18
ago, designed as "an alternative outreach service" with "upbeat music and testimonies designed
for non-Christians."
59
Hybels himself says Willow Creek combats the acknowledged dangers of seeker services
with an emphasis on small groups: "Church leaders decided Willow would become not just a
church with small groups but a church of small groups."
60
If these small groups can function in
the areas of discipleship and accountability, a seeker friendly church can also be a
ecclesiologically sound church. That is Poe's verdict as well; his concern is for those who
imitate Hybels without recognizing the dangers. "While Willow Creek Church and Saddleback
Valley do an outstanding job of attending to the theological foundations for their ministries, their
imitators do not always have the same concern."
61
I would concur, and add that there is thus still
a great need to urge church leaders to think ecclesiologically as well as strategically.
Megachurches
While there have always been some large churches throughout church history, something
unusual has been happening in our era. John Vaughan writes, "The recent rise of larger and
larger churches at an increasingly faster rate of growth is unique to this final quarter of the
twentieth century."
62
He notes that, worldwide, there were more than 40 congregations with
more than 10,000 members as of 1993, and congregations surpassing 2000 attenders were
59
Poe, 441.
60
Gillmor, 50. Emphasis in original.
61
Poe, 442.
62
John N. Vaughan, Megachurches and America's Cities (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker,
1993), 40.