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Read This Before You Jump on the Willowcreek “Reveal Study” Band Wagon! (Pro or Con!)

By chris | December 26, 2007

Sociologist Bradley Wright has done us all a favor by posting an extensive 11 part review of the Willowcreek Reveal study by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson . You may recall Christianity Today wrote an article about the study subtitled “Why the most influential church in America now says “We made a mistake.”

The study and conversation surrounding it has created controversy in some quarters and now has many churches showing interest in using the Reveal Now research service. I commend anyone who wants to use more research in ministry planning, but I would recommend taking more time to think about the ministry planning usefulness of using the Reveal Now research service. Hawkins and Parkinson have written an excellent resource to help you in your decision making.

Hawkins and Parkinson take a sociologist researcher’s view of the study and point out ways in which many (including the researchers) have misunderstood the implications of study. In my opinion the problem originates from the attempt to over-apply the marketing concept in the church setting. I have mentioned before I think the church needs her own definition of church marketing, not a baptized version of secular marketing.

Hawkins and Parkinson are not overly critical of the Willowcreek approach or the survey and they debunk conclusions made by harsh critics of the study. I think you will find the analysis to be balanced. If your church is thinking about doing a Reveal study of your own you owe it to yourselves to read the analysis of Hawkins and Parkinson.

Hawkins’ and Parkinson’s conclusions are excellent and helpful:

  1. Well done. Collecting survey data is a powerful but virtually unused tool in the world of Christian churches. By conducting Reveal, Willow Creek has modeled to other churches the usefulness of church surveys, and given Willow’s influence in American Christendom, I would hope that this message takes hold.
  2. Weaknesses. As with any survey, Reveal has its weaknesses. The cross-sectional design of its sample (i.e., a one-time snapshot) limits the conclusions that can be drawn from the data. Also, the author’s use of “maximizing predictability,” a technique apparently popular in brand marketing studies, doesn’t fit well with studies of human behavior. Reveal constitutes a good pilot study that should prepare the way for more definitive studies in the future.
  3. Overinterpretation of the data. The conclusion drawn by the study’s authors, and loudly echoed by critics of Willow Creek, is that the Willow model is flawed. The data presented here are sufficiently ambiguous to make such strong claims. Given the weaknesses of the study design and analytic strategy, it’s possible that the results indicate strong support for the Willow Creek model.
  4. Future studies. Simply repeating the Reveal study with hundreds more churches potentially adds very little knowledge. Much better would be a smaller, longitudinal study of, say, a thousand respondents. If many churches are studied, measure characteristics of the churches as a whole as well as of individuals.

If you are interested in conducting research in your church, check out these other posts from MMC:

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