Willow Creek Reveals

My dad forwarded me this link to an interesting article about some new developments in the thinking of the staff of Willow Creek Community Church. (Go ahead. Click it. Then come back here. We'll wait... *grin*)

I need to say right off that I really enjoy Willow Creek, and I've been very proud to be on staff of churches that have been part of the Willow Creek Association. Every time I've visited — either for personal worship or with leadership teams for training — I've had marvelous experiences and great times of worship and learning. In so many ways, this is a church that really has a "fire in the belly" for reaching their community, and I'm deeply impressed by the blessings God has poured out upon them.

The Reveal conversation has my curiosity piqued. I imagine there will be lots of different perspectives about what Willow is learning about itself. Some people will be incredibly defensive for the prinicples and perspectives their church has adopted already. Others will use the opportunity to be critical in an "aha!" sort of way. But wisdom seems to be found in learning from what they've learned — in listening carefully as the conversation unfolds because we share that craving to impact our communities with God's love and we're eager to discover everything possible about being more effective.

I'll be picking up the book a.s.a.p., and it looks like the conversation will continue over at www.revealnow.com.