Descubra Donde esta usted? / Discover Where You Are

by Greg L. Hawkins, Cally Parkinson, Eric Arnson (Contributor)

If you are asking whether you have program which help people grow or whether you are helping people become more like Christ, this book is for you. You will discover the four parts of the spiritual growth journey and much more. What you will find in these pages will encourage you to change the way you look at church and help you understand what making a difference means.

Genres: Church, Christian, Discipleship, Faith, Religion, Leadership, Nonfiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick but important read for ministry leaders, with some surprising answers about spiritual growth and church commitment.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because our church has not only adopted some of the suggestions in this book, but we have participated in the surveys as they have expanded participation over time. As I am looking to help the ministries of our church, I felt it would be worthwhile to read this and understand the material.
Willow Creek, in trying to understand better what was happening with their members, started leveraging marketplace survey methodologies to determine what was working for their congregation and what wasn't in terms of enabling spiritual growth. Were they being as successful as they thought they were?
The answer was no, and the book takes you through their findings and the correlations they found to survey answers and people's perceived spiritual growth.
To the extent that this book helps pastors, congregations, elders and those interested in their own spiritual growth ask more questions about their intent, success, etc...to actually inspect what they are doing rather than just assuming it is working because people show up, it is a very good thing.
On the other hand, many people want to think that because this team discovered correlations in the survey data that there is a definitive way to do church and too many churches try to do the same thing, it will not be good for actual growth for many churches and for God's kingdom.
I don't suggest that there is no place for the methodologies or for formulas but we need to strive to keep in mind that similarly to all the marriage books and self help manuals, there are practices that can generally help relationships, but ultimately, you have to put the work into a relationship to see it blossom. That is true of our relationship with God as well and the church, as the reveal study does indicate, needs to push people to do the work and invest in their relationship with God to see it mature.

[Tung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Willow Creek is one of the largest churches in the United States. They are a trend-setter in the way they outreach to communities and serve in ministries, and churches across the country use their resources and model themselves after what Willow Creek does. In 2004, Willow Creek hired a former McKinsey partner as a consultant and conducted a three-year study with over 11,000 surveys and 120+ personal interviews to examine everything they did in order to see whether or not they were helping Christians grow in their faith, and whether or not their outreach and ministry strategies were making a difference. In August 2007, they released their findings in this book, and openly admitted that their current strategies and lines of thought were not effective at all. Obviously, this has been the talk amongst Christian communities since then. I liked the transparency and candor that is found in this book. I think the book also does a good job of breaking down their findings in a way that helps the reader understand the underlying data. It’s actually one of my criticisms of the book: it’s written in a way that makes me feel like an adult is speaking to a child – lots of exclamation marks, lots of buildup as if all of their findings were some fantastic revelation, lots of repetition, etc. I did like the appendices in the back written by Eric Arnson (the consultant), which are like a crash course summary of the science behind market research. It’s about time churches are run more strategically, and this book shows them how to do that. I highly recommend this for every pastor, elder, deacon, or ministry leader of a church.

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was just okay. The entire premise it can be summed up in the message that seeker-friendly services don't work on a long-term basis or across the board. Basically, seeker-friendly is great to draw people in to the church, but it just doesn't work to create disciples or encourage spiritual growth. Since Willow Creek was primarily focused on being seeker-friendly, they've had to reevaluate and revamp a lot about the way that they do church.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a point, I am responsible for my own spiritual growth. It's not all about the numbers of people who are attending church and participating in programs, but the experiences they have as a result of participation.

[Daniel McNaughton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great to hear how Willow tried to measure discipleship. I haven't seen too much of that. I think they are on to something.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

READ JUL 2008

This is a good primer for anyone struggling with spiritual transformation and the relationship between the individual and the church.

[David Zimmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subject of the April 08 Donkey Congress for Likewise Books.