Post a Comment On: The Ministry Report

The latest from the story that won't die ...
Last August, after assessing the results of an extensive survey of his church, Willow Creek Community Church's Bill Hybels uttered a four-word sentence—"We made a mistake"—that spawned a host of blog posts and news stories, along with a case of rampant "I told you so"-itis. Though Hybels went on to candidly explain Willow's struggles with producing true disciples rather than mere churchgoers (which the survey's results proved), the miscorrelation had already begun: Seeker-sensitive doesn't work! Christianity Today seemed to lead the charge with a blog post in October titled "Willow Creek Repents?" and a follow-up article in May about all the changes the church was supposedly making is response.
I'm not exactly sure why it's taken this long, but Willow finally posted a direct response from Hybels on its Web site today. In the posted video of a Q&A session with Willow Creek Association president Jim Mellado, Hybels called CT's latest story "an unfortunate article that was written without a proper understanding of what we're actually doing these days." And in a loaded response to the blog, he added, "I don't think when you make a strategic adjustment it qualifies under the term 'repent.' I think every evangelical knows that's kind of a loaded-up term, and I think someone wanted to get some action on a blog."
Not too long ago I blogged (also candidly, I might add) about my lack of a definitive opinion on the "seeker-sensitive vs. traditional" debate. Part of our problem, I believe, is that it's not a simple methodology question. Obviously, seeker-sensitive churches aren't in the wrong for reaching out to, as Hybels calls them in the video, the "irreligious" crowd. Any attack on that intent is absurd. Just as absurd, however, is dismissing the assessment that maybe we're not fully allowing the Holy Spirit to move when we program every worship service to be yet another "sit back and enjoy" spiritual ride.
I don't know. I really don't. I'm glad Hybels and Willow Creek are trying to set the record straight, but what might be the bigger issue here is why so many of us seem to want this ministry approach to be proven faulty. I've heard the arguments that a watered-down gospel is no gospel at all. True. But if we're all in the same boat, if we all wake up each morning needing the same daily dosage of God's mercy and grace to cover our failures, that means none of us is the definitive expert on ministry and what it means to fulfill the Great Commission. It means (without stating this too simplistically or couched in excessive naiveté) that we're all trying our best to share the good news of Jesus. So although many of us have a problem with seeker-sensitive worship services being more tightly scripted than some Oscar-winning screenplays, I wonder if by pointing that out we're not harboring a "they've missed the boat" attitude and thus exposing our own—now what did Hybels call it?—mistake.