More Church Programming = More Spiritual Growth?

Here's the question: Does the spiritual maturity of a believer correlate to their level of church activity?

Some would certainly agree with that statement and come to the conclusion that those who are most active in church are the one's who are most mature in their faith...you know the the kind of people who tithe, serve, and show love for others like Christ has done unto us.

Well, Willow Creek Church, the nation's 2nd largest church, has been doing some research to see if their church model, which is highly programmatic, has been successful in producing growing disciples. If you don't know about Bill Hybels and Willow Creek he was basically the Rick Warren before there was Rick Warren. His influence on Evangelical Christianity in America has been huge and the philosophy and methods implemented at Willow Creek have shaped the way America does church in many tangible ways. I'll spare you the history lesson and get to the point: Willow Creek's research (called Reveal) concluded that what they thought was working actually wasn't.

They found that there is no significant correlation between the level of church activity and the level of spiritual growth. So basically...just because a person goes to church every time the doors are open, it doesn't mean that they are growing spiritually. Hmmm...well what about if they are involved in small groups, and go through discipleship classes, and go on trips with the youth? Still no significant correlation. So what did the research find?

Speaking at a Leadership Conference, Bill Hybels said:

"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."

Another author from Leadership Journal blog wrote:

"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."


I encourage you to read more on this because it has some huge implications on church methodology and your own spiritual growth. Growing up in a Baptist church where programming was highly emphasized, I believe this research could have the potential to reshape the way church is done everywhere.

Check the research out yourself and leave your comments on how you think this could change the way we should "do church":

REVEAL Key Findings

Out of Ur Blog on Research

Willow: Teach People to Feed Themselves

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