Willow: A New Day

Last year, our sister ministry, Willow Creek Deutschland, asked me to write about our first 18-months. It resulted in a 3-part series. This is adapted from part two that was published in November 2021.

“Now is the time.”

It was Tuesday morning on a cold day in March 2021. We were gathered in Dave Dummitt’s office for our weekly senior leadership team meeting. Dave came in with an intensity in his eyes.

“Now is the time. We need to put new language to why we exist and what we are about. We need to begin talking with our people about our mission and vision. We can wait no longer.”

Why now? Why not 10 months earlier when Dave first started at Willow? Why not cast a new vision when he preached his first sermon in June 2020? Most organizational consultants would tell you one of the first things you do when you step into a role is to define (or redefine) the purpose of the organization. Why wait so long?

But reflecting back to mid-2020, it was impossible to start any sooner. 

From our first days at Willow, we were instantly thrust into an inferno of simultaneous challenges. The global pandemic was raging and everything was shut down. We could not meet anyone in-person, not the staff, not any members of the church. Everything was 100% digital. It would be months before we’d meet our staff face-to-face, and more than a year before worship services would start again. 

The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis a week after Dave started launched us into months of emotionally-charged interactions with people who had deep wounds and wanted lasting systemic change. American cities were rioting, and Chicago saw some of the worst of this. The high-stakes conversations were happening inside Willow with people we had never personally met. They wanted answers. We were still trying to find our way around. 

The reality of financial stress as a result of the leadership failure in 2018, compounded by Covid, revealed many structural changes that were needed. We spent months working with leaders and staff members restructuring how we operate, adding new positions while eliminating others, writing new job descriptions, and moving people into mission-critical roles. We even gave every person on staff a financial incentive to leave the team for personal or health reasons. More than 100 employees took us up on the offer. It was sad to see them leave, but helped in the necessary right-sizing of the team.

Our executive team was largely vacant. All but one executive leader from 2018 had left. Most who had been given responsibility to lead in the interim left in early 2020. In the summer and fall of 2020 we were on a massive hunt, both in-house and externally, to build a world-class leadership team that could help shoulder the load of the new Willow that was emerging.

We were also navigating with the elders the continued work of reconciliation. Through the scandal that emerged in 2018, it wasn’t just a non-repentant leader who had done wrong. We, Willow Creek, had also caused harm as an organization. As new leaders, we jumped into the work in mid-2020, and it continues to this day.

Through the fall of 2020, a divisive election was underway in the United States that brought polarizing viewpoints on just about everything. The lack of civil discourse, name-calling, finger-pointing, and public “canceling” was higher in our American culture than in any previous election. This spirit of division seeped into churches throughout our country, Willow included, distracting us from our purpose while being expected to answer questions on whatever the hot political topic of the day happened to be.

The division impacted us beyond politics, as not every leader at Willow was excited about the changes that were being made to insure our future as a thriving local church. Two pastors left staff announcing they would be starting churches nearby, taking hundreds of people with them. In addition, two former Willow pastors also started churches next to Willow campuses during the the same time period.

Our energy and focus through the early weeks of 2021 went toward reopening our church facilities, structuring our staff to offer in-person worship and children’s services, while navigating the many restrictions placed on us by local, county, state and national government entities. The efforts that had pivoted away from in-person worship toward digital at the beginning of the pandemic could not shift back. We would need to offer both for the foreseeable future, while doing this with a smaller team.

Navigating all of this—global pandemic, racial tension, reconciliation, political upheaval, church splits, financial crises, massive staff restructuring, new leadership, reopening—took months of prayer and intense focus. And led us to this morning in March in Dave’s office, as he said, “Now is the time.” In a sense, we had spent the first year running around putting out fires, fixing critical systems, and plugging holes so we wouldn’t sink—now it was time to determine the direction of the ship.

Now is the time to consider what the mission of Willow Creek should be. Not what it has been. But what should it be for a new generation? How will we reach people in 2021 and beyond?

Now is the time to consider what the vision of Willow should be. Who do we want to become? If Willow is to once again be a thriving local church in the next few years, what does that look like?

