Last weekend Bill Hybels unleashed his “Vision 2010” to Willow Creek Community Church. He called the people of Willow Creek to a bolder outreach and unprecedented impact for the coming years. Here are three things he shared:
1. Raise the level of risk associated with reaching people far from God.
Hybels challenged people to a bolder witness, reaching out to the lonely and confused people across racial and socioeconomic lines.
2. He challenged everyone to become “self-feeding individuals”.
This came out of a recent survey they did at Willow. It asked how satisfied attendants were with how Willow Creek serves them at various stages in their spiritual development. Pre-Christians, or people who are still seeking and exploring Christianity, rated Willow Creek "very high." Ratings dropped slightly among new Christians but were still "fantastic." Adolescent Christians rated the church as good. But fully devoted followers of Christ indicated less satisfaction, saying they are not sure the church is helping them as much at this stage in their life. "We want more of the deep truths of God," they said, according to Hybels.
In Vision 2010, Willow Creek leaders will be altering the way they coach to teach attendants how to be "self-feeding individuals" early on in their spiritual development. Rather than expecting to be spiritually fed each week with a 35-40 minute sermon on Sundays, congregants will start learning how to take responsibility for their own spiritual growth.
3. Unleash unprecedented levels of compassion into the broken world.
Hybels said that all of the resources they currently give to feed the hungry, help those with AIDS in Africa, and disaster relief is just a "warm-up stage of what God is going to do in and through this church in unleashing unprecedented amounts of compassion and justice and fighting for the poor and oppressed in this world."
I’m so inspired by the way Hybel’s continues evaluate and reevaluate his church. I was able to hear him speak last summer at the launch of their downtown Chicago campus. It was 30 years to the day since the launch of the original campus and he hasn’t lost a beat.
He said when they started 30 years ago it wasn’t their goal to create a megachurch with tens of thousands of people attending. They just wanted to start a church that looked like Acts 2:42-47. With a vision this BIG, you’ll never stop growing!
You can watch this message here.
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