Has Willow Got It Wrong?
October 22, 2007 | Filed Under church, spiritual formation |
One of the things I have always admired about Willow Creek Community Church is their willingness to question what they are doing and admit when something isn’t “working.” If you haven’t already heard about the Reveal Study I would recommend (when you have an extra 13 minutes) watching this short video by Greg Hawkins, Executive Pastor at Willow as he talks about what they have been learning recently.
I think their findings speak to a variety of issues, including: what is at the core of spiritual transformation, the topic of “revolutionaries” as describe by Barna, and the implications for living a “church-centered life” rather than a “Christ-centered life.” I also think it has a few things to say about the need for a “missional order,” a topic that has gain a lot of traction of late.
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Hear, Hear!Spot on. Willow Creek will get it figured out yet.
Brad, thanks for this. Think of the real revolution this will cause if churches really figure this thing out. Why we might turn the world upside down. Again.
The call to a Christ-centered life is the call of salvation, it is the call of the gospel, it is life in the kingdom of God. It is the starting point of salvation and the end of the process. It is the “arche” and the “telos” of life with God. Offering a gospel of sin management in order to go to heaven suddenly seems so truncated.
Maybe someone will finally take up Dallas Willard’s challenge (even though it sounds arrogant coming from a solo voice) to the church to take the design and execution of a curriculum for Christ-likeness seriously.
Willow’s challenge and ours is to do this without standarization! Missional order is sounding more and more the thing that will make us Christ-centered disciples.
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