The greatest, visible effect that Willow Creek has had on my home church was when it implemented the Willow Creek Promiseland children’s program a few years back. Whatever success Promiseland has been for my home church cannot fully be measured until years and years down the line, when the kids grow up to be (young) adults. I don’t have that insight nor hindsight from years of ministerial experience like Piper or MacArthur to accurately gauge the effectiveness of such program-driven ministries. I only pray that all these young kids would grow up to love God above all else — and such is only possible through God’s Word.

Upon the recent release of its findings from a multi-year qualitative study of its ministry, Willow Creek founder Bill Hybels confesses this:

We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.

As reported at the Christianity Today blog.

Thanks for your honesty, Bill. It was about time that we heard this from your own lips.