Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois has been sort of the national “model” for “seeker-sensitive” churches – ones that cater to people “seeking” to learn about the Christian faith.
In order to make Christianity more “window-candy-like,” to attract casually interested people to enter its doors, Willow Creek, and others like it, incorporated talented, upbeat Christian “rock” musicians, entertaining multi-media extravaganzas, and pop-culture sermons to fill the pews.
The “seeker” concept apparently worked so well that the Willow Creek “Association of Churches” was formed to train and foster the “seeker-sensitive” methodology in other locations across America. For about 30 years, Willow Creek and other imitating mega-churches have been the talk of the evangelical world.
Until last year, when the book, Reveal: Where Are You? co-authored by Willow Creek executive pastor Greg Hawkins, hit the bookstores. The volume revealed the discouraging results of a self-conducted survey taken among Willow Creek Church and six other similar congregations. You can read here what the periodical Christianity Today said about the study in an editorial.
Among other shortcomings in its decades-old practices, the church found that the “seeker-sensitive” people rarely followed a path to deeper faith, while at the same time those who did have a more mature faith felt “stalled” in their faith growth and were “dissatisfied”, with many considering leaving the church. Not at all what church leaders had expected, the survey results, however, confirmed what many other pastors and theologians had suspected.
To their extreme credit, Willow Creek had the fortitude to take the initiative, discover and begin to deal with the issues. Beginning soon, if not already in practice, weekend services will focus on “mature believers seeking to grow in their faith.” Midweek services will now offer classes on theology and the Bible. Imagine that – studying the Bible in church! How revolutionary!
I need to immediately stifle my facetiousness, and be thankful for the anticipated effects of what this group of churches will be doing from now on. But I do admit to having been on the questioning end of things from the very beginning. The simple fact is that the gospel and Christianity have little or nothing to do with “popularity” or with giving people what they think they want or with making them feel good for a few hours.
The gospel is the gospel, and the church is the church. It has been unchanged in purpose and function for two millennia. It is the Holy Spirit’s work that causes people to “seek… the kingdom of God”. We can’t possibly “package” the Christian message better than the Canon does nor think that we can do the compelling work of the Holy Spirit.
I’m pretty sure that’s why I, along with my wife, have found a reality of faith in the mainline church that we had not known is there. In contrast to rock bands, dramas and trendy power point sermons, all we do is sing simple hymns of the faith, read the Scriptures, recite and validate the ancient creeds, partake in the Sacraments, and listen to sermons based on Biblical texts.
We are thereby refreshed and then sent to live out God's grace by serving those in the world around us. Thanks be to God.
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