creek is a seemingly non-theological argument, namely, simply their impressive success. In close contact with potential customers, a certain product has been developed; and this product is marketed in way that excites the masses. After all, marketing in the church and the world is about peddling something to customers who do not know much or anything about the product. This is why the actual product is wrapped in appealing advertisement that speak directly to the customer’s emotions who generally does not have the knowledge or desirer to examine a complex product before buying it. As experts in consumer research know: it’s the emotions, not the Holy Spirit or reason, that drive behavior. At the end, success is the best advertisement, at least in democratic, market-driven societies and the type of person they engender: something that is bought / believe / done by all must somehow also be good. For even after the fall into sin, men – especially the average consumer with his common sense – know what is good for them, even in matters spiritual. Thus, the apparently non-theological argument for Willow Creek is actually a highly theological one, even though it is also a false one because it denies man’s inability to understand the things of God apart from the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:14).
[edit] Life in the church militant: being church under the cross and in hope, against the chapel of the devil
The significant and impressive success of heterodox churches – time and again, they offer new, only superficially Christianized versions of the natural religion of fallen man – is nothing new for the church militant here on earth. Almost 470 years ago, Martin Luther wrote in his book on the councils and the church (AE 41:167): “Now when the devil saw that God built such a holy church, he was not idle, and erected his chapel beside it, larger than God’s temple.” This is how it is from the fall of the world until its end. Yet God’s word remains forever. And God’s word teaches us that genuine spiritual growth that imitates Christ and his apostles (1 Cor. 11:1) does not lead to the kind of temporal happiness marked by a fulfilled life surrounded by one’s loved ones and promised by the glossy advertisement brochures of the ad agencies in church and world. It rather leads to persecution, separation, (self-)hatred, failure, cross, and death, but also with Christ to the resurrection to eternal glory (Matt. 10:34-39; 16:24; Rom. 8:17; 1 Peter 4:13). After all, we still walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).
This is why the task of the Lutheran church cannot be to add to the Willow-Creek-like varieties of the natural religion a version that sports some superficial appeal to “word and sacraments.” The Lutheran church is called to hold fast faithfully what it has and to repent earnestly where it no longer has it (Rev. 3:3), in order to remain God’s holy and enduring church building here on earth.
[edit] Notes
- ↑ Hawkins, Greg. Parkinson, Cally. Reveal: Where Are You? With contributions by Eric Arnson. Foreword by Bill Hybels. Barrington, IL: Willow Creek Resources, 2007. ISBN 074419234-X. Simple numbers in the following text are page numbers in this edition.
- ↑ While holding an MBA, Hawkins neither has a theological degree nor is he ordained. Between 1986 and 1991, he worked for the consulting firm McKinsey (110).
- ↑ She is another co-author of the study who currently serves as the brand manager for Willow Creek’s Reveal-initiative. Prior to this, she worked as the church’s press officer, after working for the Allstate Insurance Company on various managerial posts (110).
- ↑ E.g., the poll published by Newsweek magazine in its August 29 / September 5, 2005 issue: 40% felt the strongest connection to God when praying alone; only 6% felt this way when praying with others; only 2% felt this way when reading a sacred text (the survey was not limited to Christians). The greatest need to be met by religion was for most people, according to the same poll, to forge a personal relationship with God. It is then perhaps no surprise that 79% of those polled believe that any "good person" will go to heaven, regardless of their beliefs.
