Willow Creek's Research is Still Boiling

An article in the web Out of Ur lays out the research of Willow Creek under a controversial title

October 18, 2007 Willow Creek Repents? Why the most influential church in America now says "We made a mistake."


The chart shows that people start well at Willow but "Hit walls" of problems crash, burn and drop out.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/10/willow_creek_re.html The writer says it this way:

When I read the comments on the post I could see American Christianity writ small. Almost every person has an axe to grind. Several were wounded that the title seemed to attack Willow Creek. Others are upset that few churches are preaching "Expository sermons that go line by line through the text," because if they did we would not have so many immature Christians. (It occurred to me that Jesus would be considered a complete failure if He were judged by that standard.)

Here are my own comments:

Thanks to WC for a gutsy look at themselves. Think stages of spiritual growth just like stages of academic and emotional growth. WC has done well with Pre Believers and New Believers. Not so well with folks with spiritual problems who Stalled and not well with the older, more committed types. (See the chart above for those who stalled.)

So, WC is a good OB GYN unit that gets people born again and then follows up with pretty good nursery school and kindergarten but poor counseling and guidance for the children and teenagers who have problems.

They do worst with the Seasoned Saints who have developed a deeper life with Christ & need college and graduate school. So, WC has been very, very successful with beginnings but not on Finishing Well. I am an educator who read Reveal to see what kind of philosophy WC followed. It was said that they assumed if people came, gave and volunteered they would grow & be satisfied. They were wrong in that assumption.

The WC folks are smart and getting wise so I am sure they will learn from this and change their ways. I hope they consult an expert in Xn growth, healing and education.