return visit to Willow Creek

my wife and daughter and i are in chicago this week enjoying some needed r&r. we got an incredibly low fare through southwest’s “ding!” program ($25 each way), so we jumped on the opportunity to show darby our former stomping grounds and introduce her to some chicago friends.

this past saturday night we decided to attend the weekend service at our former church, Willow Creek Community Church, where both c.c. and i served on staff. one thing you learn about willow is that change is. i know that looks like a sentence fragment, but that’s what i meant. change is. i could also add some adjectives. change is constant, and change is quick. since we left there at the end of 2001, there have been numerous changes, 3 new pastors in senior leadership, several reorganizations, etc.

with almost 6 years worth of changes, i didn’t quite know what to expect walking into the service tonight. i thought i’d post a few thoughts and observations from our experience.

* servanthood - we remembered that they had built parent rooms into the design of the new auditorium, but couldn’t remember where they were. as we entered the auditorium we asked one of the ushers who was handing out programs. instead of just telling us where it was, he immediately took us there. this kind of service has been a part of the willow d.n.a. for years.

* steve myers rocks - i was glad to see my old buddy steve on the drums. he was a fellow music director of mine. through all the changes in the programming department there, steve has held down the fort.

* simpler format - i’m sure this changes from week to week, but at least this weekend the format was very simple - opening song (performed), welcome by lead pastor, gene appel, 2 participational songs, offering/announcements (lots of them), message by mike breaux, performed song, closing prayer

* compassion/justice emphasis - from the announcements, to several promo videos, to the message itself, it’s apparent that the leadership of willow is casting the vision for the church to reach out to the community and the world. quoting mike breaux, willow’s strategy will be “go and be” instead of “come and see”.

after the service, we sought out steve to say hi and also ran into several other former fellow staffers. it was fun to introduce darby to them and to catch up for a little bit. it was also nice to realize that aside from the people, there aren’t many things about willow that i still miss. i’m glad that God moved me on, and as i said in a recent post, i’m really excited about crosspointe and the team i’m a part of.