For those of you waiting for another post about Catalyst West, it’s coming, but last week I had a phenomenal experience that that blew away Catalyst West, as great as Catalyst west was! I had the opportunity to spend a full day in a Q&A setting with one the great influencers in my life, Bill Hybels. Two hours, where a small group of us connected with him around a board table and then another 3 hours in a larger classroom setting. I’ve had a couple of previous opportunities to connect with him in small group settings, but for the most part he’s been more of a mentor at a distance. So this board table meeting in particular was way cool. I did discover that Redwood Park Church is the very first Canadian church to become a part of the Willow Creek Association. Scott Cochrane the new executive director of Willow Creek Canada made a bit of a deal of that!
What impressed me most was how Hybels continues to lead Willow in a way that keeps the ministry fresh and in-tune with the waves of culture, while keeping the church very much centred on it’s original vision to reach folk apart from a life-giving relationship with Christ . Willow is not stuck in how they’ve done things in the past, while being very aware that they are working with a huge ship that doesn’t change direction on a dime. Hybels is a leader who navigates change with great wisdom and discernment, who is not afraid to do what’s needed to keep the ship pointed in the direction of missional effectiveness, while instilling confidence among the fearful that change is good and necessary.
So let me list a few changes happening at Willow that perhaps we could all learn from:
- Midweek classes work. Willow has had a huge win in transforming it’s midweek believer service into a series of classes and courses that work with those exploring faith right through to those looking for deeper seminary style classes. The sense that some folk had they were not getting enough “deeper teaching” has dramatically decreased because of this change. Folk at Willow have really bought into attending classes geared to meet a diversity of needs, passions and levels of academic depth.
- Worship led by the younger generation crosses generational lines. Willow has opted to allow it’s younger generation to take the lead in creating and leading a weekend worship experience that is more passionate, intimate and interactive. Worship geared more towards 20-somethings appears to have the greatest reach across all generational lines. However what Hybels does to keep youthful worship from crashing with the older generations is he spends 2 hours a week working with the worship planners on the service, and he personally signs off on every song and every announcement and every moment on the order of service. It sounds controlling, but I realize it’s the key to allowing 20 to young 30-somethings lead while insuring that the older generations remain positively impacted. What Willow appears to have learned is that certain values that frame more youthful postmodern worship have broad appeal, within perhaps a few boundaries.
- The worship order is no longer tightly tied to the message. Willow is no longer interested in how closely everything fits the theme of the service. More important is that a worship environment is created that allows for a profound encounter with God Himself. Willow has moved from creating a well packaged presentation of biblical truth, to creating an experience where Truth is encountered. This is a huge shift in Willow’s thinking.
- Flexibility around worship is the new value. There is now room in Willow to change a song, somewhat re-order the flow of worship in the midst of worship, if the leader feels so prompted. Yes they still plan carefully, but they are no longer as tightly bound to the plan. They are no longer planning the worship year out a year in advance, but maybe just 4 or 5 weeks in advance. Hybels himself now has the freedom the change the message midweek before weekend worship, if he feels so prompted.
- The end of a worship service is now blurred. There is a 10 to 15 minute period of time after the message where the worship team remains on the platform and sings, while some folk sit and pray in their seats, and other folk get up and go for prayer or to other stations to work through what they sense God is saying to them. They want to leave time for folk to work through their encounter with God. (Think of the implications here for Children’s ministry!)
- Those on the platform must be able to “move the room,” though authentic expression of devotion and passion. This is particularly true of vocalists and worship leaders. Those giving announcements, leading in prayer and not just the speaker need to be able to move a room. The way Bill put it, “no dead eyes allowed.” Willow will put someone on the vocal team with less skill than someone else musically, if they have the ability to authentically communicate through their facial and body expressions. Racial diversity on the platform also remains a must.
- There needs to be more consistency among those who are on the platform. The extent of team teaching at Willow created a significant sense of inconsistency and lack of focus for the congregation, so Hybels is again the main speaker supplemented by a smaller team. The same is true of those who lead worship and play other roles on the platform. Folk in the seats highly value the relationship they develop with a handful of key platform leaders.
- Being “Jesus” to the community is a big deal. Social justice and ministry to the poor and marginalized in their city and around the world have become front burner issues at Willow. Faith has become very much what you do and not just who you are. The whole Willow family feels a part of something much bigger than just themselves and folk like themselves.
Shortly after Willow got into its new facility it began to stagnate and perhaps even decline numerically. But as it has made significant adjustments to it’s mid-week approach to teaching and it’s weekend worship, that has turned all around. A church that had peaked and begun to decline at the 20,000 mark has turned that around in the last couple of years and is now over 25,000. Even in the midst of a difficult economy where Willow has laid off 27 staff, growth has continued.
So much more was packed into those 5 hours! Suffice it to say that Willow and Hybles continue to have much to teach us.
