Issues Encountered in Growing Churches
Willow Creek Community Church
And
New Hope Missionary Baptist Church
Overview Willow Creek Community Church
The case studies on Willow Creek discussed several issues that were addressed by the leadership. Those issues included burnout of the leadership, overloaded ministries, and the need to expand the buildings for a growing membership. Willow Creek tackled the leadership burnout issue by sharing the teaching duties among several teaching pastors. The explosive growth of the church brought about additional issues such as overloaded ministries and a need for more physical space. The overstressed ministries were relieved by restructuring the leadership over the ministries. This restructuring brought about a means of organically producing additional leaders within the ministries themselves.
History of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church
New Hope Missionary Baptist Church (NHMBC) began in 1987 in the living room of Reverend and Mrs. Leroy Mitchell. After pasturing a church in Sycamore for nine months, Rev. Mitchell and all members from Dekalb were excommunicated due to underlying friction between African-Americans from Sycamore and those from Dekalb. For the next year, the core members held services at numerous locations, finally settling at a local Seventh Day Adventist Church which became New Hope home for the next twelve years.
During this twelve year period, New Hope purchased tens acres of farmland and began developing building plans. In 1998, construction started on the building New Hope would call home. In 2000, the members of New Hope moved into their new home without ever missing a Sunday worship service. Time heals and New Hope reconciled wi ...