Willow Creek has become probably the most influential church movement in America and perhaps around the world.
As their pastor, Bill Hybels has introduced a seeker-driven structure to their church whereby the church engages creatively and with contemporary relevance to the needs of the non-Christian. Their discipleship structure has tended to be very programme-orientated.
I’ve made a mistake
Now, something’s up. After an extensive survey of the effectiveness of their approach on producing spiritual growth (published in the book Reveal and accessible through http://www.revealnow.com), Bill Hybels has concluded that they have made a mistake. He got, he says, the wake-up call of his adult life. Apparently, what he and they thought was working to produce spiritual growth was not working at all. The survey revealed effectiveness in reaching non-Christians, some effectiveness with discipling new Christians, and diminishing to very little effectiveness with producing spiritual growth among more mature Christians. This is big news. Hybels called the findings ‘earth shaking’, ‘ground breaking’ and ‘mind blowing’.
