Brannon Burke - Church Visit #2

Brannon Burke – Church visit #2

Willow Creek (South Barrington)

67 E. Algonquin Road, South Barrington, IL 60010

October 26, 2014

Second Church over 10 miles away

I. Worship Service

            The worship at Willow Creek is unlike anything I’ve experienced in a church setting. Growing up, I had gone to a few Christian concerts and this worship service seemed far more similar to those than a typical church’s worship service. Firstly, Willow Creek is huge. I have never in my life been to a megachurch before.  The sheer size of the place is overwhelming. Now, with a place that big and with a congregation of about 8,000, it’s no surprise that the worship team would be more practiced and honestly more talented than those of a lot of churches that I have been to. Though the music quality was good, I found it hard to engage as a church-goer and slipped into concert-goer mode (namely, watching and listening instead of really participating).

II. Most Interesting

            The sermon was on the sufferings of God’s people and how we must not forget that God is in control of all things. At first, I was skeptical, because this church, compared to Lawndale who I visited last, has very little obvious sufferings. But Bill Hybles opened up to his own sufferings as the leader of an 8,000-member congregation, which I think was brave and important. I think it would be easy to fall into the temptation to try to be perfect in front of your congregation, but I think the larger the congregation is, the more important it is to be real in front of them.

III. Disorienting or Challenging

            When I attended Lawndale Community Church, Coach spent a lot of time addressing current events in Lawndale and the greater Chicago area. Bill Hybles, the head pastor at Willow Creek, also opened up his sermon by talking about current events. Compared to the Lawndale community, however, Hybles addressed his congregation as though their only interaction with suffering was through the media. He talked about his hesitancy to read the newspaper because he did not want to see the chaos of the world. I found it really interesting that this community had the option of engaging with turmoil and community suffering, whereas Lawndale had no choice but to address it. Hybles has to go to Joshua to tell his congregation about suffering, whereas Coach merely had to spell out statistics of their own community. It’s hard to swallow how different and unfair the circumstances of God’s people are solely based on where they live.

           

IV. Scripture or Theology

            The theology of this church is not something new to me. Willow Creeks calls itself an “interdenominational” church, which I think you would have to be if you had so many people coming from so many various backgrounds. Because of this, there was not anything particularly challenging about the church’s theology. In fact, I really enjoyed the scriptural presence in the sermon. It was grounding, and, for me, it was new. He spoke from Joshua and told a story that I had not heard before. What I mean by this is that it was not your typical suffering story and call to turn to Jesus (which can get old if you’re jaded). He was precise in Scripture but also practical, which I really appreciated.