CHICAGO (RNS) — Willow Creek Community Church, the suburban Chicago megachurch that has become a model for some of the nation's largest churches, started more than a quarter-century ago by asking the question: Why don't people go to church?
Now, church leaders are looking for new ways to keep them there after new research revealed that worshippers' spiritual growth did not keep pace with their involvement in church activities.
The findings, based on research at Willow Creek and similar churches, showed involvement in church activities did not carry with it a boost in spiritual growth, defined as “increasing love for God and others.”
Pastor Bill Hybels said it was “almost unbearable” to learn that almost a quarter of people at his megachurch were either “stalled” in their spiritual growth or dissatisfied with the church, with many considering leaving.
“It is causing me to ask new questions,” Hybels acknowledged in the foreword to Reveal, the 110-page book that detailed the research results. “It is causing me to see clearly that the church and its myriad of programs have taken on too much of the responsibility for people's spiritual growth.”
The initial study looked at Willow Creek and six other churches across the country; it was expanded to include 23 additional congregations. In response to the research, Willow Creek is retooling its programs and providing pointers to churches that belong to the Willow Creek Association.
Executive Pastor Greg Hawkins said the research showed Willow Creek was doing well in terms of evangelism, serving the poor and encouraging Bible reading.
“But what we found was our people were hungry for even more,” Hawkins said. “They wanted to go deeper with the Bible. They wanted to go deeper with personal spiritual practices.”
Now Willow Creek is building an online “next-step tool” that will direct people to books, videos and other activities based on answers to questions about their spiritual path. Willow Creek's midweek services for the first half of 2008 will focus on a chronological overview of the Bible.
In recent months, Willow Creek undertook a churchwide teaching series on the New Testament book of James. Commentaries were available for members who wanted to further study the text. Worshippers were encouraged to take a range of challenges — attending all of the related services, reading the biblical text on their own or joining small-group discussions.
Recently, Willow Creek Association completed additional research with 200 churches, 40 percent of them not specifically targeted at spiritual seekers. The network plans to spend $500,000 to use the research as the basis for a fee-based system that will funnel information to congregations.
Willow Creek's findings didn't surprise Diana Butler Bass, who has studied signs of vitality among smaller mainline Protestant churches. “I have interviewed dozens and dozens of people throughout the United States who used to belong to churches like Willow Creek but left them in order to become Presbyterians or Lutherans or Episcopalians,” she said.
Mainline churches and megachurches alike are rediscovering the importance of simple practices like prayer and Bible study, Bass said. “The littlest congregation in the world can do those kinds of things,” she said. “It's through those pathways that those churches have actually found revitalization.”