Sunday, Sunday
It’s amazing to me how many Christians are still of the “Sunday only” mindset. Even within the supposedly-radical Simple Church ranks, it seems that, in the minds of some, spiritual activity Monday through Saturday really doesn’t count for much UNLESS the gathering is on a Sunday. In some cases, some within Simple Church ranks even feel inclined to seat themselves in a traditional church’s pew on that particular day in order to fulfill some sort of deeply ingrained obligation.
Friends, whether we admit it or not, many are still in bondage to Sunday services. That’s odd because Jesus came to set us free. Here what I’m saying: there’s NOTHING wrong with a Sunday meeting. What’s wrong is if we don’t feel like anything we do as a Christian is as important as what happens on Sundays in a churchy setting.
Try this experiment: Next Sunday, skip church. Is that a tough choice? If you CAN manage to make yourself stay home, on Sunday morning you feel guilty, or otherwise uncomfortable because you are “supposed” to be attending services, chances are you’re in dire need of detoxing.
A man with a House Church that meets on Sunday’s told me of several times that he has canceled their meetings when he learned that, for whatever reason, the remaining group would have wound up being very small and he had things to tend to anyway. The few who could have attended were up in arms because “Church” was canceled. All they knew was that it was Sunday and they were “supposed” to be seated there.
WILLOW CREEK REPENTS
Are we really as mature in Christ as we think we are? Bill Hybels pastors the second largest church in America, Willow Creek Community Church. Multitudes of smaller churches at home and abroad have listened to Hybels, bought his books and tapes, invited him to speak, all because he seemed to have found the key to unlock the secret to mega-church growth.
On a video tape I saw, and in a new book called “Reveal,” Hybels describes a survey that was conducted by his church of their members in 2003. For all the work they do to train their people, including the millions of dollars spent, the survey revealed that they were missing the mark in some very major ways. Here’s a quote from an article on Hybels:
Willow Creek Pastor Admits ‘Mistake’
Bill Hybels said research shows his program-oriented church-growth strategy isn’t as effective at discipleship
The leader of the Illinois church that popularized the seeker-sensitive approach to evangelism and church growth said recent research shows his ministry’s strategy isn’t as effective at making Christian disciples as was once thought.
“We made a mistake,” Bill Hybels told more than 80,000 church leaders participating in an August Willow Creek Association conference. “When people crossed the line of faith and became Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ’self-feeders.’”
Hybels, the founding pastor of 20,000-member Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., popularized the idea that various church programs would help congregations grow. “We had a long-standing belief that the more involved with church activities people were, the more they’d be growing spiritually,” executive pastor Greg Hawkins said. “It became a simple equation: increased attendance equals people growing.”
Yet Hybels said a 2003 survey of the congregation, conducted as part of the church’s regular strategic planning to assess the members’ spiritual health, found that “nearly one out of every four people at Willow Creek were stalled in their spiritual growth or dissatisfied with the church—and many of them were considering leaving.”
Where the “Seekers” were concerned, Willow Creek scored high, having made this group feel welcome and comfortable. Where baby Christians were concerned, they faired pretty well, too. But where the so-called “mature” Christians were concerned, the leadership of the church was quite surprised. It seems many in this category didn’t feel they were “being fed” as much as they felt they needed to be fed.
Hmmmm.
Some were so devastated by this lack of spiritual nourishment, they admitted they were considering leaving Willow Creek.
FAT BABIES
Jesus said, “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work,” (Jn 4:34, NLT). He came as an example, right? Where do we get the idea that sitting in a pew in our Sunday best and listening to a man preach for an hour is what He intended for His followers? Where do we get that example? Nothing is quite as addictive as the anointed Word of God. Christians will sit and eat and eat and never get filled, yet they’ll wonder later why it is they still want more. Our tendency is to horde the manna we receive. Sadly, we are too often mere “hearers” of the Word and not “doers.”
Somewhere along the line, we all got the notion that people are looking for programs to plug into. Apparently, according to Willow Creek’s “Reveal,” that’s NOT what people want.
I admire the fact that Hybels and Willow Creek decided to reveal their mistakes to the world on such a large scale. They humbled themselves and, hopefully, many churhes will follow their lead. Truthfully, I wish they had asked some of the leaders within the Simple Church movement. The Tony Dale, Neil Cole, John White, Frank Viola types. Goodness, I could have set them straight myself had I been asked.
