Faith, Hope & Love

“Are we there yet?” How many times have we been asked that on a car journey by children? And it’s easy to ask or feel when you’re in a church trying to see a vision become a reality: are we there yet and will we ever get there? I’ve been at PBC long enough now to [...]

“The story of Acts is the story of stupendous missionary achievement of a community inspired to make a series of creative experiments by the Pentecostal Spirit. Against a static church, unwilling to obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit, no ‘gates’ of any sort are needed to oppose its movement, for it does not move. [...]

‘The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness. Gratitude arises from the lived perception, evaluation and acceptance of all of life as grace – as an undeserved and unearned gift from the Father’s hand.’ – Brennan Manning ‘Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now [...]

Sunday was one of our biggest days of the year. I was so proud of everyone who took part and the excellence that was achieved. It was our Carols by Candlelight Sunday and this year we had a service at 4pm, 6pm and 8pm. My passion was to see the true story of Christmas communicated [...]

It’s so exciting when a dream or an idea becomes a reality. Thanks to the hard work of Jennifer and Helen in particular, and many others in supporting them, the ‘What Does Christmas Mean To You?’ Art Gallery is up and running. If you can get here, I’d highly recommend you using it as part [...]

Well, back to work and I’m at my desk preparing my teaching for this Sunday. We’re continuing our series, ‘What does Christmas mean to you?’ We interviewed a range of people from the village and heard their opinions, and one of the answers to this question given by a few people was, ‘Christmas means nothing.’ [...]

On the final day they’d saved the best until last. We had a whole day of Q&A with Bill Hybels. This was simply awesome. He gave answers and wisdom to questions about the priority of marriage and the family over ministry; issues worldwide that the church needs to be prepared for in the future; church [...]

Greg describes his role as Executive Pastor to be the one who focuses on “…where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.” He says that the Executive Pastor who knows that they are in the number two role, has to be very clear that their role is to serve the number one, ‘You [...]

Church Governance and Conflict Resolution In the morning, we were led by Steve Bartz, who has been an elder at Willow Creek for 18 years. I was struck by his commitment. As well as being an Elder, Steve is the president of Graybill, Bartz, & Associates, Ltd., an investment research and management firm. He was [...]

Tuesday 1st December – Gordon MacDonald Today felt like deep surgery of the soul. Gordon MacDonald, someone I respect greatly and has written numerous books such as ‘Ordering your private world’ and ‘The resilient life’, led the whole day on the discipline of self-leadership. From my experience, this is the hardest leadership of all. Gordon [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The next day I left the hotel and drove an hour north to my hosts. I purposefully drove along Lake Michigan, and as the Chicago Skyline was getting smaller in my rear view mirror and I again thanked God for the great opportunity that it is to be here, ‘Roxanne’ by the Police came on [...]

I woke up at 5am and was out exploring Chicago by 7.30am. This was after finding ‘Chicago Rock’ on my room radio and dancing around the room to Metallica, Enter Sandman, but that’s another story… It was a beautiful clear sky and a crisp, cold day. The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day [...]