The Myth Of The Mega - Church Movement

The formula was simple. If your church was "seeker sensitive" and your programs were based on "felt needs" and you had done your demographics homework then rapid growth was bound to follow; and follow it did. Since its founding in 1975, Willow Creek Community Church has grown to upwards of 20,000 members.

Sadly, the formula that propelled Willow Creek to become one of America's first Mega-Churches is not all its cracked up to be. In an article entitled, "A Shocking "Confession" From Willow Creek Community Church", Townhall columnist Bob Burney cites research done by the Willow Creek Association that demonstrates that all the time, effort, and finances spent on working the Willow Creek formula has produced numbers but not disciples. In the article, Burney quotes Willow Creek's Pastor Bill Hybels as saying:

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 services, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

It's obviously going to take some time for the implications of this research to sink in. I applaud Dr. Hybels for his candor in admitting the failure of his formula. This confession obviously demonstrates his character and willingness to be transparent. There is, however, another model that all too often gets overlooked. It was recorded in Acts chapter 2 and was quite successfully implemented by another church growth guru named Paul. No offense to Dr. Hybels or any mega-church leader for that matter but maybe we should recount our history and follow the model laid out for us there. I know it sounds anachronistic and maybe even a tad naive but when it comes to church growth models its hard to beat Acts 2 and "if it ain't broke, then don't fix it."