The Reveal Study

Reveal: Where Are You? by Greg L. Hawkins


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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...and 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, I think many people want to assume that because this team discovered correlations in the survey data that there is "a definitive way to do church" and maybe too many churches will try to do the same thing.  If that is the case, then 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 as with the church body and our own spiritual growth.  The reveal study does speak to this as well and we need to help people to do the work and invest in their relationship with God to see it mature.

View all my reviews >>