Willow Creek Seeker Services: Evaluating a New Way of Doing Church [Paperback]

Gregory A. Pritchard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1995

This is a major, comprehensive study of this new style that is influencing thousands of churches and their leaders worldwide. Based on scores of interviews and extensive research, the first part of the book describes Willow Creek's efforts to help unchurched individuals convert to the gospel. The concluding section of the book offers a theological evaluation, asking what we all can learn from the Willow Creek phenomenon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 334 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801052742
• ISBN-13: 978-0801052743
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #530,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly analysis, fairly written on Seeker sensitivity, January 2, 2001

By 

Chris Lee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Willow Creek Seeker Services: Evaluating a New Way of Doing Church (Paperback)

I used this book on a Master's level class for History of Christian Worship (pre-Christian/synagogue roots to present).

Gregory A. Pritchard wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Willowcreek movement, which is the prototype of all "seeker sensitive" or "seeker oriented" movements. Whether churches like it or not, they may all try to emulate Willowcreek, or utilize some of their methods, methodologies, or even philosophies. "Seeker oriented" tends to indicate that the church is primarily directed towards finding and ministering to seekers, e.g., even changing to be better accommodating toward seekers (which is what Willowcreek is). "Seeker sensitive" tends to indicate some desire to also incorporate seekers into services. Willowcreek is the prototype, as it is the first most-successful and most well-advertised church that utilizes various art forms such as contemporary drama, visual and fine arts, music, multi-media, contemporary and relevant preaching.

Pritchard tries his best to be neutral, neither being an advocate of Willowcreek, or being one who would be anti-Willowcreek. Pritchard reports in this book, which is a summation of his findings of his doctoral dissertation about his experiences at Willowcreek, interviews with Lee Strobel, Bill Hybels, and others.

Pritchard splits his book into two halves, the first half is more reporting what is going on and why they do what they do (history of Willowcreek, background, personalities, philosophies, methodologies), and the second half is more of an analysis of how these are effective and how they could be improved (i.e., how some of these fall short or how the methodologies need to be brought in line with theological/biblical principles).

For instance, Pritchard discusses in the first half of the book how Willowcreek uses the arts, the relevance of Christianity and the gospel, Willowcreek's use of rhetoric/oratory/persuasion, the speaker's identification with the audience, building the credibility of the speaker, programming (i.e., Willowcreek's development of their program), and reaching out to the unchurched (specifically, Willowcreek makes an assumption that it is harder to reach men and get them churched than it is to reach women, so they go after a fictious "unchurched Harry") -- and profiling unchurched Harry.

In the second half of the book, Pritchard tries to analyze what the rest of Evangelical Protestantism has to learn from Willowcreek, both good and bad. For instance, that positively, we could do more with rhetoric, persuasion, and oratory, and being relevant. This agrees with what I've been taught about any type of ministry ("Meet them where they're at, take them where they need to be.") However, Pritchard also looks in-depth at the difficulties of this philosophy of church ministry, for instance, how they import the psychotherapeutic culture/worldview directly without thinking about it critically. Or how they use [church] marketing as a way to figure out what to sell people. Without giving too much away, a major problem in the Evangelical church is that we fail to examine things through the lenses of Scripture and theology, and Pritchard applies this to Willowcreek.

This book makes an excellent addition to any pastor's or seminarian's or elder's library, as something to be cautious about when thinking about the issues of seeker sensitivity, or thining about joining such a church. It would be excellent in conjunction to other books like Mark Nolls' Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, or David Wells' books.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very informative book, April 30, 2003

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Willow Creek Seeker Services: Evaluating a New Way of Doing Church (Paperback)

Beginning in the 1970s, pastor Bill Hybels, and a group of excited young believers began for a new way to "do church." Focusing on the church's duty to evangelize unbelievers, Hybels studied what kept people out of church and what would bring them into church, and they reformatted their church service for these "unchurched Harrys." And now, more than twenty years later, the Hybels' church, Willow Creek, is one of the most influential churches in Evangelical circles and beyond. In 1983, sociologist Dr. Gregory Pritchard examined Willow Creek, how they operate and why, and what they do that is good and what they do that is not so good.

This is a very good book. The first section is a sympathetic look at Willow Creek, which is sure to please supporters and inform those unfamiliar with the Willow Creek way of doing things. The Second section is a critical look at Willow Creek, examining what some of the unintended consequences of the Willow Creek way are. As the author is at pains to point out, every church's modus operandi is bound to have positive consequences and negative unintended consequence, with Willow Creek being no different.

If you are interested in an evenhanded analysis of Willow Creek, then I highly recommend this book to you. Having read it, I now understand a great deal more about this phenomenon.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Balanced View on Willow Creek, January 12, 2005

By 

Roy Ingle "The Seeking Disciple" (Lexington, SC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Willow Creek Seeker Services: Evaluating a New Way of Doing Church (Paperback)

Dr. Pritchard's book on the seeker sensitive movement rightly examines the "mother" of seeker churches in Willow Creek Community Church. Willow Creek seems to be defining church these days along with Saddleback Community Church. Entire denominations have reshaped their methods to adapt to the seeker movement. Is it any wonder than that a book such as this is needed?

Pritchard examines Willow Creek Community Church after attending the church for over a year and having unlimited access to the pastors and staff of the church. He divides his book into two formats. He first gives an insider's view of Willow Creek and their history, philosophy, and practices. He covers Senior Pastor Bill Hybels in-depth. The second section of the book offers a critical review of the church's practices and theology. To be fair, Pritchard is not overtly critical of the church but he does find some faults but I'll leave that to you to read on your own.