a growth which is from God

Finished an interesting read today. At a minimum, this should be required reading for every pastor, ministry head, deacon, and elder of a church. Beyond that, I can see a benefit for every believer to read it. Trust me -- I ain't doing it because I want Willow Creek to sell more books. I've been as hard on them as anybody. But Reveal contains many things I've been working on doing at my own church for a while now.

First, it discusses transparency. Many have praised Willow Creek's honesty and openness in its admission of failure in helping all believers grow, and they should be praised for that. Few churches would openly admit to failure for fear of pew-fleeing. But all pastors and staff and other shepherds should be as willing to be vulnerable before their flock as they seek to improve themselves.

Second, it discusses the use of data. I look at and analyze numbers every day for my job, so perhaps the number geek in me admires WC's approach more than it should. But it's high time churches make decisions based on actual data rather than sporadic anecdotes. They obsess over other numbers (Sunday attendance and building campaign contributions), but they can't find ways to gather numbers for something that matters, like the percentage of their flock getting closer to God?

Lastly, it discusses the role of the church in shepherding believers. Reveal discusses how some of the most dissatisfied people in a church are some of the most spiritually mature people in a church. The reason? They don't know how to grow on their own, and their seeker-focused church can't focus long enough on growing those that are spiritually mature. Interesting point it raises -- are churches for seeking the lost, or for feeding the saved? Ideally both, yes, but how to accomplish one without sacrificing the other?

I once criticized WC for slacking on Christmas. To me, their heart wasn't in it. Reveal is a great first step in proving to me that, no, it really is in it. Just looking for how to show it.