Monday, December 10, 2007
Repentance?
It has already been talked to death, but who am I to not put my two cents in. Justin Taylor links to the Willow Creek Repentance.
Won't be long and someone will start crying that "...we can't lay those people off! That would not be compassionate; that would not be 'Christian.'" Or would it?
You see, transformation, genuine discipleship, comes at a very high price. The life of our Lord just for starters - as if that could be considered a starter. Now here is a test of faith - faith, something that is very Christian. "God will provide for those we lay off as He has provided to date." Maybe the most 'Christian' thing to do is to, in fact, exercise such deep and abiding faith.
Like those that say "Yes Jesus" but whose lives remain as they were before, the proof of Willow Creek's confession lies not in the words, or the insight, but in the action. Until then I will continue to pray.
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Speaking at the Leadership Summit, Hybels summarized the findings this way:Now here is the real problem - what does Willow Creek do with all that facility and staff they have worked so hard to build? They have apparently learned the lesson, but are they willing to pay the price? Think about what would need to happen to radically transform this church in the ways indicated. Hundreds would find themselves out of work. Buildings would have to be shuttered or sold off. The beautiful campus transformed into a polyglot of commerical space.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.
Won't be long and someone will start crying that "...we can't lay those people off! That would not be compassionate; that would not be 'Christian.'" Or would it?
You see, transformation, genuine discipleship, comes at a very high price. The life of our Lord just for starters - as if that could be considered a starter. Now here is a test of faith - faith, something that is very Christian. "God will provide for those we lay off as He has provided to date." Maybe the most 'Christian' thing to do is to, in fact, exercise such deep and abiding faith.
Like those that say "Yes Jesus" but whose lives remain as they were before, the proof of Willow Creek's confession lies not in the words, or the insight, but in the action. Until then I will continue to pray.
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