What can we learn from the Willow Creek Reveal?
The self disclosure by Willow Creek in their Reveal study holds some important insights for churches that want to grow, and for the leaders of existing churches and those who are working to start new churches. After providing substantial leadership to the seeker sensitive movement, Willow’s latest emphasis is on a different kind of Growth– growing people’s hearts! For critics of this movement, this new emphasis might seem like an important shift, perhaps satisfying some of the long term objections to the whole seeker approach.
The first thing that struck me was their new use of the marketing approach in a church context– What has been a major tool of the Willow approach- effective use of marketing, has now been used to measure the condition of the heart, instead its use to help get people in the seats. I am not sure that I go along with the idea that market testing and analysis can be categorized as a magical tool to see inside the human heart, but I do believe that the practice of intentionally listening to people, and learning to ask them about their spiritual condition is an important model.
When I was pastoring full time, I weekly spent time listening in prayer, and in digesting the Bible, but I didn’t do enough listening to people. I think this could be true of many churches, and is the reason that I developed Understanding Community Needs for new churches, and will publish the ReFocus version within the next couple of weeks, a process for existing churches that want to listen intentionally to their communities in preparation for community service.
The second element that has stood out as I have read Reveal, is the focus on personal involvement in service. This is an important question: “what does service, and particularly community service have to do with maturing the heart?” I am convinced that this connection is worth exploring at much greater depth and in my mind will prove to be one of the most important elements of the Reveal discussion.
Willow has set a new standard for listening, and some of the findings from their research are going to make a big difference in the way that we think about how to grow people up. For churches that want to become more missional, and for new churches that want to build something on purpose, this discussion will deepen our capacity to lead. I will be writing some more about this as I digest the Reveal book over the next few weeks, and believe it will probably impact the way that I work to help churches, and perhaps even the way I view my own heart.