Customer Reviews

Reveal Where Are You?

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THE FACTS ABOUT REVEAL

THE SITUATION:
The Willow Creek Association published a book called REVEAL in August 2007 about "ground-breaking" research findings regarding spiritual growth. These findings were based on survey results from seven churches and have now been confirmed through research with an additional two-dozen churches around the country, including two Canadian churches.

Some in the Christian blogging and media world point to these findings as evidence of a church model "flaw"/breakdown that applies exclusively to Willow Creek and/or the seeker movement inspired by Willow Creek thirty years ago.

This is not what the research shows.

Here are several quotes based on partial or incorrect information:

* World magazine; November 10, 2007
"`We made a mistake'. Bill Hybels...on a study that showed the Willow Creek model had not produced
spiritually mature Christians."

* Bob Burney, Townhall; October 30, 2007
"The report reveals that what they've been doing for these many years and what they've taught millions
of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ...Numbers, yes, but not disciples...."

* H.B. London, The Pastor's Weekly Briefing; November 9, 2007
"Hybels goes on to say `If you simply want a crowd, the "seeker sensitive" model produces results. If you
want solid, sincere, mature followers of Christ, it's a bust."
Bill Hybels did not say this. Focus on the Family is printing a retraction.

FOUR FACTS ABOUT REVEAL:

1. REVEAL's findings go well beyond Willow Creek and the "seeker" church movement.

o REVEAL's findings are based on thirty churches besides Willow, chosen specifically to reflect a diversity of church models. We've surveyed traditional Sunday school model churches, missions-focused churches, mainline denominations, African-American churches and churches representing a wide range of geographies, sizes and styles. In all thirty churches, we've found the six segments of REVEAL's spiritual continuum, including the Stalled and Dissatisfied segments.
* REVEAL is currently surveying five hundred churches, including more than a dozen denominations
and English-speaking international churches. Early results from the first 200 demonstrate REVEAL's
segments exist across multiple church model/style/size alternatives.
* 40% of these 500 churches do not describe themselves as "seeker-focused" or "seeker-friendly".

2. REVEAL's findings show that Christ-followers are being developed at Willow Creek and all other surveyed churches.
o The two most spiritually mature segments, called the "Close to Christ" and the "Christ-Centered" groups, account for over 40% of the total thirty church sample. To date the spiritual profiles of those churches show a range of 30% to 60% for these two segments.

o The controversy is:
* REVEAL discovered a Dissatisfied segment that fell out of the two most spiritually advanced
segments noted above. They are sold-out Christ followers, but are disappointed in their church.
The Dissatisfied segment averaged 9% over the thirty churches, ranging from 3% to 14%.
* The bloggers and media point to this Dissatisfied group as proof that the "seeker" movement does
not grow up disciples of Christ. The fact is this Dissatisfied group exists in every church we've
surveyed, including the 200 churches currently in process.

3. Willow Creek's Senior Pastor Bill Hybels said, "We made a mistake."

o Bill acknowledged that Willow did not appreciate the undercurrent of dissatisfaction expressed by some of our strongest Christ-followers. Nor did we appreciate the Kingdom impact of training and encouraging all Christ-followers to devote themselves to a daily discipline of personal spiritual practices.

o But taking corrective action is not a new experience for Willow Creek. We've made a number of course corrections over the years - like adding a mid-week service in the `80s and building a small group ministry in the `90s. We've always been a church in motion and REVEAL is another example of Willow being open to God's design for this local church.

4. Willow Creek will use REVEAL's findings to take its mission to redeem people far from God to a whole new level.

o Hybels would say that Willow is not simply seeker-focused. We are seeker-obsessed. The power of
REVEAL's insights for our seeker strategy is the evangelistic strength uncovered in the more mature segments. If we can serve them better, the evangelistic potential is enormous, based on REVEAL's findings.

I read this book because our church has not only adopted some of the suggestions in this book, but we have participated in the surveys as they have expanded participation over time. As I am looking to help the ministries of our church, I felt it would be worthwhile to read this and understand the material.
Willow Creek, in trying to understand better what was happening with their members, started leveraging marketplace survey methodologies to determine what was working for their congregation and what wasn't in terms of enabling spiritual growth. Were they being as successful as they thought they were?
The answer was no, and the book takes you through their findings and the correlations they found to survey answers and people's perceived spiritual growth.
To the extent that this book helps pastors, congregations, elders and those interested in their own spiritual growth ask more questions about their intent, success, etc...to actually inspect what they are doing rather than just assuming it is working because people show up, it is a very good thing.
On the other hand, many people want to think that because this team discovered correlations in the survey data that there is a definitive way to do church and too many churches try to do the same thing, it will not be good for actual growth for many churches and for God's kingdom.
I don't suggest that there is no place for the methodologies or for formulas but we need to strive to keep in mind that similarly to all the marriage books and self help manuals, there are practices that can generally help relationships, but ultimately, you have to put the work into a relationship to see it blossom. That is true of our relationship with God as well and the church, as the reveal study does indicate, needs to push people to do the work and invest in their relationship with God to see it mature.

This was an honest and well written, easy to read review of some research from Willow Creek in a way that is relevant to many churches. I can't wait to hear more follow-up on what they decide to do next. It has changed the way I look at spiritual growth in the context of the church and would be great for anyone on staff at a church OR anyone who is interested in being apart of any growth at a church (personal or congregation) and some ideas on how that happens (qualitative, but it would probably lead to quantitative as well). The best part is that it's based on research's evidence.

FINALLY, some one has taken the best of consumer marketing study and applied it to why do people connect or not connect to their church as they grow in their faith.
There is enough Statistics, and Technical discussion to keep the people who need it satisfied but not so much that the people who just want the results get distracted.
I had many 'Ah-Hah's in the course of this book and saw myself in several stages along the way.
Must reading for Church Leadership who wonder why they are losing some of the people they most want to keep.

I had heard mixed reviews on this book and was hesitant to purchase it. But, it was a helpful read that is currently helping us process through some key issues that help people move forward in their spiritual growth. So often you read about how to grow the church which equates to more behinds in the seats...purely numerical growth that fools us into believing that we're accomplishing the purposes God has called us to. This book is more about investing in discipling people toward spiritual maturity. People who are mature in their faith naturally serve, give, attend, and invite which will lead to numerical growth anyhow. I would recommend purchasing this book.