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Will set a Pluntbline among my people...” Amos 7:8 The Plumbline Assessing Current Teachings, Issues and Events with Scripture “Pragmatic Evangelicalism” Has Peaked By Orrel Steinkamp - Pluntbline Letter - “Something . .just happened in the evangelical community. For most of a generation evangelicals have been romanced by the ‘seeker-sensitive’ movement spawned by Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. The guru of this movement is Bill Hybels. He and others have been telling us for decades to throw out everything we have previously thought and been taught about church growth and replace it with a new paradigm, a new way to do ministry.. .The size of the crowd rather than the depth of heart determined success. If the crowd was large then surely God was blessing the ministry. Churches were built by demographic studies, professional strategists, marketing research, meeting ‘felt needs’ and sermons with these techniques. We were told that preaching was out, relevance was in. Doctrine didn’t matter nearly as much as innovation. If it wasn’t ‘cutting edge’ and consumer friendly it was doomed. The mention of sin, salvation and sanctification were taboo and replaced by Starbucks, strategy and sensitivity. Thousands of pastors hung on every word that emanated from the lips of the church growth experts. Satellite seminars were packed with hungry church leaders learning the latest way to ‘do church.’ The promise was clear: Thousands of people and millions of dollars couldn’t be wrong... How can you argue with the numbers? If you dared to challenge the ‘experts’ you were immediately labeled as a traditionalist, a throwback to the 50’s , a stubborn dinosaur unwilling to change with the times. All that has now changed.. - Willow Creek has released the result of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of their programs and philosophy of ministry. The study’s findings are in a new book titled ‘Reveal: Where Are You,? co-authored by Cally Parkinson and Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. Hybels, himself, called the finding ground breaking, ‘earth shaking’ and ‘mind blowing.’ And no wonder: It seems that the ‘experts’ were wrong. The report reveals that most of what they have been doing for these many years and what they have taught millions of others to do is not producing solid disciples of Jesus Christ ... Hybels laments: Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back it wasn’t helping that much... We made a mistake... Our dream is that we fundamentally change the way we do church. That we take out a clean sheet of paper and we rethink our old assumptions. Replace it with new insights. Insights, that are informed by research and rooted in Scripture. Our dream is really to discover what God is doing and how he’s asking us to transform this planet.’ Isn’t that what we were told when this whole seeker-sensitive thing started?.. .Please note that ‘rooted in scripture’ still follows ‘rethink’ and informed research.” Adapted from Bob Bumey. Salem Communications award winning host Pragmatic evangelicalism has had about a 30 year run. During this (seeker-sensitive period since the early 80’s) the culture was absorbed by the Pragmatic evangelicalism appeared to be enormously successful appealing to the “self. ““Responding to a society coming apart at the seams, Pragmatic Evangelicals created corporate churches, entertainment worship, need-driven programs and a therapeutic faith.. But a Christianity shaped by personal needs and private interest misses the point of a biblical and historic Christianity.’~ (Webber). Webber also coined the term “Walmart churches” delivering a full range of Christian consumer goods. Webber sees especially evangelical youths as tired of all this. Webber calls the “younger evangelicals” the millennials. who are yearning for hymnology and liturgy. He tells of a staff member of a well-known contemporary singer and writer, who asked him to send a chaplin. “Even though we write contemporary stuff we hate it. When you do chapel for us. no contemporary songs please. We don't know what you are going to do. but no contemporary stuff” (Webber). It appears like the youth are jearning for more traditional worship conversely most evangelical leaders have already adopted the “new stuff” which now appears to have had a relatively short self life. Many people may cheer Willow Creek’s remarkable honesty. Nevertheless, their statement leaves many with a very cautious feeling. The Willow Creek repentance is troubling. In their text it appears they are looking for a clean piece of paper which still betrays their continued reliance on research. Also recent new ministries at Willow Creek show an acceptance of contemplative mysticism and emergent teachers. The new paradigm of Willow Creek seems to lean toward the new fad on the scene, namely ancient mystical prayer practices of pre-reformation Catholicism. The contemplative mystical practices of the past are being joined to the postmodern emergent teachers who disparage the concept of “absolute” propositional truth and promote mystical experience. Recently, headlines about Willow Creek have filled the pages of news outlets. But talk of taking a new sheet and starting all over seem to be overstated. In the most current issue of (Fall of 2007), Willow Creek’s magazine gives a clear indication of the their new spiritual emphasis. “The issue entitled ‘ministry shifts’ has a subtitle that says ‘the landscape of our ministries is shifting, brace yourself for the aftershocks.’ In the first article to follow the ‘seismic shifts’ article, Ken Wyatt Kent, a meditation promoter, in an article entitled ‘Recovering Spiritual Formation’ writes positively about ‘monastic communities’ and the emergent church. Quoting or favorably referring to one mystic after the next (Richard Foster, Ruth Haley Barton. David Brenner, John Ortberg. etc), Kent paints a picture showing mysticism’s role in the seismic shift.. . She brings into her article Catholic Priest Richard Rohr who is spiritually similar to Matthew Fox who endorses pantheism and panentheism. She correctly states that while there are some conservative Christians (that’s us!) who are suspect of spiritual formation (code name for the contemplative) but by and large the term and practices have [alreadyl become mainstream. These practices , of course, are the mystical practices that are the energy behind the spiritual formation movement.” (www.ligiithouse trails researchproject.com) It is apparent that the so-called blank sheet is already inscribed with the “contemplative/emergent” which is everywhere these days. Willow Creek, it seems to me, is now packing away the 30 year promotion of seeker-sensitive for what they recognize is the new “seismic shift.” The tide is rising and the contemplative/emergent is every where. |
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