Darryl's Blog
A friendly dissenter's view from the Willow Leadership Summit
Last year's Leadership Summit filled me with all kinds of hope. In the past, Willow Creek's Summits have been more about building great institutions with heroic leadership and great strategy. While that isn't all bad, I think it reflects more of a North American approach to church than a Kingdom one. The Kingdom is counter-cultural and not about building sleek organizations.
Last year gave me hope because they seemed to be less about building brands and more about Kingdom stuff - a pastor from South Africa, a single mother who moved into the poorest part of Detroit, stuff like that. Maybe, I thought, things are changing.
I think things are changing. Hybels has caught a vision for social justice, for instance. But maybe things need to change more.
Yesterday I heard that the parable of the weeds from Matthew 13 is about getting rid of the enemies of church growth in your church. No mention of Jesus' explanation of the parable, which is completely different, or that Jesus explained that we shouldn't go trying to pull out the weeds. No matter what Jesus said! Pull out the weeds that are preventing your church from growing. Your church can grow by a thousand in the coming year. You have to believe and it will happen. Pull those weeds!
To which I reply: more positive church growth thinking isn't likely to get us where we need to go in a post-Christendom culture. The answers are harder, maybe a bit more theological, maybe a little bit more Kingdom and a little less human strategy and brilliance.
I am not trying to criticize Willow here - they are brothers and sisters, and I get caught up in this as much as anyone. But if the church growth movement is going to transform culture, where is the evidence of that over the past twenty or thirty years? Books like Selling Out the Church? help us ask good questions about church marketing and other modern approaches to doing church.
I can't help but thinking sometime that we need to stop looking within the North America for guidance on how to be the church in these days.
I am really not trying to slam Willow. I am grateful for them. They have enormous influence and I pray that God uses it. And I do not want to be the one to argue for bad leadership instead of good leadership.
But what we really need may not be more lessons on leadership, but more discernment about the forces that are shaping the church that have nothing to do with the Kingdom. That is the kind of leadership we need at such a time as this.
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Could not agree more!
I hear what you're saying. I'm attending the Summit via a satellite site (Walnut Creek, which the guy today gave a shoutout to). Yesterday when I heard Meeks bring up the parable I had the same thought you did, about how the parable is actually telling us to not pull out those weeds. Now, I think the weeds Meeks went on to detail are worth pulling out, but he probably would've been better off to not mention them.
I wasn't sure as I listened to him whether I liked what he was saying or not, but the longer I listened the more it sounded like a lot of what he was saying was indeed sound, especially at the end when he said that growing a church for the sake of growing a church is the wrong idea, and that we need to be doing what God wants us to do. I also appreciated what he said about our need to preach Biblical truth even if it's unpopular. But his sloppy use of the verses at the beginning did catch my attention.
It would be good/interesting to hear some teaching to these pastors and leaders on sound exegetical and hermeneutical stuff, a reminder of the importance of not getting sloppy with scripture. Unfortunately I'm not sure this is going to happen anytime soon.
Like you I don't think the summit is perfect, and I can see your criticisms. I am also thankful for Willow and the Summit and the speakers, I have and am learning a lot. I think that overall so far the summit this year has been great. You just have to do a bit of sifting.
Sorry for the long comment.
Darryl,
As usual, the graciousness in your posts is a wonderful challenge to me. My kneejerk reaction is to be much less charitable towards the megachurch/church growth world. Thanks for setting an effective example.
Bill
PS - Will I get to see your face this summer?
Why do so many Pastors concentrate on church organisations? Jesus didn't appear to. His priority, it seems to me, was to build up the people around Him. God uses people not buildings, or am I being too harsh? Greg
I've got numerous friends and contacts who are thoroughly Hybel-ized, and they have often sent me teaching CD's of Hybel's stuff, and the first thing that really turned me off is how fast and loose he plays with Scripture. I have other concerns with the mega-church CEO approach to church, but couldn't even get past the sloppy use of Scripture, which my friends piously explained was actually "just viewing the Bible through a 'leadership hermeneutic'"...
I remain unconvinced.