The title of the book is Connections: The Right People, In the Right
Places, For the Right Reasons. The authors are three non-Adventists:
Bruce Bugbee, Don Cousins, and Bill Hybels. Hybels is the pastor of the
megachurch, Willow Creek, near Chicago, Illinois.
The original book title, as published by Zondervan, is
Network Kit. Connections is an Adventist reissue, plus a few
quotations from Ellen White or other Adventist writers. The only copyright
is by Willow Creek Community Church. The reader is also told that "all
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the Holy
Bible: New International Version," and that some Bible quotations are from
the New American Standard Bible. Since there is no second copyright, this
Adventist edition" contains essentially what is in the Willow Creek
Network Kit.
Monte Sahlin, Administrator, North American Church
Resources Consortium, recommending the book, provides a brief Foreward.
Also at the front of the book is the Acknowledgements
by Bruce Bugbee, President of Network Ministries International. An
Ecumenical nonAdventist, like all the other authors of this book, Curtis
Rittenour mentions that he is indebted to Ron Gladdens willingness to be
one of the first to use this material in an Adventist setting, as a
replacement for "the traditional nominating committee." Gladden
experimented and found that he could eliminate the democratic voting
process in our local churches, by, instead, appointing people to offices
in accordance with what he thought were their "gifts." Would you
consider it safe to eliminate the normal voting process, whereby the
members elect the leaders in their local church? As you may know, Gladden
recently bolted from the organization and started his own "denomination."
Actually, Gladdens idea of selection is reflected in the subtitle of
Connections: "The Right People, In the Right Places, For the Right
Reasons."
Just after the Foreward is the Preface,
by Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church.
In it, he explains that this book contains the methods
of instructing and molding church members which have been developed over a
period of time by Hybels and the staff of Willow Creek. A concluding
paragraph has been inserted for this present "Adventist edition":
"I consider the development of the Network
[Connections] materials to be one of the most significant breakthroughs in
the history of Willow Creek Community Church.
"We discovered years ago that believers flourish in
their service to Christ when they are serving in the area of their
giftedness and in conjunction with their God-given uniqueness. These
materials grew out of our desire to help believers discover their
spiritual gifts, and then determine where to use them in our church body.
.
"I've been privileged to meet many Seventh-day
Adventists at our Church Leadership Conferences. And I am pleased these
materials have been adapted for the Adventist community.
"May God bless you as you learn and grow through these tremendous
materials.
"Bill Hybels
"Senior Pastor
"Willow Creek Community Church"
Who is Bill Hybels? You may be surprised to learn that
his megachurch has trained large numbers of our leaders and pastors in
Willow Creek techniques of increasing church growth by skits, more
"popular" music, and celebration-style activities during church service.
Read the box below. More about Bill Hybels and his church below.
WHAT DOES THE NEW BOOK TEACH?
Session One of the book, Connections, is
concerned with instilling the concept that we must all be together,
regardless of our individual differences in thinking (pp. 1-12).
Session Two is a 10-page "Passion Assessment" which the
reader must fill out (pp. 13-22), to list all things which
thrill him most.
Session Three is entitled, "Why Can't You Be More
Like Me?" and stresses the need "to become more interdependent"
(pp. 23-33). The great need for each church member, regardless of
differences in thinking, to become more interdependent, is strongly
emphasized on pp. 28-29.
Session Four is quite lengthy (pp. 35-88). The participants are
first subjected to "Huddle Groups" for the purpose of "Spiritual Gifts
Matching." This is followed by filling out lengthy sheets of "Spiritual
Gifts Assessment" and then "Observation Assessment," which you fill out to
decide the capabilities of others around you.
Session Five (pp. 89-120) helps strengthen your
self-confidence in the special abilities which are inside you. For
example, one is the gift of "miracles."
"Literal Meaning: To do powerful deeds. Description:
The gift of Miracles is the divine enablement to authenticate the ministry
and message of God through unusual intervention which glorify the Lord.
Distinctives: People with this gift: Speak God's truth and may have it
authenticated by an accompanying miracle.." (p. 108).
As you can see, by the time you complete this training
program, you have become quite self-confident about your abilities; for
that was the purpose: to instill self-confidence. There is not one word
anywhere in this book about repenting of sin, resisting temptation,
repentance, putting away sins, overcoming, obeying God's law, etc. But you
would not expect it to have such notions-for this is a Protestant book,
developed in one of the largest megachurches in the nation. The purpose is
to flatter yourself with the marvelous abilities you possess.
Session Six is about what you would expect it to be:
Not obedience to God's law, but love as the greatest gift (pp.
121-128). Entitled, "What’s Love Got To Do With It?" on p. 121, it
compares "Servility" (doing something because you are supposed to)
with "Servanthood" (doing something only because you want to). The
next page explains that such work for God, which the author called
"servility," always leads to self-centeredness and egotism; whereas
"servanthood" is only doing what is right because you feel a loving
thought to do it.
