Some may be surprised that I am a fan of Willow Creek Community Church, located in the Chicago suburb of Barrington. Even if you are not a proponent of the megachurch model, you have to admit that they probably do it well. One of the things I like about Willow and its leadership is the willingness to self-reflect and evaluate the effectiveness of what they are doing. Several years ago, the church undertook a major evaluation of how they were doing discipleship. In an article on the study, Russ Rainey reported: “ Before the research, Willow Creek had been assuming that ‘the more a person far from God participates in church activities, the more likely it is those activities will produce a person who loves God and loves others.’ However, this assumption was found to be invalid by the research. To quote the study: ‘Does increased attendance in ministry programs automatically equate to spiritual growth? To be brutally honest: it do...
Comments from a Christ-follower on things that matter to him