At the recent Leadership Summit held at Willow Creek’s main campus, Bill Hybels described some survey results with reference to Willow Creek as the wake-up call of his adult life. If you haven’t watched this already, I’d strongly encourage you to watch Bill Hybels in this eleven-minute video clip.

This weekend Willow Creek’s services are titled “Imagine Impact: Reveal Research” with Bill Hybels and his executive pastor, Greg Hawkins, speaking. We visited this evening and perceived a striking dissimilarity in tone from the video clip above. (That is surely due to the audience change, i.e., at the Leadership Summit he addressed leaders in a non-church setting, but tonight he addressed lay people in a church meeting.) At the end of this evening’s presentation, Hybels casually mentioned that his message at the Leadership Summit had caused a lot of reactions on the Internet and that he had decided not to respond to them via that media. Tonight he briefly responded by arguing unapologetically that Willow Creek prides itself in being honest and willing to admit when it has a bad idea. He insisted, however, that their fundamental philosophy remains unchanged.

(I’ll link to the weekend presentation if it becomes available here.)

Related: “A Sunday Morning at Willow Creek”

Update: Scot McKnight, who attends Willow Creek, comments on “Willow’s Reveal Study.”

As I mentioned previously, Jenni and I recently moved to Deerfield, IL and have been spending most of our Sundays at Lake Drive Baptist Church in Bay Side, WI, where I’ve been preaching/teaching three times each Sunday. A possible pastoral candidate is preaching there today, so this morning we decided to visit an (in)famous church: the main campus of Willow Creek Community Church located in South Barrington, IL, where Bill Hybels serves as the senior pastor. (For a very brief history of Willow Creek, click here.)

Rather than giving a blow-by-blow account with all of my impressions, I’ll keep my comments brief (drawing on some other exposure I’ve had as well, including attending services at two other Willow Creek campuses):

1. Willow Creek’s building and parking lot are huge. It has the feel of a shopping mall. And this is an up-to-date shopping mall, complete with state-of-the-art accessories like escalators, elevators, dozens of flat screens, a food court, a bookstore, and first-class projectors and sound systems.
2. Willow Creek’s service is well-planned. It is evident that they put a lot of thought into every little bit of the service, including seamless transitions.
3. Willow Creek’s services seem more like a concert than a church’s worship service.
4. Willow Creek’s speakers are skilled communicators. They demonstrate that they know the culture well.
5. Willow Creek’s speakers are poor expositors. They do not demonstrate that they understand the Bible well. The question they attempt to answer seems to be “What can I say about this text/topic?” instead of “What does this text say?” or “What does the Bible say about this topic, and how does it address it across the Bible’s salvation-historical story-line?”
6. Willow Creek’s general audience seems (I use that word carefully because I can’t be the final judge of this.) biblically illiterate and spiritually anemic.
7. Willow Creek’s God reminds me more of a really kind, loving, influential, important friend rather than the unique, holy, transcendent, awesome Creator, Sustainer, and Judge of the universe. (Again, I’m not implying that every person who attends Willow Creek is an idolater! I’m simply sharing an impression I get from their “worship” service.)

I could say so much more. Instead, I’ll reference three of the most helpful related sources I’ve read:

1. David M. Doran, “Market Driven Ministry: Blessing or Curse? Part 1,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 1 (Spring 1996): 54-84.
2. David M. Doran, “Market Driven Ministry: Blessing or Curse? Part 2,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 1 (Fall 1996): 187-221.
3. Gregory A. Pritchard, Willow Creek Seeker Services: Evaluating a New Way of Doing Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996). This informative book is based on Pritchard’s dissertation. His research is especially valuable because it is fairly impartial.