Revealing Answers

 I finally bought, and have now almost read, Willow Creek's penetrating analysis of the effectiveness of the local church against its mission. Many people have blogged disparagingly about this survey, it's approach and outcomes. Some have criticised Willow heavily just because they can.

Personally I stand by my comments some time ago that this was not only one of the bravest things a local church has ever done in terms of discovering facts about its effectiveness, but further it reveals many things I've long suspected.

One conclusion that did surprise me was that they discovered that Christ-centred followers of Jesus are more effective or engaged in evangelism than new believers. Like the good folk at Willow, I'd always assumed that new believers were more enthusiastic about their faith than older believers, and that this enthusiasm is what leads them into more evangelistic involvement. That and having some non-Christian friends left! But Reveal suggests otherwise. This begs an uncomfortable question: Why aren't the mature Christians I know, myself included, more engaged in reaching the missing? Could it be we are simply not Christ-centred or motivated to do it.

It's certainly makes me think about the structure and purpose of church and whether we're really doing what we think we're doing. Or more importantly, doing what we should be doing.

I'm going to have to revisit the book a few times I think to really get the picture straight in my head, but thank you Willow for being brave enough to ask the questions we all should have asked, and for offering some ways forward now we know some of the answers.