I typically don’t like to get involved in other church news, but I have received enough emails to merit a quick report and response. I just finished listening to a sermon from Pastor Bill Hybels, the pastor of a large church in Illinois that has been very effective at reaching people who don’t know Jesus. In fact they have helped thousands of churches better understand evangelism and connecting with people who don’t know Jesus. Bill Hybels and his team recently did a report/ survey/ evaluation of their ministry and discovered that they were weaker in the areas of spiritual growth and maturity, something I’ve also seen as an outside observer. Bill Hybels and his executive pastor Greg Hawkins recently publicly shared this news and their commitment/ focus on growing and strengthening in this area they are weak in. Why bother writing a blog about it? Well, the scuttlebutt has been that they “confessed” their seeker model has been wrong and some Christians I’ve heard almost “rejoicing” over this “confession”. This troubles me on a few levels. First of all as Christians we should applaud those who seek to grow, learn and be humble, not applaud a “downfall”. Secondly, as I listened to Pastor Hybels’ sermon I didn’t hear a “the whole seeker model has been wrong” but rather, “we realized we are missing a huge aspect of helping people grow and therefore need to adapt our model/ methods to do better.”
The point is God calls us together as believers to grow and learn from each other. We can learn a ton from how Hybels and others connect with and understand people far from God. We can also learn a ton from leaders who are willing to publicly and humbly admit they need to grow and improve – what a wonderful attitude we don’t hear enough from believers! We are people in process – let’s encourage those who “process”.
What does all this mean for Grace Church? I think it’s encouraging to hear one of the largest, most influential churches in America has weak spots and growth areas as we all do. It’s encouraging to hear we can learn, grow and process together. Sometimes I hear from people, “tell me where Grace church will be a year from now” which I love to respond by saying, “hopefully more like God intends church to be!” The reality is none of us have this perfect formula or sterile program to insert — it’s a process, we evaluate ministry continually through the lenses of God’s Word and our culture (similarly to a missionary in a foreign land) and make adjustments accordingly along the way. We can never go wrong if we remain committed to the Word of God and actually living it out. If, for example, we discover we’re not connecting as well with people far from God, we should learn from those who do a good job in connecting and of course hold the ideas up to the Word of God. If we discover we’re learning lots of information but not seeing lots of “transformation” we should learn from those who do this well etc etc. In closing, a few things I’ve shared since I arrived here: 1. We don’t change people, God does. 2. We should seek to help create the best environments for God to do His greatest work! 3. We’re not about just making “converts” but making disciples – otherwise, we’ll be a mile wide and an inch deep. 4. Disciples are people who love God and love people and do so consistently, progressively and actively.
I implore you not to jump on a troubling bandwagon I see on some Christian websites of rejoicing in other believers faults and judging the hearts of others. We are all in this together and there are far more people who don’t know Jesus than who do, here in America. We as the church nationwide, need to unite, and together seek to fulfill the mission of Jesus!
