Mutual Transformation
The day after I returned from Rwanda I found myself sitting in Bill Hybels’ office discussing Willow Creek’s new $11-million-facility in the heart of its South Barrington campus. It’s not a new auditorium for weekend worship, or even a children’s ministry wing, but a state-of-the-art holistic care and outreach center. The new Care Center includes a full-service grocery store, an auto center, dental office, optometry provider, childcare, career services and much more. And it’s almost completely volunteer-led with more than 2,000 church members participating.
“I’m a little embarrassed that it came 38 years into our story, but perhaps better late than never,” says Hybels.
One of the surprising factors that drove this large-scale local outreach initiative was the influence of Willow Creek’s global outreach partners.
“The church was maturing in its understanding of holistic ministry, primarily from what we were doing with our partners overseas,” Hybels says. “We were engaged globally with partners who were further ahead in their holistic approach to ministry than we were at home, so we brought that home and fed that fire.”
How does Hybels reconcile the need for both local and global compassion efforts? He points out the big difference between extreme global poverty and suburban Chicago poverty; however, the two aren’t mutually exclusive when it comes to the biblical mandate to care for those in need.
“Even though there is a differentiation in the [severity], to place lesser value on lesser suffering is probably not the right way to look at it, either,” Hybels says. “God planted us in this community to live out Acts 2:42-47. We need to do that here, and we need to do it globally. We got into the global game dramatically and very resource-intensively before we put a lot of resources into the local side—probably a ratio of 10 to 1. We don’t have to fly [across]? an ocean to justify helping the poor. They both work together now.”
For Hybels and Willow Creek, the lesson is clear: Global and local work together to enhance a church’s ministry potential, providing a mutual transformation that can be attained only when both arms of compassion are active.
If this move at Willow sets the pace for other churches, we should see greater advancement toward a holistic vision for serving the needs of both the neighborhood and the nations.
But don’t go running to save the world just yet …