In 2007, Willow Creek Association published the results of an extensive survey on the effectiveness of church ministries for spiritual formation. The result was REVEAL, a comprehensive evaluation of beliefs, attitudes, and spiritual practices. Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson unpack the survey results of 80,000 people in more than 200 churches in the latest book, Follow Me, which covers a four-stage spiritual growth continuum (from “exploring Christ” to “Christ-centered”), attitudes and beliefs that help people move from one stage to another, barriers to growth, and ways in which churches can help people become more fully formed in Christ.
Willow Creek has once again demonstrated remarkable leadership and courage by their willingness to do the hard work of analysis. Follow Me is another example of their passion to inspire the larger Church toward health and effectiveness. We in church leadership are often too attached to our perceived successes, which sometimes blinds us to our individual and ministry weaknesses. Follow Me helps us face reality in a hopeful way.
The book clarifies the challenges of discipleship and brings focus to this crucial work. And while labels and categories can be artificial, the book offers practical help without being formulaic. The four stages of spiritual growth provide a good framework for understanding where people are on the spiritual continuum. The catalysts that move people from one stage to the next offer helpful insights for shaping the ministries and programs we provide.
Perhaps most significantly, Follow Me is further evidence that people are hungry for more than inspiring worship experiences and a menu of programs that cater to their various needs. But Follow Me also stirred a nagging concern.
“I am dissatisfied” was identified as a barrier to spiritual growth. Of those surveyed, 17 percent expressed some degree of dissatisfaction with their church; over half of these came from the most advanced stages of maturity. The greatest source of dissatisfaction was the church’s weekend services. The authors imply that if we overcome this barrier, we can keep people from leaving the church.
However, I remain unconvinced that the right question is, “What’s the most important thing you want from your church?” This emphasis on an individual’s expectations and preferences reveals a core problem in American Christianity—the unchallenged assumption that people can accurately evaluate their church based on whether or not it meets their needs. How does this prevailing attitude alter the biblical purpose of the Church in the world? We are a culture of Christ-followers who pay far too much attention to whether or not our needs are being satisfied. And we have become a culture of church leaders who spend far too much time orienting our ministries around the ever-changing preferences of our people.
“Christ-centered church critics” is paradoxical. The spiritually mature person should be learning how to live in this world where, as Ronald Rohlheiser says, “all symphonies remain unfinished.”
Reading Follow Me, I wondered how Jesus’ invitation to die daily to self changes the way we handle the inevitable dissatisfactions of life.
As we mature in Christ, might the goal be to develop a gut-level instinct to give less attention to what we aren’t getting from our church? Perhaps a step on the way to growing more Christ-centered is to accept our dissatisfactions instead of assuming they have to be resolved. Churches that spend too much time alleviating their people’s dissatisfactions may be nurturing a self-absorbed attitude of the heart that needs to be nailed to the cross.
The church, on this side of eternity, is an unfinished symphony. She needs our energy, our passion, our love, and our unwavering commitment regardless of whether she always looks and acts the way we want. Follow Me can help bring structure and focus to our spiritual formation efforts. But to authentically lead people into deeper apprenticeship with Jesus, we must graciously and rigorously confront the raging selfishness that is alive and well in all of us.
Mike Lueken is a pastor of Oak Hills Church in Folsom, California.
Follow Me: A Spiritual Growth Conversation by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson (Willow Creek Association, 2008)
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