6 of 6

Even 18 months later, when he was named executive pastor, his salary was a fraction of what it had been.

The church attracts many employees from the marketplace, but Hawkins tells them working at Willow is not like working at Motorola.

"The corporate model is a machine metaphor—built around efficiency and throughput," Hawkins says. "We're a body—a living, breathing, organic thing."

In the end, the most compelling illustration of Willow Creek's success is not found in its size but in individual stories, stories of people like Art Holton, who found his Acts 2 family in small groups.

Holton, 56, sits on the edge of his bed, counting T-shirts and socks, trying to figure out what to pack. In a few hours he and 14 other volunteers from Willow Creek will fly to Costa Rica to build an addition onto a church in San Jose.

Last year Holton and another Willow team built a house in Costa Rica in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. They were among 4,450 volunteers in 1999 who served in some way with the church's 62 ministry partners in the inner city of Chicago, the suburbs, and overseas.

When Holton returns from Costa Rica, Willow's 25th anniversary festivities will be in high gear.

Holton can't help reminiscing how both he and the church have grown since he first came to Willow in 1976. Six years ago, for example, Holton's information technology consulting business failed. He found himself $17,000 in debt and painfully aware of how much his identity had been based on business success. He began meeting with a group of men with similar struggles.

"Eight of us began to meet together on Tuesday mornings at 6:30 in the office of a corporate video production company where one of our group worked," he says. "We studied Neil Anderson's book, Victory over the Darkness, which talks about finding our identity in Christ. The group was a safe place to confess our junk to one another and know we were with brothers who would not condemn us."

Holton subsequently joined a Good Sense small group—a Willow ministry that helps people learn to manage money in a God-honoring way. One hundred sixty people—most with business and financial credentials—serve as volunteer Good Sense counselors.

Some lead small groups for people in debt, others counsel those with unusual financial situations, and others serve in a workshop attended by 1,500 people annually.

"My Good Sense group held me accountable for following through with my debt-reduction plan," says Holton, who retired his debt in a year and adopted a simpler lifestyle. "I found I no longer needed all the 'stuff' to feel significant."

He went on to become a coach of other small-group leaders in a pilot spiritual formation workshop the church was developing. His role was to help small-group leaders develop their own plan for spiritual development that would include a variety of disciplines such as prayer, solitude, and Bible study.

Last year, Holton says, God began stirring him toward leading a new ministry for motorcyclists.

"Our purpose is fellowship and friendship evangelism," he says. The group takes long rides to destinations in Illinois and Wisconsin, 10 in the past year, with shared meals at the beginning and end of each trip.

"One guy who owns a paper-shredding business came to Christ a few months ago out of seeds planted over a dinner meeting at a restaurant in Galena, one of our destinations," Holton says.

The businessman's wife, also a biker, is now investigating Christianity.

"When I first walked into Willow Creek as a seeker, the church was about to celebrate its first anniversary," Holton says. "I found Christ there, and the life change that's occurred in me since then—as a result of Willow's investment in me—has marked my life."

Verla Gillmor, a member of Willow Creek for four years, is a writer, speaker, communication consultant, and author of the forthcoming Reality Check: A Survival Guide for Christians in the Marketplace.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

first page |  6 of 6

share this page

November 13 2000, Vol. 44, No. 13