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- Vicki Chasen

Inverness, Ill.

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Was Jesus "seeker-sensitive" when he came to "seek and save the lost"? In one sense, he was. He understood and sought to understand his audience. He was aware of various needs around him and addressed them in different ways. Moreover, he didn't try to reach everybody but focused on a few.

On the other hand, his solution to the human dilemma was not market-driven. It was absolute, unchanging. And what was it? Himself. So far, I don't see Hybels prescribing a solution other than Jesus Christ. What I think he needs from fellow Christians is prayer support and encouragement, not a dressing down.

- Willy D. Marquez

Boston, Mass.

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"Seeker-sensitivity" includes honoring the God-implanted craving for transcendence in unbelievers by banishing manmade blockages to its fulfillment, like cold formalism sometimes seen in church.

- James Hilt

Director of Counseling

Chapel of the Air Ministries

Wheaton, Ill.

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Over a decade ago, I attended a board meeting that included several pastors. I had lunch with Bill Hybels and another pastor who appeared envious and negative toward what he seemed to perceive was a narrow Willow Creek ministry. In an obvious effort to bait Hybels, the pastor asked, in a condescending tone, "And how many do you have in your Sunday school?" Bill quietly responded by saying, "Oh, we have about 450." He then extinguished the gleam in the questioner's eye when, after a pause, he concluded with the word "teachers." The conversation quickly turned to other topics.

- Robert Baptista

Winfield, Ill.

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While working on material for Toxic Faith, I visited Willow Creek, sat through all the services, met with Hybels and his team before and after, and sat in on a small-group leadership meeting. I have followed up with Hybels and some team members each year since then. The critics are wrong. This is not just a place where baby boomers are entertained or simply made to feel good by increasing their self-esteem. Hybels is unashamedly preaching the gospel, and people are accepting Christ and then using their spiritual gifts to serve others.

It is easier to criticize while examining someone else. I wonder what the critics will say when they discover another movement sweeping our land that is succeeding in winning the ever-resistant baby buster generation.

- Stephen Arterburn

Co-Founder, Minirth Meier New Life Clinics

Laguna Beach, Calif.

DIFFERENT CONCLUSIONS

I was disappointed in Kenneth Kantzer's comments about the accord "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" in his "Should Roman Catholics and Evangelicals Join Ranks?" [July 18]. I have pored over every page of the accord several times, and I have come to much different conclusions—even though I count myself as an evangelical Protestant. I believe the accord provides an excellent foundation for alliance-building among Christians of all traditions and confessions to make common cause in contending for the culture. And contrary to Kantzer, I do not think this document glosses over or ignores "essential doctrines that still separate evangelicalism and Catholicism," including the doctrine of justification by faith.

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September 12 1994, Vol. 38, No. 10