Revealed: What
Willow Creek Said Out Loud When It Dared To Look In the Mirror
A new, landmark survey reflects the
surprising truth about spiritual growth
For as long as anyone can remember,
the only question we knew to ask about the church was, "How many?"
But "How many?"—by itself—doesn't
completely address what the church is called to do. That question is a good
start, but it measures only what we see.
When it comes to spiritual growth, we
need to be able to measure the unseen. We need a glimpse of people's attitudes,
thoughts and feelings. We need words that reveal the heart of each person. We
want to know what moves them at the deepest levels.
—From REVEAL: Where Are You?
In August,
Bill Hybels made a public confession about some significant shortcomings at
Willow Creek Church:
"You
can imagine my reaction when three people whose counsel I value told me that
the local church I've been the pastor of for more than three decades was not
doing as well as we thought when it came to spiritual growth. As if that wasn't
bad enough, they said this wasn't just their opinion. It was based on
scientific research. Ouch."
That's the
transparent, humble lead-in to REVEAL, a new book that lays out some
surprising conclusions of a three-year research study Willow Creek Church
conducted with its own members and six congregations throughout the U.S.
This "Spiritual Continuum" framework emerged as the most powerful predictive description of how people grow spiritually.
Says Eric
Arnson, a veteran market-researcher who oversaw the REVEAL study,
"It's always been the beliefs and opinions of church leaders that shape
the direction of most churches. What makes REVEAL's findings so significant—for
both Willow Creek, and congregations at large—is that no one has ever done a
major study on the nature of spiritual growth by asking the church members
themselves, 'Where are you?' for the first time, we have quantifiable results
that help the church answer the question, 'Are we making a difference?'"
The new
book, REVEAL: Where Are You?, is co-authored by Willow Creek Pastor Greg
L. Hawkins, Cally Parkison and Eric Arnson. Utilizing both quantitative and
qualitative research methodologies that included scores of in-depth,
face-to-face interviews with 68 congregants, 4,943 electronic surveys and 1.4 million
points of data, the REVEAL study produced six key discoveries. Parkinson
admits the first ah-ha! "really caught us off-guard:" Involvement in
church activities does not predict or drive long-term spiritual growth. But
there is a "spiritual continuum" that is very predictive and
powerful.
The
framework that emerged from the research identified four definitive stages of
spiritual growth: 1) Exploring Christianity, 2) Growing in Christ, 3) Close to
Christ and 4) Christ-Centered.
The second
major discovery—Spiritual growth is all about increasing relational
closeness to Christ—may seem like a yawner, except for this: "If the
activities of the church are all about turning people toward Christ and
encouraging them to grow spiritually," writes Parkinson, "why doesn't
there appear to be a solid connection between participation in church
activities and spiritual growth?
"Why is
there this disconnect?" writes Parkinson. "The quick answer: Because
God 'wired' us first and foremost to be in a growing relationship with him—not
the church … . That's what's so amazing about this research—it sheds the bright
light of science on the biblical truth that we are wired to seek God … . As we
draw closer to God, we begin to see a dramatic change in how we live our lives
and relate to other people."
Which leads
to a third revealing discovery: The church is most important in the early
stages of spiritual growth. Its role then shifts from being the primary
influence to a secondary influence.
Such is the
context for a sixth key revelation: More than 25 percent of those surveyed
described themselves as spiritually "stalled" or
"dissatisfied" with the role of the church in their spiritual growth.
REVEAL's Research Approach and
Methodology: Good for Business and Good for Churches?
This project
began with a simple question: Could scientific research help us understand and
perhaps measure spiritual growth? I believed the answer was yes. I felt
confident we could use the same research tools that measure attitudes and
behaviors in consumers to measure spiritual beliefs and behaviors in
individuals.
We wanted to
use a "brand commitment" model developed by John Copeland, a Ph.D. in
social psychology with extensive modeling research. He quantitatively proved
that understanding intangibles was critical to building higher levels of brand
commitment, including loyalty, endorsement and influence.
We wanted to
use the commitment model to peer into the hearts of people so we could
understand what drives increasing love for God and increasing commitment to
Christ. The challenge was incredible because this was completely new ground—an
entire category that had never been explored from the inside out, so to speak.
We wanted to
discover what was most important—what worked (the "drivers") and what
didn't work (the "barriers")—to create a growing level of commitment
to Christ. We also wanted to know how satisfied people were with their
spiritual growth, and how satisfied they were with the church's role in it. And
we wanted to gain some insight on the greatest opportunities for the church:
what else could the church offer—that they are not offering today—to help
spiritual growth. For a category as complex as the Christian faith, we
discovered the answers to these questions to be surprisingly simple, and extremely
compelling.
—Eric Arnson
In the
book's foreword, Hybels says, "When I first heard these results, the pain
of knowing was almost unbearable. Upon reflection, I realized that the pain of
not knowing could be catastrophic."
Unsettling
knowledge may not be such a bad thing. Hawkins admits it took Willow Creek's
team more than two years to assimilate the research results, which have helped
to ignite a new vision and three strategic changes:
- committing to move people from
dependence on the church to a growing interdependent partnership with the
church.
- coaching people through customized
spiritual "work out" plans
- extending the impact of weekend
services to better meet the needs of those who are farther along in their
spiritual journey.
The REVEAL
study goes on. As of mid September, Willow Creek had surveyed an additional 25
churches. Nearly 16,000 individual surveys are waiting to be processed. By
early next year, another 500-plus churches will we surveyed.
In the
book's afterword, Hawkins comes home to Deuteronomy: "The Lord our God has
secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our
children are accountable for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may
obey all the terms of these instructions (29:29, NLT, emphasis added).
Hawkins
writes, "We truly believe that God revealed new insights to us about the
people of our church—and how our church can help them grow closer to Christ. As
the verse in Deuteronomy says, now that it has been revealed to us, we are
accountable to act upon it.
"What
we learned has changed the way Willow Creek looks at its role as a church. We
have a whole new way of thinking about how we can impact the lives of the
people who call Willow home—especially people who are moving farther along the
spiritual continuum."
For more
about REVEAL, go to www.REVEALnow.com.
