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Move: What 1000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth

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Most church leaders are passionate about their calling to “go and make disciples.” However, despite their most creative thinking, diligent efforts and rigorous assessments, year after year they arrive at the end of a ministry season with no way of knowing for sure whether they have succeeded or failed in their calling. “I want to serve God,” the refrain goes, “and on most days, I believe I’m doing what I’m called to do. But what if my approach is off-track? What if the work we’re doing as a church doesn’t really help people grow at all?” The only indicators of success most leaders have are numbers. Is attendance up? Are giving trends on the rise? Are we baptizing more people this year than last? Numbers are helpful, but they still come up short. Numbers may tell leaders how active their congregants are, but they reveal very little about whether or not anyone’s heart is changing as a result. Leaders need more than numbers to help them assess their efforts and make strategic ministry decisions. The crux of spiritual growth is not how busy people are with spiritual activities but how engaged they are with Christ. How close is a person to Christ? Are they fully surrendered to his will and his teaching? Do they prioritize faith in their daily lives? Are they growing in their love of God and others? In order to answer these questions, leaders need more than numbers; they need to see inside people’s hearts.In 2004, Willow Creek Community Church completed research that would eventually become the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey. Based on those initial findings, as well as data from more than 150,000 congregants in 500 churches, the REVEAL team discovered a way to see inside the hearts and minds of congregants. The Christ-Centered Heart presents discoveries not from a hypothetical, theoretical or opinion-driven point of view, but from an empirical one. By linking biblical principles with spiritual attitudes and behaviors, REVEAL research The Christ-Centered Heart provides a foundational understanding of this new lens for spiritual growth and presents findings from the latest REVEAL research. Focusing on Jesus’ definition of spiritual growth as increasing love of God and others (Matthew 22:36 – 40), the book draws on compelling stories of real people as well as engaging charts and graphs to illustrate key concepts and insights. It includes four PART The Heart of the Matter explains the brutal truth about spiritual growth and an orientation on how REVEAL takes us “inside” the hearts of congregants.PART The Spiritual Continuum identifies the five segments of intimacy with Christ and describes people with “closed hearts,” who are Far from Christ; people with “searching hearts,” who are Exploring Christ; people with “open hearts,” who are Growing in Christ; people with “engaged hearts,” who are Close to Christ; and people with “surrendered hearts,” who are “Christ-Centered.”PART Spiritual Movement details the distinct spiritual catalysts that move people toward increasing intimacy with Christ. This includes four spiritual from rejection to searching for Christ; from searching to accepting Christ; from growing in Christ to becoming close to him; and from close to Christ to becoming Christ-centered. We name two primary barriers to spiritual growth—becoming “stalled” along the journey toward intimacy with Christ, and becoming “dissatisfied” with the church’s ability to lead people there.PART Spiritual Leadership presents five key findings based on REVEAL’s proprietary “Spiritual Vitality Index,” which ranks a church’s effectiveness in helping people grow.

279 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 12, 2011

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About the author

Greg L. Hawkins

13 books3 followers

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
68 reviews1 follower
August 19, 2013
Normally I would cringe at any quantitative assessment in spiritual growth, but in this book, the numbers and strategies are very clearly NOT the heart of the matter - discipleship is. The authors pull no punches in identifying what catalyses spiritual growth towards full Christ-centered devotion and what hinders this growth in churches. I'd say this is a must-read for any church leader who is genuinely committed to making disciples. Reading this book will lead to reflection and self-evaluation - perhaps that is the most significant way this book can impact leaders.

This book is by no means perfect (nothing ever is), but it is written by people led by the Holy Spirit and it will be most effective read under the guidance of the same Spirit, by a Christ-centered heart fuelling a Christ-surrendered intellect. It will equip different apostles in different ways.
Profile Image for David.
49 reviews2 followers
May 24, 2013
I got as much personal growth from this book as I got the leadership development that my pastors were looking for. The book is filled with practical and implementable action steps to move congregants toward a more Christ-centered life, supported with the biblical and theological principles. While I began reading with an intention to become better prepared in serving the church, I quickly found myself reading with an eye towards advancing my own spiritual growth. I suppose that is at least one of the authors' unwritten objectives, as modeling a Christ-centered life is one of their ultimate strategic recommendations.
Profile Image for Phil.
206 reviews31 followers
April 21, 2013
This book is essentially the result of a series of surveys prompted by Willow Creek’s self-evaluation back in 2008 or so. This self-evaluation prompted a number of changes in the church’s approaches to ministry (270-277). I liked some aspects of the book, but I didn’t like others. I’ll start with what I liked and then tell you what I didn’t like.

