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At a time when a lot of people are disillusioned about marriage, Willow Creek Community Church’s Bill Hybels wants Christians, at least, to know that the institution of marriage was designed by God.
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Blog this on: One Sunday last fall, Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor at the Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, was preaching on the logic and power of Jesus’ words ‘Love thine enemy.’ As is his custom, Hybels was working
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Care for the stranger and visit the lonely this Christmas says Bill Hybels
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Addressing the concerns and needs of a 25,000-member congregation, Pastor Bill Hybels launched a sermon series this past weekend challenging them to return to Jesus’ way, or what he called the “forgotten way.”
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At the end of last year, one of the most generous members of Willow Creek Community Church pulled Pastor Bill Hybels aside and told him he just lost his job, was close to losing his home, and would not be able to make his annual gift…
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Willow Creek Community Church Senior Pastor Bill Hybels has purchased 10,000 copies of “The Hole in Our Gospel” by World Vision President Richard Stearns for his congregation because “it is one of the finest books I have ever read.”
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Pastor Bill Hybels did not give his life to the development of the local church just to gather a bunch of casual Christians, he says. He gave it to see people far from God find the love of Christ and fully devote themselves to God and what He is doing. –
Christian Today reports Parkinson and a small team at WCA have recently made available to
all churches what has been called a groundbreaking study that provides
a “vivid picture of the ‘unseen’ hearts” of congregants and their
spiritual growth. The Reveal Spiritual Life Survey serves as a “lens”,
as Parkinson explained, for pastors to be able to view where
congregants are spiritually.
So far, more than 500 churches and half a million congregants have taken the survey and many have found the results surprising.
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After decades of soaring growth, the phenomenon of Protestant megachurches — behemoths of belief where 2,000 to 20,000 or more people attend weekend worship — may be stalled. –
USA Today reports And Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., the
granddaddy of “seeker-sensitive” megachurches geared to attract the
spiritually curious, is on a mission to rev the engines.
On Outreach magazine’s 2008 list of the largest 100, even the
smallest says more than 7,000 people attend. But some of the biggest,
including Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, with 43,500, showed
slight declines.
The unchurched remain untouched. While the number of people who say
they attend at least once a week hovers around 30% year after year, the
number who say they “never” go to church climbs.
In response, founder and senior pastor Bill Hybels has changed his
sermons to more directly challenge worshipers at every level. Willow
has launched a slate of dozens of Wednesday mini-classes focusing on
spiritual growth, coached and mentored by the church.
USA Today further reports Like Hillside, the Whittier Area Community
Church, west of Alta Loma, with 2,400 at weekend worship, has
construction planned, vast family programs and service projects from
downtown Whittier to a new 40-bed children’s hospital in Malawi,
Africa.
But “the churn is huge,” says pastor William
Ankerberg. “In the 12 years I’ve been here, I’ve lost half the people I
started with.”