What is Willow Creek?

Response

Willow Creek Community Church is a sizable church with its main campus in South Barrington, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Willow Creek also has multiple other locations in the Chicagoland area that offer live worship music and either live or video-fed teaching. The Sunday morning attendance across all sites is approximately 24,000 each week, positioning Willow Creek as one of the largest churches in the U.S. The church played a pioneering role in the seeker-sensitive church growth movement.

In addition to its presence in the Chicago area, the Willow Creek Association connects a network of churches that follow the same innovative, seeker-sensitive approach. The association comprises thousands of congregations and oversees the Global Leadership Network, established in 1992, which focuses on Christian leadership development worldwide. The Global Leadership Summit, conducted every August in Chicago, is broadcast to over 1,000 locations in more than 135 countries.

Willow Creek was founded by a team led by Bill Hybels in 1975. Hybels aimed to establish a church that would be a welcoming environment for non-believers to hear the gospel. At Willow Creek, believers are urged to share the gospel with their friends and then invite them to church. Every aspect of the church service is designed to help non-believers or “spiritual seekers” feel comfortable and accepted. The messages cover relevant topics like marriage, parenting, and finances from a biblical perspective without coming across as “preachy.” The church avoids using religious language and traditional symbols. While the Bible is referenced, it is not preached in an expository manner. The music, drama, child care, youth programs, special events, technology, and facilities are all of high quality. The main service for believers is the midweek “New Community” service.

Willow Creek Community Church’s doctrinal statement is firmly evangelical, and it is undeniable that many individuals have come to attend.

Faith in Christ as a result of their seeker-sensitive approach. The conversion of Lee Strobel, a former journalist for the Chicago Tribune, is a prime example of this success. Strobel’s wife first came to faith through a group of women at Willow Creek. He saw the change in her and began to investigate the claims of Christ himself. And he began to attend Willow Creek with his wife, even though he was an atheist. Strobel eventually came to faith himself and later joined the pastoral staff. Today Lee Strobel is a pastor and well-known apologist, author of The Case for Christ and a host of other books.

Most of the criticism of Willow Creek is due to its methodology, which inevitably leads to a focus on people and their needs—although the church would probably counter that people are what matter the most to God. For instance, the “worship music” at Willow Creek is carefully designed to appeal to those in attendance. Willow Creek also employs women as teaching pastors. Another problem that has been documented is that, although the Sunday service is supposed to be for unbelievers and the midweek service is designed to feed and teach believers, the majority of those who attend Sunday morning already consider themselves to be believers, and they don’t attend midweek service. As a result, many who are involved with the church are never exposed to significant biblical or theological content; rather, they are taught nothing beyond the practical application of Scripture to meet felt needs. Many attenders who feel the need for more biblical teaching seek out other churches to provide it.

In 2007 Greg Hawkins, executive pastor of Willow Creek, alongside Cally Parkinson, released the results of a multi-year study on the effectiveness of Willow Creek’s philosophy of ministry. The study’s findings are available in the ebook Reveal: Where Are You? In summary, Willow Creek’s methodology was failing miserably at producing dedicated followers of Jesus Christ. Hybels himself lamented that Willow Creek was failing.

To truly assist individuals in their spiritual growth and development, Willow Creek has focused more on Bible study and the teaching of God’s Word since their inception. However, this focus is mainly emphasized outside of their regular church services.

In 2018, Bill Hybels and a significant portion of Willow Creek’s leadership resigned following what appear to be credible allegations of sexual misconduct against Bill Hybels and the leadership’s mishandling of the accusations. In February 2019, the church released the following statement: “While we cannot alter the events of the past, we mourn what transpired, seek forgiveness, and pledge to pursue healing and reconciliation.”