Visit to Willow Creek – Regional Campuses

On Sunday, at 8:30am I left with the Stein’s to go to Willow Community Church – McHenry County, one of their regional sites. We arrived about 10 minutes later, found a parking space easy in their car park, and then walked into their converted warehouse. The spacious car park and a vibrant, welcoming Children’s Ministry helps many explorers and seekers connect with church.

Over the last few years Willow Creek has planted five regional campuses in neighbourhoods which are about 40 minutes drive away from the main Barrington site. Before these were planted, thousands of their attenders had driven an hour to get to Willow, and through planting campuses, the leaders at Willow aimed to give a nearer option to these friends as well as reach out to new communities in effective ways.  Each regional site has a ‘Campus Pastor’ who leads the staff team and vision of the regional church, and shepherds it to fulfil the overall Willow vision. There is a live band, live leading from the Campus Pastor, and the message recorded from the Saturday night serve at Barrington is played on DVD on huge screens behind the platform. They’re meant to be ‘mini’ Willows.

When I walked into the church, I was so excited. I couldn’t believe I was here and would actually be attending Willow Creek. I walked in with Brian who was going to drop Rachel off at Promiseland. The first thing I noticed was how well this warehouse had been converted inside. There were huge wide aisles leading up to a massive Promiseland area, with colourful walls and rooms, with friendly Promiseland volunteers signing in children. There was a lovely café, art hanging all over the walls which had been made by Willow worshippers (apparently the art displayed regularly changes as artists produce more). After dropping Rachel off at Promiseland, Brian and I went to join Bethany and Denise in the main auditorium.

Walking in was an experience. The quality of the band was exceptional. The quality of the sound was exceptional. The seating was exceptional. Willow Creek put a lot of investment into the Audio-Visual equipment at their sites because the Sunday worship services are such a core part of their vision. There were about 1200 people in there. The church has 2 services in total, with about 2000 members at this regional site… and this is ‘mini’ Willow!

As the worship slowed, the Campus Pastor introduced baptisms, and then proceeded to baptise about 15 people during the next two worship songs. We didn’t hear their testimonies, but as they were baptised we could see  so vividly this profound evidence of changed lives. I had tears in my lives. I found out later that over the weekend they had 100 baptisms in total, just at their McHenry County campus.

As the worship ended, a young lady who had been one of the singers gave a few notices, before ‘handing over to Bill’, which was when the ‘videocast’ started. Because the lighting and video faded so well into one another, our attention was sustained and kept clearly on the teaching. One reason why watching a pre-recorded DVD as the teaching block works so well is because in these larger churches, 99% of people will watch the sermon on the big screen anyway, rather than stare at the tiny figure of the ‘live’ speaker. There are three big screens behind the stage, and one big screen right at the back of the church above the AV desk so that the singers and band can see their lyrics. None of the singers have music or lyrics obviously on display. Again, it’s a big financial investment to have such quality AV, but the screen at the back and their commitment to learn the songs helps the singers to be free from looking at music and worrying about lyrics. I can only compare it to the difference between watching a drama when the actors are fully in character, and no word sheets can be seen, to a drama when the actors are glancing every now and again at their words. As my church heads towards a substantial building project, it is great to be in buildings that have been designed so well according to the purpose that they want to see fulfilled.

My abiding memory will be the evidence of life change seen in these baptisms. It’s why I do what I do what I do, and what I want to see more and more of at PBC.