Thursday, April 10, 2008

Seeker services are dead!

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad! The number one reason—well maybe not the number one reason, but close to it— the church in the U.S. is lethargic is dying! This from Out of Ur's coverage of the "Shift" conference:

Today, Greg Hawkins, executive pastor at Willow, recapped the [REVEAL] study and then shared some changes that the church is now making in response to the research. He said they’re making the biggest changes to the church in over 30 years. For three decades Willow has been focused on making the church appealing to seekers. But the research shows that it’s the mature believers that drive everything in the church—including evangelism.

Hawkins says, “We used to think you can’t upset a seeker. But while focusing on that we’ve really upset the Christ-centered people.” He spoke about the high levels of dissatisfaction mature believer have with churches. Drawing from the 200 churches and the 57,000 people that have taken the survey, he said that most people are leaving the church because they’re not being challenged enough.

<idle musing>
It's about time that market research caught up with reality. Barna's survey's have been saying it for years: the ones leaving the churches are not the unbelievers, but the serious believers who wan a deeper walk with Christ. They are sick of being fed watered down and diluted baby food.

Now, of course the question is, what will they feed them? Will it be more works righteousness? Will it be more programs, just with a different focus? Or, will it be the crucified life that is the only true Christian life?

The answer to that will determine the success of the change.
</idle musing>

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You seriously have to hand it to such a globally influential organization that is humble enough to say, "Man, we blew it," to the public. I have tremendous respect for the risk they're taking. After I saw this,

http://revealnow.com/story.asp?storyid=48

I stopped scoffing at Willow Creek. With an attitude like this, I think they have a shot at something good. It may not be Vintage Faith, but it's an incredible (and incredibly encouraging) start.