“The dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church”
Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor – Willow Creek Church.
I have just finished watching this video of Greg Hawkins talking about the results of Reveal, a research study into 31 churches including their own, Willow Creek Church.
When I watched the video, I got some goose bumps, the language he uses sounds like Jamison (A Churchless Faith) and shades of Fowlers stages of faith. There is still a strong ‘Invitational’ feel which is understandable in a church like Willow – ie, what would you do with all those buildings if people stopped coming! But there is a genuine passion to discover what do with the people Jamieson identified so clearly (6 or so years ago!) as exiting the church in droves – committed believers, leaders, staff. It is encouraging that Willow has taken on similar research that Jamieson did (it was too hard to swallow for many senior leaders back then, they just rejected his findings and called them dangerous and divisive) and that Willow, with such a strong mainline appeal, may just shake something into many people who count their success by bums on seats and money in the bank.
At Forge we are wanting to take these comments by Willow seriously and determine just how they may help to serve the Church to grow genuine missional disciples.
No Guarantees 