To Program or Not to Program?

There has been a lot of buzz in recent weeks about the published study conducted by Willow Creek Community Church. The project and book sets forth the findings of a church survey regarding spiritual behaviors and attitudes of those in the church. The research began with the assumption that there would be a direct link between church activities and spiritual growth. However, the results showed something quite different. What the survey showed is that spiritual maturity and growth is the primary indicator of spiritual attitudes. The study categorized people on a spiritual continuum composed of the following four stages: Exploring Christianity, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ and Christ-centered. Those who are in the “exploring” stage demonstrated lower levels of spiritual behaviors and attitudes than those who are in the “Christ-centered” stage.

I am always grateful when there is hard data to support an idea or belief but I really had to shake my head at this one. Is it not sensible to believe (with or without hard data) that genuine Christ-centered disciples who are passionately following Christ are more spiritually mature than someone is only exploring. This seems self-evident to me. I am grateful, however, that this study highlighted the basic fact the programs do not make disciples. Churches can spend millions of dollars (as Willow Creek has) orchestrating programs and events without fostering a church that is spiritually vibrant and doctrinally sound.

Can you not see the great danger in organizing and structuring a church around the desires of the spiritual seeker or explorer? How can we expect to find healthy churches when the least spiritually mature among us dictates all that we are doing? Most churches in America are failing simply because we are too busy scheduling events with our sensitivities calibrated to the culture rather than shepherding souls with our minds shaped by Scripture.