The positives: The writers emphasize the importance of biblical engagement, pulling away from some of the pushes for diet Scripture teaching and preaching of yesteryear (10, 219-227). They even laud the oft-assumed dinosaur of expository preaching as an effective means to this end (222). The writers dismiss the activity and program-oriented model of church growth (16-17) for a model that is more focused on individuals and their spiritual vitality. Participation is not enough (33). The admission that the churches surveyed primarily are filled with immature believers was interesting (51). While I don’t know if this is true across the board, it is a valuable statistic to be aware of. The fact that believers “expect to be challenged” (54) is a strong point to make, but a needed one. We sometimes tend to think that avoiding placing church members into tight accountability structures makes the church more attractive, but it really does just the opposite. I thought the gap concept (88-98) was very important. The church does a good job teaching people to assent to key biblical concepts like stewardship, evangelism, service, and love for others, but can often fail at driving the congregants to actuate these beliefs. The importance of accountability and intimacy through spiritual friendships and mentorships is highlighted (120). I appreciated the writers’ rejection of a one-size fits all model, even if the recommendations seem to move in this direction, something I’ll address later (158). The rejection of the Keswick crisis-model of sanctification is also notable (159). An emphasis on personal commitment to the cause of Christ (174) and small group ministry (177) are also helpful. I thought that the last two chapters on community outreach (237-247) and pastoral leadership (248-255) were particularly insightful.

The negatives: The whole approach seemed off to me. The book begins with the assumption that the church is on the wrong course with doing ministry. Rather than beginning to take polls to see what needs to be done, perhaps some other steps needed to be taken first. Perhaps the church should examine what may be wrong with the approach. Willow Creek and many of the seeker-oriented models began with similar community-focused surveys in order to help them cater to the wants and needs of the unsaved and saved community around them. They then shaped their churches around these needs and wants. They created a consumer mentality for their churches. Now, twenty years later, the people are dissatisfied, so the approach is to poll the people and find out where they’re at. On the upside, they’re polling church-goers in order to understand how the church should work. On the downside, it seems like they forgot to poll God. I guess that’s a little harsh. Let me back it down a little. I get that they’re trying to gain insight on where they’re succeeding and failing in ministering to their people, and you can get a glimpse of that from a poll, but you can also learn a lot if your starting point is the Word of God. This also works itself out in the approach of the survey.

The whole continuum model (21-22) just seemed off to me. First, these analyses are made by people in the moment. By an answer to one question, the writers are filtering every other aspect of the survey. Perhaps some of the people being surveyed just had a really bad week and struggled with a particular sin, and then they ranked themselves low; however, on the whole, they’re really much stronger Christians than they’d admit. Second, these categories become the lenses through which the rest of the book views the peoples’ actions. I’d rather see that paradigm reversed. In other words, we should be taking an Epistle of James approach and identifying certain actions of believing persons that demonstrate growth, poll these, and determine where our congregations are at spiritually. Finally, these paradigms shouldn’t become so front and center in our ministry that we forget that people are on a journey and not in a science lab. Counting and grouping are all well and good in the lab, but in real life people often don’t fit neat little molds that we try to force them into.

Another issue I had was that the impression that the writers give is that certain beliefs, church activities, personal practices, and spiritual activities need particular emphasis at different times in the Christian walk (see charts on 111, 114, 118, 121). But every church is made up of people at different points in the walk. Surely if we’re turning off and turning on (or turning down and turning up) aspects of teaching and edification as we poll our congregations then we run the risk of doing exactly what the writers lament: catering to one set of needs above another (183). Perhaps it seems a little simplistic to say this, but if we’re being whole-Bible pastors and are seeking to teach the whole counsel of God, shouldn’t we be covering all these bases through every avenue of the church as possible? Why would we turn off or turn down any of these aspects?

At times the writers tend to downplay “the church’s direct influence” (155), as if there’s a time at which the church equips believers, and then the believers go out on their own to evangelize and grow. But I think this misses the mark. We need the church more than we could possibly imagine. But this is also one of the downsides of a survey. Super-saints tend to think they don’t need other people. The Bible says that everyone needs the church (Eph. 4:12). I don’t think that this is what the writers intend, but it almost comes across that way.

