08/31/2026
In 1975 Bill Hybels took a survey, going door-to-door asking people who did not attend church a simple question: “Why don’t you go to church?”
“Church is boring.” “Churches are always asking for money.” “I don’t like being preached at.”
Armed with that information Hybels started Willow Creek Community Church. He used drama to teach biblical lessons rather than expositional preaching. The actual sermon didn't dominate the service. It was "Bible lite"
And that pragmatic approach succeeded ... at least numerically. Willow Creek became one of the largest churches in America ... and the kind of ministry (that for over a decade) every young pastor fresh out of seminary wanted to have.
It was the methodology and formula that Rick Warren promoted in his "Purpose Driven Church."
While the ministry was going great guns, Willow Creek's executive pastor began to do his own survey and research and the results of that study were published in August of 2007 in his book "Reveal."
What he discovered was deeply troubling. Just because people went regularly to a church building and enjoyed an entertaining religious service, that didn't necessarily translate into spiritual maturity.
Programs that attracted "unchurch Harry and Mary" didn't lead to actual Christianity.
Ten years before Bill Hybels resigned from Willow Creek Community Church, due multiple credible allegations of sexual misconduct, he publicly admitted, "We made a mistake."
The problem was assuming that if the church could attract a crowd from that crowd a committed core would come.
Never make the mistake of thinking that methodology can replace the work of the Holy Spirit.
A church can become larger without becoming deeper.
It can fill seats without forming saints.
It can attract consumers without producing disciples.
Lost people need more than a church that understands their preferences and desires. They need a church that loves them enough to tell them the truth, preach the whole counsel of God, call them to repentance and faith, and teach them how to follow Jesus and be His disciple.
As Adrian Rogers once said, “The mission of the church is to make them, mark them, and mature them.” If there is no maturity, there is no actual ministry. ~ Nathan Morton
