{"id":1091,"date":"2009-08-10T02:04:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-10T06:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2026-08-28T14:09:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:09:33","slug":"is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Is “The Church is the Hope of the World”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Paul Proctor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, another Leadership Summit has come and gone at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois–a yearly conference led by its senior pastor and Willow Creek Association’s Chairman of the Board, Bill Hybels. They reportedly drew over 6000 attendees this year with some 60,000 watching a live broadcast of the event. They’ve been holding these annual gatherings for 13 years.<\/p>\n

In a recent Christian Post <\/em>article, Hybels once again revealed the humanist nature of the infamous seeker-sensitive church growth movement by posing the question:<\/p>\n

“Do we still believe the local church is the hope of the world?”<\/p>\n

You see, many Christians might look at that and not realize they’ve been subjected to a dialectic question designed to alter their spiritual priorities and get them onboard an alternative agenda. This is what trained facilitators do under the radar in many churches today.<\/p>\n

But I would ask: Is that where your hope lies–in the local church?<\/p>\n

Do you believe your church can save the world?<\/p>\n

Did it save you?<\/p>\n

There are a lot of misguided Christians today who have a misplaced faith and hope in their church. This makes them easy targets for church growth consultants who know all too well how to play on the egos, ambitions and insecurities of both laymen and staff wanting their church to be bigger and better than the one across town. To continue … <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paul Proctor Well, another…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":36576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-new-spirituality","wpcat-63-id"],"yoast_head":"\nIs "The Church is the Hope of the World"? - From the Lighthouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is "The Church is the Hope of the World"?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Paul Proctor Well, another...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"From the Lighthouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LighthouseTrailsResearch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-10T06:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-28T21:09:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/iStock-1095855380-ai-religious-scaled-e1787951348841.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2556\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1597\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Proctor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul Proctor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Paul Proctor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dbdf20f549402c1b17f25e39b607076e\"},\"headline\":\"Is “The Church is the Hope of the World”?\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-08-10T06:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-28T21:09:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":238,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/iStock-1095855380-ai-religious-scaled-e1788370101889.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"The New Spirituality\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/is-the-church-is-the-hope-of-the-world\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is \\\"The Church is the Hope of the World\\\"? 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