Is Willow Creek Just Shifting the Titanic's Chairs?

If you go by the numbers, the church is in trouble. We’ve reported it before. Statistically, the population of people going to church is shrinking. Now a major survey of people still attending church suggests the problem could get worse before getting better -- and getting better isn’t guaranteed.

On Thursday, May 16 Christianity Today Magazine led with a story about how Willow Creek, the Chicago area the mega-church, is making major changes in an attempt to halt the exodus. Willow Creek’s actions came in response to a four-year study called, “Reveal: Where are You?” Here’s how Christianity Today reported the situation:

“Since 1975, Willow Creek has avoided conventional church approaches, using its Sunday services to reach the unchurched through polished music, multimedia, and sermons referencing popular culture and other familiar themes. The church's leadership believed the approach would attract people searching for answers, bring them into a relationship with Christ, and then capitalize on their contagious fervor to evangelize others.

“But the analysis in Reveal, which surveyed congregants at Willow Creek and six other churches, suggested that evangelistic impact was greater from those who self-reported as "close to Christ" or "Christ-centered" than from new church attendees.”

Here’s where the real problem comes in: a quarter of the "close to Christ" or "Christ-centered" group describe themselves as "stalled" or "dissatisfied" with the role of the church in their spiritual growth. Worse yet, about one-quarter of the "stalled" and 63 percent of the "dissatisfied" are contemplating leaving the church. So Willow Creek is using its findings to shift it’s focus away from showmanship, and toward serving “mature believers seeking to grow in their faith.” But this group isn’t happy either. Sounds like “damned if you do, damned it you don’t.”

To learn if the problem was unique to them, “Willow Creek expanded its research into churches of varying geographic locations, sizes, and ethnic and denominational backgrounds” and found similar patterns everywhere.

Let me pause to say many millions are still attending church in America and being fed spiritually. For all its faults and failings, the church is still the greatest force for good in our culture. I haven’t seen many atheists or agnostics banding together to build hospitals. But this isn’t about what’s good for the church, it’s about healing a broken world and discovering how the church can best shape itself for the job.

To stay vibrant -- and reverse the growth trend, the church needs to make some essential changes. Simply revising musical or preaching styles isn’t going to do it. Refocusing on keeping the old guard rather than drawing in newbies won’t be enough either until basic questions are answered about the essence of what has gone wrong. Why are people “stalled or dissatisfied?” The tendency at times like this -- the tendency we’re seeing at Willow Creek -- is to fall back rather than ask how can we leap forward in a truly different way. So Willow Creek decides to drop its “fire ‘em up” Wednesday service in favor of some good, old-fashioned Bible study and theology classes. The question is, what will happen in those classes that makes a difference for the “stalled and dissatisfied,” or for newcomers trying to decide if this church or any church can feed their spiritual hunger -- tomorrow as well as today.

The Willow Creek study seems to say that mimicking contemporary forms isn’t the answer, and neither is nostalgia for that old-time religion. We in the church, we in this community which exists to sustain spiritual health, look out upon a cultural landscape that everyone, even the young, can see is an empty shell satisfying no one. We can‘t succeed by copying such a model. And only tired and unimaginative minds think the answer lies in a return to the old school. The old school had it’s chance and didn’t cut it.

I’m happy to report that our problem is also an opportunity. We get to go back to the drawing board with a chance at an exciting new beginning! Next time in this space, “where should we go from here?” I’ll give my thoughts, whatever they’re worth. Yours are welcome too. Just click on “comment” below.