The article on the front page of the Journal Star today is about the traffic jams around Northwoods Community Church. Riveting.
I think the most interesting paragraph in the story was this one:
Though it claims only 750 parishioners, attendance at Northwoods has soared to an average of 4,300 members over the last six weeks – 550 more than the count at the beginning of the year.
Isn’t it odd that they have such high attendance, but low commitment? So many people willing to attend, despite major traffic inconvenience, but so few willing to commit themselves through formal church membership.
Northwoods models their church after Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. It’s a “seeker-sensitive” church model, which means that on weekends (Saturday night and Sunday morning) the services are geared toward reaching the unchurched. The preaching doesn’t focus so much on doctrine and theology, but rather on the felt needs of the people they’re trying to reach. They set aside Wednesday nights as the time to build up believers and have more “meaty” sermons and extended times of worship; in other words, their Wednesday nights are more like most churches’ Sunday mornings.
I wonder how one measures the success of such a model. Is success measured in the number of weekend visitors, or the number of committed members? Or should the measurement be something else entirely? I’ve been reading a book called Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey, and she claims that, historically, churches didn’t measure “success,” per se, and they certainly didn’t measure it in terms of numbers. Rather, they were more concerned about doctrinal purity and personal piety. They spent more time teaching their children the catechisms and their congregations the creeds, and evangelism was more of a personal endeavor than a corporate one.
I wonder how Northwoods defines success, and if they’re pleased or troubled by the disparity between visitors and members. Maybe Michael Miller can do a column on that in the religion section sometime. In the meantime, they’re trying to get that traffic situation under control.
“I wonder how one measures the success of such a model.”
Do you think churches should measure success? I think half the problem of Christianity in the US today is that churches seem a lot more concerned with how many members, how many tithers, how big the collection, how honored the choir, how famous the preacher. Not how holy the people, how Christian their lives. Those aren’t measurable outcomes, and BY GOD in America we demand churches be modeled on business and provide deliverables and measureables.
This was actually something we talked a lot about in seminary, what “success” meant in a Christian context and whether that word ought to be used at all — as well as how pastors could resist the coporatizing demands of church boards.
Sounds like Nancy Pearcey and I (and my seminary profs) are in a fair amount of agreement. I’ll have to check out the book.
I’ve attended Northwoods from time to time. My parents go weekly. I don’t know if Northwoods considers itself successful or not, but this is why I think it is such a draw: While it offers a “feel good” atmosphere, some entertainment and Christian surroundings, the service delivers basic Christian fundamentals without the congregation feeling “preached at”. They also apply real life to the sermons. This is a complete 180 from my strictish Mennonite upbringing…direct from the bible, week after week, fire and brimstone, repent now, etc. You can only hear Daniel and the Lions’ Den, Jonah getting yakked up by a whale and sing countless choruses of “Onward Christian Soldiers” so many times before they become meaningless and you lose interest.
I’ve never been to Northwoods Community Church but have driven by it many times. Looks more like a gymnasium than anything else.
I was told in the past that many of the people who are going there are singles and the place is a bit like a “singles scene,” where people are looking for others with similar beliefs. Maybe they are more interested in meeting someone of the opposite sex than becoming a member of a church? And all these singles driving individually would cause some congestion.
I also get the idea people use Northwoods as something of a status symbol; if you want to be a part of the “in crowd,” it’s a place to be seen at.
I have been there. What bothers me, is the way they slide past the fact that we are sinners, how you don’t have to read the Bible, but instead come in, get some entertainment, hear a bit about the millions $$ they have collected, not to help the community, but pay for the building of their golden calf called a church. Pretty sad when the seats to sit in cost as much as most peoples computers. It’s a status symbol for the guilty.
Facinating comments, but Northwoods has grown as much due to the committed membership many of whom came over from other churches, such as Grace Presbyterian.
But equally important is that regardless of the doctrinal purity of Pastor Ben Johnson (Grace Presbyterian), I want to fall asleep or just hurl, if I have to listen to him for very long. Cal Rychner (Northwoods) is a gifted communicator of the Bible and it’s principals in his life, and the life of others.
I also want to note that I think someone in the Recorder of Deeds office told me about a year ago that Grace Presbyterian had puchased substantial acreage out in the North Knoxville area.
And having known Elders from Grace Presbyterian who left when they felt Pastor John Queen was run off, some of whom are now with Northwoods, it is interesting to see the style of the churches where they landed and Grace, looking over their shoulder.
A little further history…..I thought Grace Presbyterian blew it when they let Ed Grey get away. But he was too simple, ot credentialed enough and perhaps had to checkered of a past (prior to divinity training) to be the pastor of “Grace”. From the pulpit, he was of the quality of Cal Rychner, with a very simple humility. There were just those in the congregation that didn’t share that characteristic.
I work at Grace, so my policy is not to blog about work. However, I’ll break that rule for this brief moment in time to make a clarification and to respond to some false statements from Chase.
First of all, I meant no ill will toward Northwoods in my post. Every church has trouble with the disparity between members and attenders, those who serve and those who just want to be served. I only used Northwoods as an example because they were on the front page of the paper and their disparity was unusually large. I was going for a discussion along the lines Eyebrows McGee was taking it — talking about “success” as it relates to churches generally and the seeker-sensitive model in particular.
Secondly, in response to Chase, I don’t see any need to compare Ben’s preaching style to Cal’s. Everyone has different needs, and Ben’s style appeals to some more than Cal’s and vice versa. They’re both gifted communicators in their own unique ways. The church never bought land on north Knoxville, so your source at the recorder of deeds office is mistaken (perhaps he/she was thinking of Northminster Presbyterian who did purchase land and build out there). Grace did purchase land on Route 91 near the Shoppes at Grand Prairie and is planning to build there in the fall of 2008, Lord-willing. It is inaccurate to say that John Queen was “run off.” There’s enough blame to go around for the situation that led to Pastor Queen’s resignation, but it’s not any of your business, or anyone at Northwoods, or mine, for that matter. Ed Grey was an interim pastor between Dr. Dunn and John Queen who said from the start that he would not seek nor accept the senior pastor position. And finally, as to your comment that “there were those in the congregation [at Grace] that didn’t share that characteristic [humility],” all I can say is, “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”