Reveal: Section 2

Hawkins and his team organized their work around three “simple but profound” questions.
1. Where are we? – to define our current reality
2. What do we see? – to have a clear vision
3. How do we get there? - to form an action plan

The first question, “Where are we?” defined the current reality of their church. This is the formula they came up with to measure the heart.

Attitude + Behavior = Christians with unique needs (or unmet needs)

o Attitude – How people feel determines how they react. The research team looked at emotions and motivations.
o Behavior – What people do because of their faith. (e.g. serving at church, bible study, attend services, small group, prayer, solitude, and internet use in spiritual life.)
o Christian – Not all are at the same spiritual level. The research team divided the “segment” of Christians into four groups – Exploring Christianity, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ, & Christ Centered.
o Needs – What is needed (or not being done) to advance their spiritual growth.

This is what has grabbed me personally – before we can talk about vision (what we see) and before we can talk about programs (how we get there) we need to understand who we are as God’s people. We need an understanding of the our heart before we can do anything else. My experience has lead me to believe that too many assumptions have made about the heart, despite the fact that programs have been created and managed with church resources. “Build it and they will come” or rather, “Do stuff and people’s hearts will be changed” is an assumption I've been growing out of for some time. Reveal has helped me understand why I can no longer assume.