Visit to Willow Creek (Day one) – Scott McKnight, Brian McAuliffe and Kyndra Singer

The real reason for my trip to America begun today, and if I had to go home now the cost would have been worth it. Today was exceptional.

I drove to Willow Creek and picked up my two co-travellers on the way, Des and Bill. We’ll be driving together every day this week and sharing the cost of the car and petrol. Des is a lead Pastor in a fairly young church in Preston, Longton Community Church, and Bill is a businessman who also coordinates a lot of activities between churches in Scotland for Alvie and Insh Community church. After one journey with these great guys it had felt like we’d known each other for much longer. My first impressions of these guys is of their passion for Christ. Spending the week with these two, and the other 70 leaders from around the world will be a large part of the encouragement I receive and growth that I undergo.

We found Willow Creek. Oh my gosh. It’s like Bluewater, but better, because its all designed to help people feel welcome at church. For example, very near the entrance are First-Time Promiseland check-in desks, for new families. The others register below in its beautiful purpose-build Promiseland area. It’s a stunning building of huge proportions. Here is a church that has had a huge impact in my life and so much of it was launched from here. I haven’t even seen the auditorium yet, I’ve got that joy to come. Average weekend attendance is 22,000, so the aisles and the spaces need to be big to get people in and out. For special services, the attendance is much higher. For example, in Christmas 2007 they had 85,000 adults attend 12 services… the numbers are mind boggling, particularly considering it began only 34 years ago 1975 in a movie theatre.

The carpark really feels as large as Bluewaters – it was huge (there are 3,817 spaces). Needless to say, we didn’t struggle to find a space…. The original auditorium on this site, which is still used by the High School ministry, seats over 2500. It was able to seat up to 4000, before they made some alterations as part of the new auditorium and atrium which opened in September 2004. The new auditorium seats 7,095 people. When Bill Hybels and the Willow leaders bought this land originally, there were ‘only’ 440 families so they really felt like they were rattling around their originally large auditorium and all these acres. But they believed passionately that God had given them a vision to grow, through people far from God coming to know Christ, and this is what’s happened.

Scott McKnight

After breakfast with the 70 leaders attending this week, we had our first session that was led by Scott McKnight. Scott McKnight is perhaps most well known for his excellent books ‘The Blue Parakeet’ and ‘The Jesus Creed.’ McKnight got his PhD from Nottingham under James Dunn and is and is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University. Since graduating from the London School of Theology, I have had little opportunity to sit and learn from genuine academics and have opportunity to ask questions. I lapped up the time with him and typed like crazy.

In his books McKnight shows he is someone who is willing and able to tackle the complex issues of biblical interpretation for a more popular audience, and here at Willow with church leaders wanting to be stretched, he seemed in his element. His overall argument that the Bible should be remembered and read as story, and truly absorbed and lived by those who aspire to teach it to others, was gripping to me. One session in, and I’ve been reminded of my early passion for scripture as raw story that can easily get overtaken by the urgent and endless teaching demands of ministry. I’ve been reminded that the gospel always leads to the formation of community, which is a helpful lens to look through at the health of PBC. Community is not just a happy consequence for the fully devoted Christ follower. Community is the only location where the fully devoted Christ follower can find their shape. Consequently, Church is at the centre of what God is doing in the world. For an introductory review of The Blue Parakeet, here’s a decent first step.

Brian McAuliffe, Director of Operations and Chief Financial Officer of Willow Creek Community Church

After lunch, Brian McAuliffer led us for 2 hours. Brian oversees the financial, accounting and operational functions, as well as the self-supporting ministries. He was one of the leaders of the entire new building process which cost around $90million. His session was a fascinating insight into the leadership structure of Willow Creek and its transition over the last couple of years to a Policy Governance approach model of governance which is designed to empower boards of directors to fulfill their obligation of accountability for the organisations that they govern. Brian explained how as Willow has increased in complexity, including their multi-site ministry and the Willow Creek Association, their previous governance was insufficient. The Policy Governance model enables the Elders to focus on the larger issues, to delegate with more clarity, to control Leadership Team’s job without meddling, and to rigorously evaluate the accomplishment of the church.

We also covered how the regional ministries run – what are led, what are centralised; their ‘clean-slate’ budget process which has 10% for ‘winds of the Spirit’; leading staff to results (they have 400 paid staff); and treating volunteers as staff. Willow involves 1000 volunteers every weekend for their services and many others throughout the week in other ministries. In total, it would be about $40 million full-time equivalent.

Kyndra Singer & Team – Volunteer Lay Pastor, Community Care Ministry at Willow Creek Community Church

Kyndra led our final session of the day and is a perfect example of servanthood at Willow. She was an excellent communicator that unmistakably communicated the love of Christ for those who are hurting. She is unpaid and volunteers as an area director for the Community Care ministry at Willow Creek Community Church and has been involved as a lay pastor with the Divorce Recovery Ministry at Willow Creek since 1989. For two hours she explained with clarity and stories how churches can enable its wounded-healers who have experienced struggling or broken relationships, redundancy or addictions to lead simple but effective community care groups where people are free to be themselves and find support. She then interviewed three people individually who had come through divorce recovery, one of whom had become a Christian three weeks ago. There was hardly a dry eye in the room as they each shared their story and how Willow’s recovery ministries have made such a difference in their lives. My heart was bursting with vision and prayer.

And this is just the first day!