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Willow Creek is not a Fortune 500 company, although its sleek, glasswalled building, winding lake, and carefully manicured landscape might suggest it. Nor is it a civic center, although its 5,000-seat auditorium and state-of-the-art audio-visual trappings would provide the perfect setting for a symphony performance or Broadway show. Instead, Willow Creek is a church. In fact, with 15,000 people attending its services each week, the South Barrington, Illinois, congregation has become the second-largest Protestant church in America.

Many attribute Willow Creek's success to the fact that it does not look or feel like a traditional church. They call this approach seeker sensitive.

Bill Hybels, 42, Willow Creek's senior pastor, also goes against pastoral stereotype. His high-energy style and entrepreneurial spirit give him the air of a corporate CEO. His youthful demeanor and fresh tan make him look more like a veteran California surfer than a spiritual leader. But upon meeting him, it does not take long to realize that his heart is set on catching far more than waves.

What Hybels has been catching recently is the ire of several Christian leaders who question the legitimacy of the seeker-sensitive/megachurch movement—of which Willow Creek Community Church is the undisputed prototype. Books such as John MacArthur's Ashamed of the Gospel, Douglas Webster's Selling Jesus, Os Guinness's Dining with the Devil, and John Seel's Evangelical Forfeit all portray the seeker-sensitive movement (and sometimes Willow Creek in particular) as a negative force within the church that needs to be combated.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY contacted these authors to gather their assessments. The overarching concern, common to almost all the critics, is that seeker-sensitive churches compromise the gospel by tailoring their messages to non-Christians; that the use of polished entertainment, feel-good sermons, and marketing techniques subtly alters the gospel that is being communicated.

The author of two critical works on the state of the evangelical church—"No Place For Truth" and "God in the Wasteland"—theologian David Wells told CT, "I honestly believe [Hybels] doesn't think he's compromising the gospel by using cultural devices, but he seems blinded to the fact that culture is not neutral."

John MacArthur agrees. He writes, "The simple reality is that one cannot follow a market-driven strategy and remain faithful to Scripture. Preachers who concern themselves with user-friendliness cannot fearlessly proclaim the whole counsel of God."

Os Guinness fears potential chaos when the church embraces the tools of "modernity." He writes, " Totally planned, professionally orchestrated, single-purposed environments' may be as 'effective' for evangelism in megachurches as they are for selling in megamalls. But when everything is controlled ... who controls the church and who controls the controllers?"

The homogeneous-unit principle popularized by the church-growth movement is another aspect of the seeker model that is raising eyebrows. "Theoretically there are many groups to choose from," writes Douglas Webster, "including the poor, the aged, students, Afro-Americans and Hispanics, but practically, church marketers exclusively target white, middle-class, college-educated baby boomers" Willow Creek sits amidst upscale homes in one of Chicago's most affluent suburbs.

Earlier this year, Bill Hybels invited CT to visit Willow Creek for an interview so he could deal head-on with the hard questions the critics were raising. So, on a chilly spring afternoon, managing editor Michael Maudlin, project editor Edward Gilbreath, and Kevin Miller, editor of LEADERSHIP journal, spoke with Hybels about the controversial movement that he helped birth. Our team found Hybels to be an able defender of his church and, at moments, tearfully impassioned about the business of reaching unbelievers with the gospel.

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July 18 1994, Vol. 38, No. 8