The lack of relsults from Willow Creek's programs shouldn't surprise anyone; a new way of "doing church" has never worked where it counts. The notable thing is that they admitted their failure, unlike many spiritual leaders who are unwilling to admit that the institutional approach to church isn't working, period. Having pastored for 30 years, I'm convinced that it's time to discard the old wineskin rather than try to patch it up or change it's shape.

that writer kinda rubs me the wrong way. he sounds like a finger pointer. and i remember what my mother told us about pointing fingers and having three more pointing back at you.
I don't know who Bob Burney is or what he is about. what I do know is what I read at face value. I read a boat load of opinion with a very slight hint of gloating on what the writer seems to think of as a horrible tragedy. there was a very brief quote from hybels which in itself requires more information before one can make an assessment of what was said or even justify comparing him to Spock. the only follow up to Hybels quote was the writers opinion. honestly it gives me the same impression of what the media does when they want to blast anybody, a little truth with a lot of twist.
At least they are reaching out to people. many folks dont come near a church because many of them sound like this guy. they did something good and they are fixing what they see needs improvement. How is this a bad thing?

Shouldn't Willow Creek be judged by its fruits?

The author obviously does not like the 'seeker sensitive' movement, so he proceeds to give a false definition of it, and then falsely twists Bill Hybels words to argue against that 'Red Herring'. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. The author doesn't get it.

What IS authenticly Willow is boldly and creatively reaching and leading people to Christ.

What Willow is saying is that as they convert Christians, they need to do a better job of HELPING them learn to be self-feeding Christ followers, and a tool they are calling a spiritual growth plan.

What they are saying is "they regret leading people to believe that the church should provide all the feeding necessary for you to lead a champion Christian life"

If you want to hear Bill Hybels in full context on the survey findings and the changes they are making - go to iTunes, search for Willow Creek Podcasts, and find 'Unleashed Pt. 1' Fast forward to the 25:25 mark and listen.

This is a good and important article. I'm surprised to see that some people are upset by it.

Wow! Talk about a distortion of the truth. I've heard Bill Hybels comments first hand and they were taken completely out of context. He WAS talking about the need for his church to do a better job at nurturing the mature believers, but he was definately not lamenting what his church has accomplished.

If you want to make disciples, then you must first have converts. Does this not make sense to anyone else...Bob...hello.

I have no doubt that there are churches of 250 members that have a high percentage of "growing, mature" believers - maybe as high as 80% (that's 200 growing, mature believers and we all know I'm being very generous on those numbers). Even if we are very harsh on Willow Creek and say only 5% are growing, mature believers, that's still around 750 growing, mature believers! They are still more effective than the smaller churches that judge Willow Creek the same way Bob did in this article.

Stop judging...it's in the Bible...we're all trying to do our part. EJ

I'm sorry, but this is completely twisting what Willow Creek said and has done over the years. I used to attend Willow Creek twice a week and was involved in a small group. There was a lot of teaching done on sanctification, bible study and such. And it was impossible to attend a service there without hearing that you were headed straight to eternal hell unless you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and savior.
What I have heard from Bill Hybels and others at the church saying recently is that there has been such a strong emphasis on conversion that it overshadowed other biblical work like caring for the poor and such. Their Sunday services, in particular suffered from this narrow focus to the extent that the service became almost pointless for believers to attend.
The idea that they just fed people sugar with a Jesus wash is ridiculous. The only people I've ever heard make such claims are people who never actually attended the church.
It's a shame to see these distortions :(

Brothers and Sisters, what we need is a fresh dose in our understanding of the sovereignty of God. I encourge you to go to www.NiceneCouncil.com and check out the documentary Amazing Grace: The History & Theology of Calvinism. It features R.C. Sproul, D. James Kennedy, Tom Nettles, Tom Ascol and others. -- Pastor Bob

Its amazing how people can twist words. The title of this post "a shocking confession" leads people to believe that a statement was published by Willow stating "whatever we told you in the past was untrue, and we apologize for misleading" This is far from the truth.
Evolution takes place in healthy ministries. Willow is not stating they do ministry wrong, just in order to continue to thrive they needed to look at the way they do things. They examined every area of their ministry and felt they came up short. If as pastors we were brave enough to self examine I would guess we all would come up short. We all have models that need to be tweaked, systems that are outdated, ministries that are slack in accomplishing there goal. Willow is not changing there minds, they are evolving! I believe them taking this step is making it safe for others to follow. If anyone took the willow model as gospel "same yesterday today and forever" they were ignorant to do so. All of us need to evolve.

It is encouraging to see Willow Creek being honest with there findings. Honestly, I am not surprised. You can never improve on teaching the simple doctrines of the faith without worrying about whether or not you're going to offend someone. Look at the successes of the Calvary Chapels and Vineyards not only across the country, but around the world. There’s simplicity to the service, without watering the message down, while at the same time remaining culturally relevant. They also disciple new believers immediately following conversion, and there aren’t any bells and whistles to entertain the people- just simple, contemporary praise and worship music followed by the solid teaching of the Word of God.

I applaud Bill Hybels for admitting they made a mistake. I also believe we are called to constantly seek new believers, it is the "great commission" and a great joy to any Christian who does so; however I think the baby that is getting thrown out with the bathwater is the focus of church leadership on helping people develop and express themselves spiritually. Sadly, churches potentially turn people off to God in pursuit of numbers.

WC admitted to the end goal, NOT what they had done to reach people for Christ for so long. If you really listen they erred (they feel) on not getting people to be "self-feeders" of the Word. Also realize that the time frame of this study they did (though I agree with the results) is contemporary of their shift into the "self-disciplines" and postmodern approach to discipleship (such as Leonard Sweet and cronies have talked about for the last few years). They haven't thrown out the "baby with the bathwater" but said we need to get people to better stand on their own two feet in Christ instead of consumeritically spoonfeed it to them always. In the Bible it is called "equip"ping the believer. To say there is any true wholesale "repentance: of all they have done and ho thy did it is reading way more int it than thy themselves have. We need to be careful not to extrapolate our negative opinions on others in order to exalt ourselves.

You've taken a few statements by Willow WAY out of context to fit your own bias against the seeker movement. Relevance DOES NOT IN ANY WAY imply a sacrifice of Biblical truth. There was NEVER a more seeker-friendly person than Jesus; seekers and sinners followed Him by the droves. Interestingly, it was the "religious" of the day that found Him irrelevant and "anti-Scriptural." Pure coincidence, I'm sure...

CRAZY THOUGHT...Maybe Willow is learning as they go. What a crime, huh? To think they may not have done EVERYTHING right all these years...I just can't bare inperfection!

Churches should be DAILY rethinking and recontextualizing what they're doing in our changing culture. Jesus strove to be relevant (and dare I say...seeker friendly) without ever once sacrificing the heart of the Father. Churches can AND SHOULD do the same! To imply that that can't done is regrettably ignorant and selfishly manipulative. Somebody tell Burney the baby's going down with the bath water!