THE SKY IS FALLING

One final thought before I actually say au revoir -

On the internet lately I've seen a lot being made of the results of a study Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois made to see how well they were doing. The main finding seems to be this, from founding pastor Bill Hybels, some of the plans they implemented for discipleship were not as fruitful as they thought they had been while some things they had not put a lot of effort into were being well received.

Some of the enemies of Willow - and yes the Christian world is full of critics, especially when you are getting the job done - have misrepresented that comment all over the place.

Radio talkshow host Bob Burney from Chicago is making a meal of it, saying that Hybels states his focus on the unchurched and "seeker sensitive" approach has been wrong for a whole generation.

In reality Hybels says nothing of the kind. What he says is that once people came to Christ, their discipleship plans could have been better in some ways - and he's not alone in that.

Lashing out at Hybels may bring some satisfaction to Burney, who gave up pastoring himself so he could sit in front of a microphone for three hours a day instead. But if the man could stick to reporting the facts and not his interpretation of them, we would all be better served.

Reaching the lost was not a cosmic new revelation brought to the world by Bill Hybels, it is the sole mission of the church, the subject of the Great Commission and what Jesus gave his life for. If we are entangled with anything less then we are not followers of Christ at all.