So I guess I’m saying that there are some interesting points that surface throughout the book, but on the whole it would have been better if it was approached through a Scriptural lens. If you’re already conscientiously contextualizing a Gospel-centered model (cf. Keller’s Center Church), then you’ll probably not find the results of this study quite as shocking or “counterintuitive” (14) as the writers claim.
Profile Image for Shawn Couch.
14 reviews7 followers
September 21, 2024
Very thought provoking but I have many disagreements with parts of this book:

1 - What they consider Christ Centered still seems to be a far cry from the believers in the New Testament, church history, and even believers today (especially the persecuted and desperate mostly outside the U.S.). In my opinion, their version of Christ Centered is definitely not the highest maturity a believer can obtain but rather seems to be just the higher spectrum of “Close to Christ”. For example, on pg 95 it states “Are you willing to risk everything that’s important in your life for Jesus Christ?” Then you can look at the chart and see that only about 55% of Christ-Centered answered yes to this question. This is seems to be the bare minimum to be Christ-Centered (not 55% of…). There were other Q’s/instances like this in the Christ-Centered. Maybe the highest should rather be an added “Christ Centered, Spirit led, and Spirit empowered” (which resembles the early church). This goes beyond “Purpose Driven” (p. 134) to “Presence Driven”.

2- It seems this book has a pastors bias as it is seen primarily through a pastors lens (places too much emphasis on the local church vs being the church and often that isn’t limited to the local church…this needs to include more perspective from parachurch ministry leaders, and other forms of ministries that are in ministries but not in traditional settings (I.e., what people typically think of when the term local church is used). It hits on this a bit in pg 100 stating “Too often a pastor’s worldview is too limited…”. That is a great statement but I believe this book falls into this very trap also.

3- There is very little emphasis on Spirit led…it’s one thing to teach people to be “all in” and totally surrendered to Christ and place high emphasis on the Word and other fundamental disciplines but they also should place emphasis on “in addition to the former” being led by the Spirit which this book places very little emphasis on (or at least doesn’t talk much about it).

Also I struggled so many times while reading to push through the sea of details (this book could have been shortened significantly). I felt like much of the information was either unnecessary or just common sense (people already knew the “what” so maybe just a high level overview) but what I really wanted was the “how”. Maybe if people wanted the rest of the details it could have been included in appendices etc.
Profile Image for David.
152 reviews14 followers
October 16, 2013
"Move: What 1,000 Churches Reveal about Spiritual Growth" is the best church growth book I've read so far this year. Rather than focusing on increasing numbers, the author proposes the key to thriving churches is increasing the focus on progressive discipleship, with believers moving from one stage to the next. I was pleasantly surprised how much emphasis is placed on reading and studying the Bible individually -- according to the author's survey, without immersion in the Scriptures discipleship just doesn't occur. I recommend this book highly -- it was an informative, inspiring and enjoyable read.
Profile Image for Ryan Fisher.
118 reviews5 followers
February 8, 2012
This was a very informative read. Obviously there is a lot of research to back up the results which in the end are somewhat intuitive. It's amazing how we as the church over-complicate things. This is definitely a book that church leaders need to read and be aware of.
Profile Image for Caleb.
14 reviews
October 22, 2012
Great resource for informing and focusing our efforts to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples.
2 reviews3 followers
August 13, 2012
Great insights about Christian growth within evangelical churches.
Profile Image for James Bauslaugh.
41 reviews5 followers
April 11, 2014
Great book for Church leaders to learn how to take their church to the next level
Profile Image for Nicholas Varady-szabo.
181 reviews4 followers
March 25, 2021
It was a little hard to read this in light of what happened with Bill Hybels.

Despite that, this was a really great book. It was thorough, honest, and fresh in it's approach and conclusions. The conclusions of the giant study they undertook seem healthy, biblical and wise.

My hesitations lie around the emphasis on data and statistics to guide ministry strategy, but by and large I think this book is really worth reading and I found myself being inspired, challenged and informed with how I think about ministry and church.

Would recommend to any pastor, lay church leader, or parachurch ministry leader.
Profile Image for Wesley Roth.
220 reviews10 followers
November 30, 2022
The authors have provided a book, reflecting the results of 1000 churches who completed the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey. This survey, they surmise, reveals some surprising answers on attendee’s attitudes and beliefs, along with best strategies to help these attendees spiritually grow. They maintain that there are four segments of church attendees: Exploring Christ, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ and Christ-Centered (pg 21). The goal, in discipleship and spiritual formation for leaders and pastors, is how to move each segment of attenders to the next “level” and ultimately to living a “Christ-Centered” life.
Profile Image for Jennifer.
454 reviews11 followers
December 29, 2020
I started this book years ago and couldn't really get into it. I recently noticed it on my shelf and decided to give it another try. This time around, I pulled a lot more out of it. I don't mind reading non-fiction or research, but this is definitely a little data heavy if you're not used to reading stuff like that. It makes a lot of interesting points about spiritual growth. I originally wanted to read it because I was helping to lead the youth group at my church. This time, I read it more for my own spiritual growth and looking at church from an outside perspective.
Profile Image for Glenn.
234 reviews15 followers
January 25, 2020
Good empirical overview on the life of the church.

