Challenging Times

‘The people who love God the most are the most disappointed by their local church.’

Willow Creek Community Church, famous for popularising ‘seeker-sensitive’ services in the 1980s, have been doing some research. They say:

What we learned was incredible, and is changing the way we do ministry and do church.

They define disciples as people who are marked by increasing love for God and increasing love for other people.

They say that we try to grow disciples by encouraging them to participate in programmes (services, classes, small groups etc). We believe that the more people participate in these programmes, the more they will grow. But the evidence is that this does not work:

The first thing we learned was that increasing level of participation in these activities does not predict whether someone is becoming more of a disciple of Christ.

From their research, they identify five groups of people, defined by the closeness of their relationship with Christ:

1. People who are exploring Christianity
2. People who love Jesus and are growing in their relationship with Him, but who may be fairly new in that relationship
3. People who are close to Christ: their relationship with Him is important to them, and they may pray and/or read the Bible on a daily basis
4. People who are centred on Jesus. Their relationship with Him is the most important relationship in their whole lives
5. People who are stalled in their relationship with Christ. They have a relationship with Him, but they aren’t investing time in the relationship on a regular basis. (However, they are investing time in church events on a regular basis, but not investing time in their relationship with God.)

They found that churches are best at meeting the needs of people in groups (1) and (2), and people in these groups are highly satisfied with their local churches. But churches are not so good at meeting the needs of people in groups (3) and (4), and people in these groups are increasingly dissatisfied and disappointed with church. Increasingly, people in group (4) may actually be thinking about leaving the church. In one very striking comment, they say:

The people who love God the most are the most disappointed by their local church.

So what does this research mean for the local church?

Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink all our old assumptions…

Watch the video

Summary of the research findings

More evidence of people’s ‘non-religious spirituality’ comes from a recent survey for TEAR Fund.

This survey found that 42% of people in the UK pray regularly (a much higher proportion than those who go to church).

People believe that praying changes what happens in their lives, gives them strength, makes them feel more peaceful and contented, and draws them closer to God.

However, younger people are significantly less likely to pray than older people. It would be really useful to know whether this means that people are more likely to pray as they get older, or whether previous generations prayed more than rising generations.

Go here for more…

Tagline: Forgiveness comes at a price

We just watched ‘The Painted Veil,’ recently out on DVD. I recommend it highly – great photography, good acting, terrific story.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s set in the 1920s, and is the story of a doctor, Walter Fane (played by Edward Norton) and his wife Kitty, (played by Naomi Watts). She marries him to get away from her parents, even though she doesn’t love him.

Together, they go to China, where Kitty falls in lust with Charlie Townsend (played by Liev Schreiber). They have an affair, which Walter discovers.

As a punishment for her adultery, he takes her with him to an upcountry town where a cholera epidemic is raging…

To say any more would really spoil the story if you haven’t seen it yet.

With the tagline ‘Forgiveness comes at a price,’ this film explores important issues about love and personal growth, offense and – yes – forgiveness.

When people hear that Jesus had to die so that we can be forgiven, they sometimes say ‘Why was that needed? Couldn’t God just forgive us?’ But the reality is that when we sin against someone (whether it’s God or another human being), we offend them. We violate them in some way. And forgiveness costs – it comes at a price.

Not sure about this? C S Lewis once said ‘everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea – until they have something to forgive.’

He is so right. Forgiveness comes at a price, and that’s something that we need to learn all over again.

PS: This film has explicit sex scenes. If you’re going to be offended by them, don’t watch it.