The Purpose Driven Church Doesn’t Necessarily Produce True Disciples of Christ?
Oct 22nd, 2007 by admin
This is the conclusion Willow Creek seems to have come to in a recent evaluation of all of their programs. Bill Hybels remarked at their latest Leadership Conference:
Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.
Quite telling, but then again, wasn’t that Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 1:18-21:
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
- Justification and N.T. Wright Again
- Our Common Heart with Sovereign Grace Ministries: The Power and Wisdom of the Gospel
- The Dark Knight’s Joker and the Gospel
- Google Custom Search and EBible
- Love Despite Sin
Hey Sam, aren’t you mixing metaphors here? Isn’t PD more of a Saddleback/Rick Warren thing? ; )
Plus, if you look at the vid that Hybels did it seems that the “evaluation” is a plug for yet another program …
I’m with you - let’s follow Paul’s words in 1Cor!
“Having put all of their eggs into the program-driven church basket you can understand their shock when the research revealed that “Increasing levels of participation in these sets of activities does NOT predict whether someone’s becoming more of a disciple of Christ. It does NOT predict whether they love God more or they love people more.”
Rick Warren has frequently spoken at Willow Creek Leadership conferences. I think the two churches share many similar philosophies on church growth.
Wow! WillowSaddleCreek! The megachurch becomes the Borg. We will NOT be assimilated …
But if we were all honest wouldn’t we admit to a similar but subtle mindset in our own lives? How often have you thought, “If that guy would only get in a small group/Sunday School class/Men’s Bible Study then surely he would become a more godly man.” As a pastor I fall into that mindset at times, thinking that if someone will just get into the right group/program/study then transformation will automatically follow. I don’t agree with everything about WCCC, but if you watch the video you’ll hear that Hybels is saying that they’ve come to the realization that the programs weren’t teaching people to feed themselves but were making them dependent upon others to feed them. We should all examine the churches we are part of and see if there are ways the teaching and preaching leads to people being more dependent on the preacher/teacher instead of being better equipped to feed themselves. I say this not to downplay the role of preachers and teachers, but to point out that all too often our teaching/preaching is 99% exhortation and 1% equipping.
I just hope that Willow Creek and Bill Hybels doesn’t turn to a program as the next great thing to get people saved, but he turns to Christ himself and his finished work on the cross. Now that we would absolutely spectacular.