In 2007 Willow Creek commissioned the REVEAL study—an in-depth spiritual growth evaluation developed by a professional research group—that helped create a shift in the way Willow approaches discipleship and evangelism. The study uncovered the myth that increased participation in church activities produces spiritual growth. What was the big takeaway from REVEAL for you and how did it impact the work you’re doing in spiritual formation?
REVEAL doesn’t tell you what to do by any stretch. It only helps you see what is. But when you see what is, it can take away the illusions of what you thought was and help you see opportunity. We hadn’t realized there was this percentage of our really committed believers who were not involved in evangelism when that is a big part of the growth edge for those who are Christ-centered. So what does that mean? How do we come around that with new tools and new resources?
We needed new ways to help our most mature people use their evangelistic gifts. That all came out of REVEAL and, of course, Bill’s [Hybels] passion for outreach. So it’s both, but how do you set strategies in place that aren’t only aimed at the person who’s far from God, but also aimed at helping your deep Christ-centered people be deeply alive to God and free to reach those who are far from Him? No assessment is perfect, but there were a couple things that REVEAL showed that I found very helpful in convincing people of the need for transformation.
For instance?
REVEAL gave us hundreds of thousands of data points reinforcing the truth that there is a spiritual journey. It’s not just lost and found. There’s “lost” and stages of “found.” Yes, they’re found, but there is a path.
The second point is that it actually matters that people make it down that path. When you look into the research and look at what characterizes the most Christ-centered people—and again, these are imperfect assessments—but what the data show is that those people who are characterized by the deepest level of surrender—not to a church but to the person of Jesus—those are the people who are most active evangelistically. They are most active in discipling, and in many ways, not surprisingly, they are the engine that keeps the whole thing running.
The third point the research underscored is that spiritual practices actually have a vital part in that deepening journey. Now as a spiritual formation person, I had been arguing that those spiritual practices are vitally important to transformation all along, because in my view, they open the soul to God’s transforming work. So much about spiritual practice is really about developing that kind of openness and attunement to God.
That’s where, for me personally, I felt like REVEAL sent this shockwave through the church. We can build big buildings and fill them with a lot of people and do a lot of baptisms, and we applaud all of those things. But it’s possible that even though the building is full or we had X number of baptisms this year, we’re still not necessarily helping people take responsibility for their own spiritual lives, equipping them with the right understanding of spiritual practices for their life with God.