The only model of Church growth that we have on the planet is coming from the 3rd world where Christians meet just like they did in the Book of Acts - House to House. In America, the House Church/Simple Church movement is growing at an impressive rate while statistics reveal less-than-impressive marks for traditonal groups. Program-centered and People-centered church has never worked. Sure, some have had their seasons of apparent effectiveness - judging by the numbers any way - but a church centered around a charismatic minister, a man-made or demonic doctrine, programs, music or anything BESIDES the Doctrine of Christ - including His method of multiplication - will ultimately fail.
Willow Creek was big enough to admit their mistakes. All I can wonder is “How many other churches are slowly failing as well?”
DIG A RUT - OR A GRAVE?
Are YOU stuck in the Sunday rut? Does anything that’s supposedly “Christian” not count for “church” UNLESS it’s on the prescribed day? Bear in mind that THIS is the day the Lord has made - NOT Sunday only - let us rejoice and be glad in it. There’s not a single gathering of Christians - not in the woods or in a cathedral - that is “The Church.” No, The Church is us; the people. WE are The Church, 24/7, everywhere we go INCLUDING a church building.
I encourage you to pray for and anticipate those wonderful, spontaneous “church services” that God will place you into - Divine appointments with people who need encouragement and those through whom YOU may be blessed.
WARNING: They may not take place on a Sunday but they are STILL encounters with God who dwells within you. It ALL counts for church because YOU are The Church.
Get it?
So, go ahead. Taste and see that the Lord is good! He alone is the Bread of Life. Experience Jesus…He’s REAL!
Don’t wait for a preacher to feed you. Only God knows what you really need.
Every blessing,
Michael Tummillo
A servant of God
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February 16th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Good article and super points here in your article, Michael - thanks! This article causes me to think of Pagan Christianity, a book just released by Tyndale, one authored by George Barna and Frank Viola, the authors make similar great points. There’s a question and answer at the end of this book that is excellent as well. The authors also go beyond talking about the bondage and on to speak about Jesus as the center and Heart of it all, and how our ways together either have Him as center, with life overflowing as the result or make central the traditions and ideas of man, with stymieing consequences. This book’s chapter about Jesus as the ultimate revolutionary who has set His people free to live by His own Life is almost alone worth the price of the book. Frank’s other recent book, God’s Ultimate Passion, is awesomely terrific on this same central Heart of it all, and God’s Passion which is Jesus. A couple of thoughts on two points made by this man you spoke of made that aren’t so hot, to the side of the good one you highlighted. I question the idea of this man about not meeting at all that given week, when others were yearning to. This is very much not a simple church way that reflects our Way in Christ. It is this kind of thinking that reflects the hierarchical-control error too prevalent at times among us, an unScriptural take that is part of the “fatal flaw” that causes so much damage in Christianity today, and in our eras past, negating Love’s call on us and through us to “submit one to another.” Much has been written on this, so no need to belabor it, just suggest a look at : http://www.searchingtogether.org/articles/clergylaity.htm
In addition, on that same man’s decision to cancel because there “only a few” were coming, If only “two or more” are the Church gathering according to Jesus’ take on it, then why cancel because there’s just that “few” planning to come? My own home fellowship in the Simplicity of Jesus is three at present. This “big numbers” issue is also one of those bondage things that is drummed into us by man’s fleshly thinking, ours and others, that numbers big are what make things significant. God has a different take, wherein in His Way of dong things, just one of us in Him puts to flight a thousand, and His parallel determination that it shall be the weak things confounding the wise, that He be glorified instead of the fleshly things of no power (1 Cor 1:23-31). “Not by might, nor by power by but my Spirit, says the Lord!” It takes time to recognize such traps, but then time is one of His major gifts to us, and time we’ve got. We have found that more than about 7 to twelve max pushes the real intimacy capacity of sharing hearts deeply in Him. Godcidentaly, when I shared this same point from our own fellowship experience, with Peter during our Church in the Marketplace visiting at our stores last Sunday, a young guy who is starting to recognize how these things like you share about yourself, are needing clarity among us, he flipped, having just said to his wife on the way their store that morning that when their “gathering” group got beyond those approximate numbers there was such a loss of some of the glorious reality in Christ they’d previously been having together.
I am loving your articles, and look forward to the continuing joie de livre you overflow with! With Love and Laughter in our Christ, Lynn