Authors are humble about the mystery of spiritual growth but also have strong insights.

Primary framework I appreciated was a segmentation in to four groups of maturity and their characteristics; and then what it takes on the three borders to move among them.
Profile Image for Noel Burke.
475 reviews14 followers
March 3, 2019
Our church took the reveal survey and we were encouraged to read this book which gave greater insight into the results. I found it helpful to better understand some of the questions and intentions behind them and how that flowed into the results.
Profile Image for Timm.
73 reviews
December 20, 2016
I am a data driven person so for me this book was a home run. As a Christian with leadership responsibility in my church, the guidance provided by the authors is invaluable.
Profile Image for Tony Wolfe.
25 reviews2 followers
December 28, 2017
Practical, research-based thoughts on moving churched Christians through the spiritual growth process. A thought-provoking read for all church leaders.
Profile Image for Joshua.
23 reviews
August 6, 2019
A survey of American churches determines what spiritual growth is? How about consult the Scriptures on what to do instead, eh?
Profile Image for Matt Sones.
222 reviews6 followers
November 6, 2023
Say what you want about church stats, I found this a refreshingly honest assessment.
Profile Image for Nick Richtsmeier.
197 reviews11 followers
May 4, 2015
It pains me to say that this is the worst book I've read this year. It pains me because I worked for Greg Hawkins many years ago and loved his insight, his heart and his perspective on so many things. I know this book by reputation and am a little late the party in reading it. What is wrong with this book is it's complete inability to address the assumptions and biases that created the sociological work behind it. Hawkins and Parkinson speak with near certainty about the implications and results of the REVEAL study and yet show no academic humility about the way they ask the questions or the options they gave responders. The findings of the Reveal study and the sadly simplistic way that they present spiritual maturation are the result of a rigid set of 20th century Americanized Christian definitions that no church father would recognize.
Their heart in it is deep and real, and for that I am grateful. They lead evangelical pastors to the power of data to overcome confirmation bias and this is important. But the study and the accompanying book draw little to nothing from the broader transformational material on how growth happens, a body of knowledge that Western Evanglicalism desperately needs if it's ever going to face its own golden calves.
Profile Image for Albert Hong.
219 reviews3 followers
October 12, 2015
This was a book that I was excited to read and really wanted to like. It was the perfect marriage between Moneyball and church development that I had been looking for for a while. Much props to the creators of the study and the effort put into developing the research around this.

The key results from the study were unfortunately not that impressive or impactful. This is actually not a knock on the researchers (that's what happens with research, you just report what you find).

This book is about 4 times longer than it needs to be. I could have used less of the how and jumped straight to the results.

Overall, my takeaways. Large group worship services have increasingly less impact on a congregant as that congregant grows in maturity. Encouraging personal engagement with Scripture is a key growth element. High expectations and clear pathways are helpful for newcomers.
Profile Image for Franklin Wood.
106 reviews1 follower
August 28, 2014
How do you measure spiritual growth? Even though I highly dislike statistical books with "this-is-how-you-fix-it-and-it's-easy" types of approaches, I enjoyed this one.
The authors understand that churches vary as much as people, and a "one size fits all" approach doesn't always work.
On the other hand, I like the framework they lay down for analyzing spiritual growth in your church.
Even though I may not use this exact model, it has reminded me of the importance of the journey of each Christ-follower...and that we should never let each other become stagnant in that journey.
Profile Image for Wendy Hall.
768 reviews13 followers
August 8, 2015
I was asked to read this book for a spiritual growth process at our church. It was dry and long and deep and took me months to read. But it was very good, insightful, and helpful. I am encouraging Steve to at least read my highlights. It was also fun to be thinking that much of what I was reading was like one particular church I work with through the Jamaica mission - only to eventually find they were featured in the book as one of the most spiritually effective churches in the country. Overall, very helpful and insightful.
Profile Image for Juan Carlos.
Author 8 books13 followers
October 30, 2015
Hawkins splendidly summarized the findings and insights of the REVEAL research. Before his data and provocative conclusions we cannot avoid start rethinking the traditional concepts of transformation or espiritual formation in the local christian church. It is a paradigm shift for all. Thankful for his thorough work with this much needed book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews

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