Get the History

So, what is REVEAL?

It’s an ongoing conversation among a community of pastors and church leaders who have been called by God to help people grow in their love of God and others.

Fueling the conversation are the insights gathered from millions of answers to survey questions given to (thus far) thousands of people from churches all across the country.

Why the name? According to Greg Hawkins, the point leader for REVEAL: “We truly believe that God revealed new insights to us about the people of our church—and how our church can help them grow closer to Christ. Our prayer is that other churches will join with each other so that we all can keep building on these insights.”

Since the early 1990s, Willow Creek Community Church has used congregational surveys to find out about its congregation. As with most surveys, the data provided a strong understanding of some key basic demographics:

• Life Stage: age, marital status, sex, etc.
• Spiritual background
• Involvement: serving, small groups, services, etc.
• And more

By 2004, the church’s leaders were looking for more information. They found it when they connected with Eric Arnson, founder of ORIGINATE, a research and strategy consulting firm that develops and applies new approaches to understanding consumer-based loyalty for corporations.

Here’s how Eric describes his business approach: “I use scientific methods to look beyond surface characteristics such as demographics into the deeper issues: emotions, motivations and needs.”

After he had met Eric, Greg Hawkins asked him if his methods could dig below the surface to better understand the spiritual development of people. Eric believed it could. How? “We ask people behavioral questions about things like serving, Bible study, small group involvement, spiritual practices including prayer and solitude, attendance at services—anything that tied into their spiritual lives.”

The results? According to Greg, “God began to reveal new insights—biblically based insights—to us as we looked at data from a congregational survey at our church in 2004. We discovered through this research, we could gain a unique understanding of the spiritual lives of our people—how they grow and what we can do to help them.”

Your Church

So what does this mean for your church? That’s up to you.

You can learn more.

It’s up to you to decide where you are … and where you want to go.