Several months ago I listened to a podcast out of Willow Creek, the church that launched the seeker-oriented mega-church movement in the mid 1980's. In the podcast Bill Hybels, the founding pastor of Willow, was debriefing the results of a long study of their own congregation involving focus groups, surveys, the works.
The study found that the satisfaction rating among the congregants was highest among those who were not Christians or who had mostly recently become Christians. The longer a person was involved in Willow and the longer they had walked with Christ, the more likely they were to be dissatisfied with the church.
Hybels talked about the findings as a shock to him and to his staff. He talked about the need to move his church culture from a program-oriented one to one that is creating what he called "self-feeders." He confessed they had not done a good job as a church staff challenging them as a congregation to move to radical self-motivated, self-disciplined discipleship in Christ. Christianity Today picked up on the rumblings around Willow with their on-line blog post Willow Creek Repents?
I think that Willow's in a hard spot. They excel at engaging a culture that is consumer-driven. They do a fantastic job with programs that meet non-religious consumers exactly where they are. What they have discovered is that it is a long trip from consumer to mature disciple of Jesus. Programs can't do it. Personal spiritual disciplines and authentic community are the essential practices of a growing disciple.
I feel this tension myself. I work with 18-22-year-olds who have been deeply programmed to see themselves as consumers. The ones who grew up in Christian community often relate to those communities as commodities. In some ways it's not their fault. It would take a fantastically mature 18-year-old and/or outstanding parenting to fight against that flow.
So how do we both engage consumers right where they are and call them to something that requires a good deal more work than they're used to? To disciplines which frequently yield much less immediate results? I'm still working this out myself. My guess is that as Willow Creek "repents" they'll probably lead much of the evangelical sub-culture into the next twenty years of genuine discipleship of the consumer generations.
4 comments:
Great post, Alex. I blogged about "ownership" today, which fits right into the discussion of consumer culture vs. mature desiring growth for yourself. In fact, at Vintage 21 they call their members "owners" to try and use terminology that describes active participation in the living out of the Gospel.
I find all this REVEAL stuff fascinating and love thinking about it's implications for InterVarsity. (Though I admit, I've been pretty consumer-minded myself at various pts during these last four years!)
One thing I've been thinking about recently and wanting to talk with you/Jennifer about is just the fact that I don't think people in our chapter understand spiritual disciplines (esp, how to read the Bible) and I wasn't sure how intentionally we were teaching them. (In my experience, SG leaders "learn" how but don't actually always lead how they've learned and most SG members have no clue... which sure, personality will change the feel of every group and how each leader leads, but certain concepts like the importance of context just don't go away.)
Alex, here's a thought I've been pondering, off-and-on, for a few years.
What do you make of the "you-centered" approach of post-modernism? Is it too much that we go way out of our way to reach the postmodern generation (which, I guess, is you and me), that we orient most of our programs around the comforts of the attendees?
For example, most new church movements offer coffee and food, many times for free, in some sort of "gathering area" near the front entrance of the building. some churches have breaks during the service, encourage people to get up, walk around, even talk to their neighbors during the sunday a.m. activities. Basically what I'm getting at is that the primary message from these churches is NOT "Jesus loves you", but rather, "we want you to be comfortable here." "We have plasma tv's, cushy chairs, free coffee, amazing audio-visual, a dress-how-you-want culture, a sparkling building, weekly seminars on finances and child birth, a soft seeker-oriented "message" without harsh-sounding words like sacrifice, blood, death, sin, atonement, grace, etc., .... all so YOU can be comfortable here."
Our parents might call it a loss of reverence. (Although in your Anglican church you probably still have a good amount of "high order" to the sunday event).
Anyway, what are your thoughts here? Do you think this "you-centered" approach, which I guess does seem to connect with the postmodern generation, is healthy for the 21st century American protestant church? Does it connect with the questions in your post? Specifically, if we begin making disciples in a "consumer" (your word; I use "you-centered") environment, is it any wonder that those converts struggle mightily to transition to personal discipline (Jesus would say they sprang up in shallow soil but were choked by weeds).
Thanks for any insight!
thanks for the great comments, ya'll! i think i'll tackle brad's in a post next week...it's such a critical topic.
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