Now is the time to consider our values. What are the guiding principles that will serve as a rallying cry for the next generation.

When churches begin to consider a shift to these types of foundational values, or if a church is just starting, oftentimes it is the leader who decides the direction. I call that the “Moses Model” of leadership. Moses goes up the mountain, talks to God, and comes down with direction for the people. 

I had experienced this Moses Model once before. Back in the 1990’s when I joined the staff team at Granger Community Church, we had a similar challenge. The church was a few years old, had gone through some rough challenges, and needed a new vision. Our senior pastor traveled to Korea as part of a doctoral studies program. On that trip, he went up a mountain (ironically called Prayer Mountain), and believed God gave him a clear vision of what the church should be about in the coming years. In brief, he believed that God was asking our small community of believers to love and care for 2,000 people by the year 2000. I still remember the service when he shared that vision with the church for the first time. As a fledgling church-plant with 300 people gathering, there was an audible gasp from the audience—then applause. No one had ever seen or heard of a church that large in our area. It felt like a God-sized dream. And it was the right vision. This vision took hold and the church exploded with growth. We would grow from 300 to more than 6,000 attending in the next 10 years.

The Moses Model might make sense if you have momentum on your side and when leadership is established and trusted. Dave had a great deal of clarity on where we needed to go as a church, and he could have spent a few days working on the language and then presented it to the congregation. 

But we had not yet celebrated one year at Willow, and our executive team was fresh on the scene. We were in the middle of reopening our campuses--it had been more than 52 weeks since most of our congregations had met for worship in-person. We were slowly gaining trust, but we did not have the momentum or deep level of trust that made the Moses Model the right choice for this season (and seriously, I question whether it will ever work again).

Instead, we needed to use the very process of discovering our mission, vision and values as a momentum-builder—as a way to build ownership and earn trust. And we did just that. We embarked on a five-month journey of discovery with our entire staff and hundreds of congregation members. We had hundreds of hours of conversations and dozens of revisions before we landed with some core documents and language that will guide us the next several years. 

Mission

We don’t actually get to determine the mission of the church. Jesus did that and laid it out clearly in the New Testament. Every local church has the same gospel mission. What we do get to do is find the language that will motivate and compel our people to get in the game. Phrases can get tired and lose their power over time. Words can get reinterpreted by society so they don’t mean the same thing as they did when first written, especially the more time that passes.

Willow had a 46-year old mission statement: Turning irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ. God used that mission to galvanize hundreds of thousands of people across the world for more than four decades. The gospel was clearly contained in those words and this phrase helped refocus the local church on the needs of the community.

But it isn’t a simple phrase. What does “irreligious” mean in 2021? Has that word become offensive to people who don’t attend church but consider themselves very spiritual? Is becoming “fully devoted” a box you check--as though you can arrive? Is it the church that transforms the hearts of people, or is that the work of Jesus?

It was clear that something simpler was needed in 2021. As the world grows more complex amidst a barrage of information coming at us all day every day--there is a cry for simple, clear and succinct. 

For the first few months of our process--we had a draft mission statement that was gaining traction…

“Helping people take next steps with Jesus, in community, on mission.”

We ran this through dozens of groups for feedback. It included the things that were important to us, but it definitely was not simple. And the general feedback we seemed to be getting was, “That works.”

But “that works” isn’t exactly the type of excitement we were hoping to garner with new language. 

Dave Dummitt was having the same concerns. He knew that we needed a mission statement that was going to get young adults and young families excited. If Willow Creek is going to be around fifty years from now--it must capture the next generation. So one day in June he walked over to the offices where our student ministry staff were located. He read them the draft mission statement, and they graciously replied...

“It’s fine. It definitely captures what we should be about. But it’s not going to grab the attention of the next generation. It’s not simple enough. It’s too churchy. It’s too long to be memorable. It’s not going to grab the imaginations of our unchurched friends.”

Dave found a whiteboard and with some of our younger staff they began to brainstorm, writing down words, crossing others out, trying to find language everyone could remember and restate  that would capture the heart of the next generation. Eventually all the words were erased except for one short statement.

“Love God. Love People. Change the World.”

Simple. Memorable. Repeatable. And straight from the words of Jesus.

