GroshLink

In follow-up to Negative Report of American Church Scene? and the Imperfect Church, Willow Creek repenting of its failures came into my e-box.  Real repentence leading to transformation, go here for a brief clip of Bill Hybels and here for thoughts by Greg Hawkins.  But don't worry there is research to be done and money for your local congregation to participate  

I would comment, event programming is a tool.  In many circles there is an overdependence upon the numbers (equated with the relevance and value of the programming) and the marketing necessary to generate them, e.g., Master Chief of Halo 3 in youth groups.  Programming, in this case with a focus on initiating people into the kingdom of God, must be a catechesis into a Biblical oriented perspective on the world which by the Spirit of God is lived out in the context of the People of God becoming more like Christ under submission to the Word of God.  And when the call of Christ is not the first priority, other interests cloud our vision and connection with the Body of Christ . . . leading to dissatisfaction as noted by a comment on the Negative Report of American Church Scene? 

Below is an excerpt from Willow Creek repenting of its failures:

Speaking at the Leadership Summit, Hybels summarized the findings this way:

Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn't helping people that much. Other things that we didn't put that much money into and didn't put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.

Having spent thirty years creating and promoting a multi-million dollar organization driven by programs and measuring participation, and convincing other church leaders to do the same, you can see why Hybels called this research "the wake up call" of his adult life.

Hybels confesses:

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become 'self feeders.' We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

In other words, spiritual growth doesn't happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.