Thursday, May 15, 2008

Willow Creek Abandoning Seeker Sensitive - Sort of?

It's about time. From Christianity Today:

Willow Creek's 'Huge Shift'
Influential megachurch moves away from seeker-sensitive services.
Matt Branaugh | posted 5/15/2008 08:30AM

After modeling a seeker-sensitive approach to church growth for three decades, Willow Creek Community Church now plans to gear its weekend services toward mature believers seeking to grow in their faith.

The change comes on the heels of an ongoing four-year research effort first made public late last summer in Reveal: Where Are You?, a book coauthored by executive pastor Greg Hawkins. Hawkins said during an annual student ministries conference in April that Willow Creek would also replace its midweek services with classes on theology and the Bible.

Whether more changes are in store for the suburban Chicago megachurch isn't clear. Hawkins declined CT's interview request, and senior pastor Bill Hybels was unavailable for comment.

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. In addition, a quarter of the "close to Christ" and "Christcentered" crowd described themselves as spiritually "stalled" or "dissatisfied" with the role of the church in their spiritual growth. Even more alarming to Willow Creek: About a quarter of the "stalled" segment and 63 percent of the "dissatisfied" segment contemplated leaving the church.

...Greg Pritchard, author of Willow Creek Seeker Services, told CT the church "sporadically has recognized it was not teaching a robust enough biblical theology and needed to turn the ship around.

"It is a huge shift," Pritchard said of the church's planned changes to its services. "But they're still using the same marketing methodology. Willow appears to be selecting a new target audience with new felt needs, but it is still a target audience. Can they change? Yes, but it will take more than just shifting their target audience."

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Thursday, May 15, 2008 0 comments

Thursday, March 27, 2008

LCMS and the Seeker-Sensitive Movement




As we know, the LCMS is in a state of crisis these days, moving away from being the Confessional church founded by C. F. W. Walther and embracing the Seeker-Sensitive and possibly Emergent Church style of church.

I am in the process of examining this transition and how it is influencing the Lutheran church - the LCMS in particular -, and may either post my findings on the internet or make it into a booklet for distribution to congregations that need to see what is happening to their church and the Synod as a whole. The body of Christ as a whole is not very discerning and I don't think Lutherans are an exception to that rule. I believe this is a vital first step in restoring the church to its original purpose as I believe the majority of Lutherans are in the dark as to what is happening in the Synod.

In doing this I need information on how these movements have influenced particular churches within the LCMS. I would have to be able to document any information provided rather than rely on heresay - documentation would include such things as articles in print from a particular church or things posted on the church's website, audio, etc. If you have such information please e-mail me at heresyhunter at gmail.com. Thanks!

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posted by Bob Hunter @ Thursday, March 27, 2008 0 comments