Christianity: Details about 'Willow Creek Community Church'
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Willow Creek Community Church is a large American interdenominational church located in the suburb of South Barrington, Illinois, near Chicago, Illinois. It was founded on October 12, 1975 by Bill Hybels, who is currently the Senior Pastor. The church has three weekend services with approximately 17,000-20,000 attendees.
HistoryWillow Creek Community Church started when Bill Hybels was inspired by the success of the South Park Church’s youth ministry, of which he was a leader, and aspired to start a church that used relevant biblical teaching, music, and drama. On October 12, 1975, the church met for the first time, renting Willow Creek Theater in Palatine, Illinois.In 1977, the church purchased 90 acres in South Barrington to build its own building. The first service was held in the new building in February of 1981. Since then, the building has been doubled in size and the property expanded to 155 acres. There are now nearly 100 ministries that are designed to serve a variety of needs for different age and people groups. BeliefsWillow Creek Community Church states that its mission is to, “Turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ”.The church bases its belief on the Bible, asserting it to be inspired by God, infallible, and the final authority on matters which it covers.Based on its understanding of the Bible, the church then draws the following conclusions:
Church organizationWillow Creek Community Church's leadership is divided into four sections:
Willow Creek has several “regional congregations” around the Chicagoland area:
The slogan for the regional congregations is “One Church. Multiple Locations”. The regional congregations each have their own worship team, student ministry, children’s program, and campus pastoral team. The main message is videocast from the South Barrington campus for the weekly services. Willow Creek AssociationIn 1992, the Willow Creek Association was created as a way to link together churches for the purpose of, “Reaching increasing numbers of lost people". The WCA develops training and leadership conferences and resources for its member churches. The Willow Creek Association is often confused with Willow Creek Community Church, or mistaken for a denomination, however it is a distinctly separate organization which has close affiliations with Willow Creek Community Church.There are more than 11,000 member churches, which come from 90 denominations, and 45 different countries.There is an annual membership fee of $249 which gives the member church access to discounts on Willow Creek Resources and conferences, as well as a magazine, an audio journal, several web-based ministry tools, and a variety of Select Service Providers. Select Service Providers are ministries and organizations that provide products and services to member churches for a discounted price. Examples include:
To be a member of WCA or attend WCA conferences it is a requirement that the member church, ministry, or leader hold to a, “historic, orthodox understanding of biblical Christianity.” Since 1996, Willow Creek Association has held an annual Leadership Summit. Speakers at the Leadership Summit included President Bill Clinton3, Karen Hughes, who is the Special Advisor to President George W. Bush, Lady Vols' women's college Basketball coach Pat Summitt, Dallas, Texas pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes, University of Southern California president Steven Sample, Yahoo!'s Tim Sanders, business author and leadership consultant Marcus Buckingham, and Rick Warren, pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life. The 2005 Leadership Summit had over 53,000 attendees in over 100 locations across North America.5 Criticisms of Willow Creek and the megachurch movement
Some have criticized Willow Creek for the focus on seeker-sensitivity and emphasis on church growth. Those who criticize this aspect of Willow Creek and other megachurches assert that this puts more focus on catering to a person’s possibly self-centered wants rather than their true need for Jesus Christ. Others criticize the church saying that it focuses on extravagant, entertainment-based services and neglects biblically-sound expository preaching and exegetical teaching. In December 2005, Willow Creek garnered attention by deciding to not hold services on Christmas Day, since it fell on a Sunday, that year. Instead, the church held eight Christmas services at their South Barrington campus from Tuesday the 20th through Saturday the 24th. (With the services held at the Regional campuses, Willow Creek held seventeen Christmas services.) In a similar manner, many other 'megachurches' also closed on Christmas. Critics noted that this perhaps indicated the megachurches' shifted emphasis to cultural elements of religion rather than worship. Some have inferred that closing the church on Christmas Day assigns gift-giving and other secular Christmas traditions more importance than traditions of community worship. Proponents of this change have stated that this allows people to go to a service earlier in the week and then spend time with they family on Christmas Day. Also, it has been noted that it takes hundreds of Willow Creek staff and even more volunteers to run the services that are normally scheduled for Christmas Day, and this allows for them to not have to come in to voluntarily serve on Christmas, and instead spend time with family. Sources and external links
Willow Creek websites
Perspectives and analysisExternal links To Critiques
Books about Willow Creek Community Church
See also
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