HE WOULD NOT BYPASS OPPORTUNITIES? (1 OF 4)
by Tony Thomas
He Would Not Bypass Opportunities (1 of 4)
Series: What Would Jesus NOT Do??
Tony Thomas
John 4
In the early 90s when we lived in Cincinnati, I visited the Willow Creek Church in Chicago with three elders. Willow Creek was considered the cutting-edge church of its time. Our elders decided to go, more for the bonding than for the conference.
When we arrived I fell in love with their worship center! I don't remember the color scheme, or what instruments were on the stage, or what the seating capacity was. What I remember is the view of their lake from the worship center. Yep. I'm the cat who went to see the queen and noticed the mouse under her throne!
Their north wall of the Willow Creek Worship Center was made of glass and it overlooked a lake that was inhabited by hundreds of wild geese. We sat on the south side of the worship center and for three days my mind was distracted by the geese! All I could think about was hunting for duck and geese at the Rendell's farm when I was a boy in my home town.
The only part of the conference I remember was a story Bill Hybels told. Willow Creek runs 26,000 in attendance every weekend and several years ago Hybels handed each person three post-it-notes. One was red, one was blue, and one was yellow. That's 78,000 post-it-notes! Can you imagine the treasurer getting that bill and wondering who used all of those post-in-notes?
Anyway, on the red note they wrote the name of the person who invited them to church. On the blue note they wrote their own name. On the yellow note they wrote the name of someone they were going to invite to church. Then, they posted their notes on the glass wall. With the sun overlooking the lake, it looked like a beautiful stained- glass window! (It also blocked the view of the geese which would have ruined it for me!)
Then Hybels explained: the red is the church of the past. Without the red notes, none of us would be here. The blue is the present church. If it's to be it's up to me ...
Series: What Would Jesus NOT Do??
Tony Thomas
John 4
In the early 90s when we lived in Cincinnati, I visited the Willow Creek Church in Chicago with three elders. Willow Creek was considered the cutting-edge church of its time. Our elders decided to go, more for the bonding than for the conference.
When we arrived I fell in love with their worship center! I don't remember the color scheme, or what instruments were on the stage, or what the seating capacity was. What I remember is the view of their lake from the worship center. Yep. I'm the cat who went to see the queen and noticed the mouse under her throne!
Their north wall of the Willow Creek Worship Center was made of glass and it overlooked a lake that was inhabited by hundreds of wild geese. We sat on the south side of the worship center and for three days my mind was distracted by the geese! All I could think about was hunting for duck and geese at the Rendell's farm when I was a boy in my home town.
The only part of the conference I remember was a story Bill Hybels told. Willow Creek runs 26,000 in attendance every weekend and several years ago Hybels handed each person three post-it-notes. One was red, one was blue, and one was yellow. That's 78,000 post-it-notes! Can you imagine the treasurer getting that bill and wondering who used all of those post-in-notes?
Anyway, on the red note they wrote the name of the person who invited them to church. On the blue note they wrote their own name. On the yellow note they wrote the name of someone they were going to invite to church. Then, they posted their notes on the glass wall. With the sun overlooking the lake, it looked like a beautiful stained- glass window! (It also blocked the view of the geese which would have ruined it for me!)
Then Hybels explained: the red is the church of the past. Without the red notes, none of us would be here. The blue is the present church. If it's to be it's up to me ...
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