I don't care what Slate says, I think it's beautiful.
Willow Creek Community Church is 30 years old this month! Thirty years ago the term Megachurch didn't exist, and now it's the subject of jeopardy questions and Daily Show reports;
[one megachurch] "begins in Georgia, goes up through the Carolinas and then justApart from the jokes and the controversy, Willow is home. I'm so grateful for all the memories, the relationships, and for all the men and women who have sacrificed so much to make it happen.
touches on Eastern Kentucky. It's huge, Jon, towers of glass and steel,
thousands of seats, a food court. It even has its own red-light district."
Some anniversary links:
Furr Journey
A WCA church celebrates it's own anniversary
Every Day People Finding God
Inside Out
Feel free to share your favorite memories!
5 comments:
Willow memoreies...yikes!! Where does one begin.
My wedding and baby dedication were two huge recent memories!
Some fun Production memoreis:
1.Asking Chris Tomlin to take a bow
2. being told firmly I needed to relax by Bill's body guard when I asked him to stop opening the back stage curtain while doing stage for the Mel Gibson interviw.
3. Chad accidently putting up a CG of Lord of the Rings, Gollum, during worship at Impact.
4. I ran rehersal for Crowder and I had to make the band restart 10 times because we couldn't hit our lighting cue.
5. Last night I got to see Gene Apple stage dive and my husband put a belt pack in Matt Redmans butt pocket while Matt performed The heart of worship.
And I'm sure there are many more memories to come!
Wow, I have so many memories of Willow I don't know where to begin either.
I have been going to Willow since I was 9 or 10 years old, that's almost 18 years!
Here are some of my memories...
1. My baptism, I was baptized 6 years ago this last July.
2. Also for me the dedication of my 3 kids. That was really special for me. That is a day I will never forget.
3. Impact was fun and I loved my d-team and hanging out with my friends especially Kimmy and Scott.
4. White water rafting with Impact. I remember singing Super Man by R.E.M with Kim. I also remember it rained the whole time we were there and everyone sat in the vans to stay dry.
5. The trip to Devil's Lake to go rock climbing. I remember Curt and Carl always making us stop to take a mental picture. I also remember the swimming incident that involved bras (or lack of).
6. Every single Christmas service when we all sing Silent Night. During the song Bill always tells us to feel free to hug our family's but to leave the strangers alone. After I was married we always went with Scott's family and we would always all cry and hug and tell each other how much we love each other.
7. My kids singing at the grand opening of the new church. I will never forget that. We were (and still are) so proud of them.
8. When Emily sang on stage with Willow Kidz for the first time, it was magical.
9. One last memory I will share is the time Steph, Scott, and Corey all went to Camp Machindo (I have no idea how to spell that) and Kim and I stayed home because we were too cool for camp. They were all gone for a week and when they got back Kim and I ran and hugged them all because we missed them SO much.
I love our church!
I just wanted to add that I love this picture of our church it's really beautiful. To be honest I really never new what our church really looked like on the outside. I don't know why that is. I just never had a picture of it in my head if that makes any sense at all?
Being given my Buick by the church was pretty awesome.
And the Chapter 2 campaign was a very thrilling time. It was awesome to see everybody rearrange their lives to be a part of what God was doing, and then exceed our goal so spectacularly.
Seeing the fruit from Chapter 2 in the new auditorium and the WCA and the satellite sites has been really moving.
My hands-down favorite memories are from Sandblast. There is nothing I would have rather have spent those summer vacations doing than volunteering there and seeing high school students encounter and be changed by God.
Currently I am really appreciating Marriage Matters. It is such an AWESOME, AWESOME ministry. Scott and I are really benefiting from it.
Kim it was so nice talking with you today!
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