Spiritual Discipline

I've been thinking about my faith lately and where I'm at. I think my growth is pretty slow and I haven't prayed or read my Bible in a long time. I do feel it's good to read the Word, but my mind is easily swayed to reading other books. I think the cool thing about the Bible is that I do learn something new each time I read a verse. It's just getting the motivation to read it.

I read a pretty interesting article titled "Willow Creek Repents?" about Willow Creek Community Church admitting that they made a mistake by investing millions of dollars into programs and measuring participation as an indicator of spiritual growth. From a qualitative survey of people who attend the church, the staff learned that those who were not Christians felt the church was doing a great job meeting their needs. However, those who were devoted followers of Christ were not growing spiritually much at all through the Willow Creek model of seeker sensitive programs. The biggest thing they learned was that teaching the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships were the most effective methods of helping Christians grow spiritually. And these basic disciplines do not require millions of dollars to promote.

Bill Hybels who founded Willow Creek Community Church confessed:

"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."

My thinking about which church to go to has made me realize it doesn't matter. Which church has better praise and worship or sermon really doesn't affect how one grows spiritually. I'm sure I will be staying at my church for a long time because I learned today that what matters most for my growth spiritually is self discipline. It really made me realize that faith is a journey and if I want to make the most out of it, I have to put my own effort into simply praying, reading the Bible, and building relationships. Programs are not going to help me grow, but quiet times will. That is truly what I am lacking and I need to think about that.

Peace.