Love God.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt 22:37-38)

Love People.

“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 22:39)

Change the World.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matt 28:19-20)

Dave presented this change to our senior leadership team the next morning. Frankly, it felt late in the game to have such a significant change. We’d already presented the previous draft to dozens of teams. But, at the same time, this felt right. Regardless of our timeline, it seemed like God was pointing us in a new direction.

That morning, one of our leaders said, “The previous proposed statement sounded good. It’s something I could get behind. But this statement is something I could give the rest of my life to.”

Someone else spoke up, “I’d love to be part of a church that gets serious about this mission.”

The next few weeks as we continued to circulate the new mission statement, we were surprised by the support. It was so simple, not exactly new, nothing profound--and yet it was capturing people's hearts over and over again.

What would happen if we had a church full of people who got serious about their love for God. What would happen if thousands of people who are part of Willow began to really love their neighbor selflessly, sacrificially, and consistently? What if all of us began to filter every thought, every action and every word through the question, “How would Jesus love people well in this situation?”

What if every believer began to discover their personal mission on this earth? What if each of us discovered what we could do to change our world--whether in education, government, healthcare, business, sports, entertainment, or in our own neighborhoods?

Vision

A vision statement is a word picture about a preferred future. If we are successful at accomplishing our mission, what does that look like? A vision provides clarity around who we want to be. It is aspirational in nature. It doesn’t necessarily define current reality, but provides the target. When we are a thriving local church engaged in loving God, loving people and changing the world -- we believe this will describe us:

Willow Creek is a multi-generational, multi-ethnic multiplying movement of Christ followers passionate about worshiping Jesus, growing in faith, sharing our lives & faith with others, reaching people who don’t have a relationship with God, and blessing our communities and world through our transformed lives & radical generosity.

Values

Core values are like guiding principles. What matters most to us? What does it look like when we are living out our mission and vision? We wanted to hear from all of Willow as we dreamed about what should be on this list. Early in the summer of 2021, we launched a church-wide survey and received responses from hundreds of members of our congregation. Then we met with small groups of congregants to unpack their answers and learn more about what they believed should guide Willow into our future. 

We really wanted to hear from those who have been attending Willow for a long time, so we sent an email invitation to more than 1400 families who had been attending for more than 25 years, and who were still involved. We had a huge response and nearly 250 showed up on a Tuesday night in July to share their stories, and dream about what Willow could look like in this new season. Slowly, we began to hear common themes..

• Jesus. A return to the basics. Is it possible we had moved off of what Jesus could accomplish through us and instead focused on what we could accomplish on our own? It’s all about Jesus.

• Authenticity. It’s not about perfection. Excellence? Yes, but not at the expense of bringing the best of who we are to the feet of Jesus. Excellence was a value that served as a draw to the boomer generation. Authenticity is the key to reaching millennials and generation Z.

• Next Steps. We all have one. Every seeker and believer alike has steps they can take in movement toward loving God and loving people. It’s not about arriving. It’s about motion and direction.

• Growing younger. Someone asked “how young?” The answer was clear: “Younger than you.” We cease to exist if we don’t find ways to reinvent ourselves and reach younger generations. 

• People. Lost people matter to God. Yes, it is still true. This is the one value from our long-standing list of values that had the most traction. It’s the value that helped Willow stand apart for decades. It’s the value that galvanized thousands of churches across the world to start with the same DNA. Lost people matter. All people matter. We must love well. We cannot lose that.

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As the summer came to an end, we began to talk to our congregation about what a new Willow could be. In addition to mission, vision and values, we’ve been working on branding, websites, graphics and signage. We’ve been working with our staff to define new behaviors that would define how we work together and what is important to us. Our teaching team has been planning for sermon content that will help all of us take our next steps. We have teams working on a new discipleship strategy that will give a clear pathway for every person--seeker and believer alike. 

Love God. Love People. Change the World.

It’s not profound. But if the strategy behind it actually works, then Willow’s best days really are ahead. 

This is the second of three articles I wrote for Willow Creek Deutschland. This one was published in November 2021. You can read part one here. The third article will be posted here in the coming weeks.