CHAPTER 4 & AFTERWORD 

Chapter 4 presents the three strategic changes Willow has made as a result of the research, and then three steps every church should be asking itself.

Three strategic changes:

1) “Our Message to the Congregation Has to Change”: Tell people early in their spiritual journey to look beyond the church to grow. Move from a “dependent model” to a “interdependent partnership” between church and members.

2) “We Need to Coach Next Steps”: Transition “the role of the church from spiritual parent to spiritual coach.” Further, “There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ fitness plan.” The goal is to create a tool that assesses the state of people’s relationship with Christ, and “then to recommend a customized growth or ‘workout’ plan that provides direction for their next step spiritually.”

3) “Extend the Impact of Weekend Services”: The weekend services for seekers “are an important element in the spiritual growth of people in the early stages of their spiritual journey, but they have less value for those farther along the spiritual continuum.” Therefore, provide people farther along the continuum with resources they can use through the week, like Bible study guides.

Three questions every church should ask itself:

1) “Ask More Than ‘How Many’?” Not a bad question, but also ask “How did this help people grow?”

2) “Go Beyond ‘How Are You?’” Ask deeper questions about how people are doing in their relationships with God.

3) “Ask ‘How Does That Help Someone Grow?’” With everything your church does, you should ask members and staff how it’s helping people grow.

In the afterword, the author’s tell us they feel that God has “truly revealed to us” what they’ve discovered in the book, and so readers are invited to follow the same path. “What we found has changed the way Willow Creek looks at its role as a church.” 

In response, here are five quick thoughts:

1. Teaching and equipping people to be self-feeders throughout the week is surely a good thing.
2. The notion of “interdependence” presumably helps people to recognize their obligation to serve others in the church.
3. It’s always good to go beyond “how are you?” and to ask whether our work of ministry is helping people to grow, even our preaching.
4. To sound the “missional” critique,Willow’s equation of “church” with the “institution” and/or     “leadership/paid staff,” though evident in earlier chapters, became especially prominent here. Even in the process of describing the transition from a dependence model to an interdependence model, Reveal seems to describe interdependence between individuals and that building down the street and what the paid staff do inside the building. It doesn’t seem to be talking about interdependence between an individual Christian and the whole gathering of Christians in relationship that the New Testament calls the church. 
5. Reveal never explains statements like these: The weekend services for seekers “are an important element in the spiritual growth of people in the early stages of their spiritual journey.” What exactly is it that they perceive themselves as doing in those weekend services, and how do they know they’re an important element in the early stages of growth? After all, all the data discussed in the previous chapters simply says that the people who are really growing are the people who are going home and reading their Bibles and praying. But that doesn’t tell us much about the people who are not doing that, nor does it tells us why Willow would assume what they’re doing when the church gathers is effective. In fact, wasn’t one of the main things they discovered the lesson that simply getting people to show up can’t be equated to spiritual growth?

As in previous posts, my bottom line is this: I’m glad they’re telling people to go home and read their Bibles. I’m glad they’ve discovered it’s not just about getting people to show up. I’m glad they’ve discovered that church is not about programs. But the big gaping hole still seems to be, so what exactly should the church do when it’s gathered that’s conducive to everyone’s growth?

The surveys are silent. Should we look for answers elsewhere?

Reveal concludes by saying that what Willow has found has changed the way it thinks about the church by surveying itself. The problem is, self-surveys can only tell you what’s already there. They can’t tell you what’s not there, but should be there. My wife and I can survey our kids and say, “What’s your favorite food?” but their answers will be limited to what we’ve already fed them.

But what if, instead of a self-survey, we tried opening the grand cookbook of cookbooks instead? Is it possible that we would discover new, healthy, and delectable recipies?