Bill Hybel, the senior pastor of Willow Creek, has done a remarkable thing. Willow Creek is known as the megachurch that has created the model for how megachurches are to grow. In many ways they have fine tuned the art of appealing to the consumer mentality of our culture. For almost 25 years they have asked the question: Why don’t people go to church? Then using the best techniques available, they have tried to tailor the church and its programs to overcome such resistance and attract people back to church. The result is that almost 17,000 people come to worship at Willow Creek on any given weekend. Not only that but 12,000 other churches have joined the Willow Creek Association and tried to learn from Willow Creek what they also must do to attract new worshippers. The remarkable thing that Hybel has done is to do an indepth study looking beneath the appearance of great success and admit that their numerical success has overshadowed a significant problem of superficiality to the faith of those who were coming to them. The study is available in a 110 page book titled Reveal.
Now, instead of gloating about the weakness identified in Willow Creek’s ministry, it would be good if other churches could take as honest a look as Willow Creek has and examine their own ministry for what it is failing to do. It is in an honest confession of our sins that our faith declares we are offered the gift of forgiveness. Perhaps, instead of bragging about our successes, often modeled after the world’s criteria, we should confess and seek God’s renewal of our spirit.