BILL HYBELS AND WILLOW CREEK CHURCH
Yes, just who is Bill Hybels? We discussed both him and
his church in detail in Going to Willow Creek (WM-1003-1004 J,
which we released in January 2001. In order to understand what made his
church one of the fastest growing churches in America, we need only review
the special concept underlying everything he has done-which has
consistently met with amazing success in "bringing 'em in off the
streets." The secret is worldly music, worldly theatricals, and worldly
entertainment Here is a portion of what I earlier wrote:
William (Bill) Hybels was a student at Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, during the only two
years that Gilbert Bilezikian was a theology teacher there . . Hybels had
been leading a youth ministry called Son City which, in three years had
grown from 25 to 1,200 in attendance. They used dramatic skits, loud
way-out music, and multimedia slides to impact their listeners.
In May 1974, Hybels and other Son City leaders began to
dream about starting a church, but a different kind; this would be one to
which people could come, amid all their problems and not feel judged. They
realized that simple talks about daily living, along with lots of music
and drama, would be needed.
One day in 1975, Hybels rode up on his motorcycle to
Bilezikiari s home in Wheaton, Illinois; he ran up to the door and
breathlessly told him that the two of them were going to start a church.
When the older man asked what it was all about, Hybels told him the church
would be based on Bilezikiari s idea of community. When the teacher
protested that they lacked funds, Hybels just repeated, "We are going to
build a church."
Hybels resigned as youth pastor of the Son City
project; and, on October 12 of that year, 125 people attended Hybel's
first church service, held at the Willow Creek Theater, a movie theater in
nearby Palatine. Somehow, the people who arrived for the service managed
to ignore the lewd title of the movie playing that week. Hybels was only
23.
To pay the rent and buy sound equipment, 100 teenagers
sold 1,200 baskets of tomatoes door-to-door.
A year later, the Sunday morning church services at the
theater were filled with attendees; and Hybels and Bilezikian began
conducting two services each Sunday. Two years later, the services grew to
three; all of them squeezed into the morning hours, with everything packed
and gone by 1 p.m., so the movie crowd could come in.
Within three years, the two men were preaching to 2,500
people a week. They did it with jazzy music, theatrical skits, and
excitable sermons about youth topics to audiences in shirt sleeves,
sipping on Pepsi. The two of them believed that, by doing this, they were
reviving the Acts 2 Church. With an evangelistic zeal, they pushed onward,
always figuring out new ways to attract seekers who could, by merely
declaring they had accepted Christ, become full-fledged church members.
Doctrine was never an issue; "being saved" at a meeting was all that
counted.
Young Hybels and the older Bilezikian made a point of
not bringing "theological jargon" into their sermons or counseling
sessions. Just "get them to an acceptance of Christ."
Oh, you think you have seen the end of this? Far from
it. Now we are also sending our workers and leaders to Rick Warren’s
Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, for more instruction. Oh, my
brother and sister: How near are we to the end?
America's most attended church, a noncharismatic nondenominational church
in suburban Chicago, continues to shape not only its immediate
community but, more notably, the 2.200 member churches from 70
denominations participating in the Willow Creek Association.
WCA endeavors to "help the church turn irreligious people into fully
devoted followers of Christ."
"Fact: Adventists, both pastors and laypeople,
consistently make up one of the largest groups at Willow Creek's
half-dozen annual seminars-including church leadership conferences in
May and October and a leadership summit in August.
"Fact: The three latest Adventist churches to divide or
depart [separate from the denomination] Oregon's Sunnyside, Maryland's
Damascus, and Colorado's Christ Advent Fellowship-were clearly influenced
by Willow Creek's ministry hallmarks (small groups, spiritual gifts
discovery, friendship evangelism, contemporary worship), if not its
congregational status.
"Fact: Many Adventists who haven't been to Willow Creek
are sick of hearing about it from Adventists who have been to Willow
Creek. In some cases local members have divided over how
"seeker-sensitive" their church services should be.
"What to do with Willow Creek? .. I'm grateful for
Willow Creek. It was there that my former academy church, Forest Lake, got
intentional about worship; that Adventist friends and relatives recognized
their natural abilities-from drama to maintenanceas natural ministries..
"I've never exited the $34.3 million [Willow Creek) complex without
positive thoughts.
"From this perspective I offer these sentiments:
"Adventists should give Willow Creek a fair shake. As a
people often prejudged, we should avoid prejudging others . .
Adventists should continue gleaning from Willow Creek. . Willow Creek has
its place in prophecy too. Granted, it's a different place. But we can
learn from each other . .
"I think of Mountain View Church in Las Vegas; of the
freshly planted New Community in Atlanta; of my home church, New Hope, in
Laurel, Maryland; and of other churches mature enough to incorporate
Willow Creek principles. .
"We can learn from each other."-"On Willow Creek,"
Adventist Review, December 18, 1997 [bold print and underlining ours].