Special Report: Reinventing Synagogue
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May 16, 2008
Associated Head On Willow Creek Lessons
Associated head explores mega-church’s blueprint for success.
Alan H. Feiler
Managing Editor
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Second installment of a three-part series on the Chicago area’s Willow Creek Community Church
What can Jewish organizations and institutions learn from a mega-church? Quite a lot, according to Marc B. Terrill, president of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.
Mr. Terrill has spent more than a decade studying the business model of the Willow Creek Community Church, a non-denominational evangelical Christian congregation in South Barrington, Ill., profiled in last week’s Baltimore Jewish Times. The Jewish Times recently spoke with Mr. Terrill about the church.
How did you first hear about Willow Creek?
I was exposed to Willow Creek about 12 years ago. I had the good fortune to study [business strategies and models] with Ben Shapiro [a professor of marketing emeritus at the Harvard Business School] while I was working at the Boston [Jewish] federation. It had a transformational quality for me to study it.
What impressed you about Willow Creek?
They dared to risk and try new ideas, and truly listened to what their membership had to say. They failed miserably at first, analyzed things and found that there are seekers and believers. They’re responding to a market.
For me, that was pretty provocative. They took the ‘churched’ and reached out to the ‘unchurched,’ and asked them what they could do to get them involved. There’s a story that [Willow Creek co-founder and senior spiritual leader] Bill Hybels, at first, stood in the parking lot and welcomed people with, ‘My son, my child, Jesus welcomes you,’ and they learned that that’s not what people wanted. They took risks and threw out the norms.
What did Willow Creek do so right?
It’s hardly rocket science, but if you look at trends and data, some organizations are just barely keeping their heads above water and muddling along. Willow Creek had the guts to take risks, sometimes fail, and glean new strategies.
It’s not about making money or sophistication or expertise. It’s about whatever will motivate you and will make you want to contribute to the world.
Have you been there?
No. When I returned to Baltimore [in 2002], I wanted to take the whole [Associated] management team over there, but it was cost-prohibitive.
But whenever someone comes in my office and wants to talk with me about philosophy or getting young people involved, a lot of that for me was influenced by the Willow Creek church.
In what specific ways did Willow Creek influence the Associated under your tenure?
I took things that I thought were applicable. The biggest was Jewish Volunteer Connection. Its activities can go from environmental farming to greening, to giving gift baskets to helping people with AIDS, to adopting schools in the inner city, to participating in the cleanup in New Orleans. A decade and a half ago, that didn’t happen at the Associated.
Willow Creek was a catalyst for that kind of operation. When I first suggested the notion of an agency dedicated only to volunteerism and not fund-raising, some of our elders thought I was nuts! But now, we’re reaching 6,000 families a year.
Also, the power of any institution is the infusion of new ideas and people, while keeping the veterans involved in a mentorship role. We needed to infuse youth into our organization. That points to continuity and the succession of a community. We’ve connected with the youth in that regard. Just check out one of our board meetings!
Do you see similarities between Willow Creek and the Associated?
They’re launching people on a journey, and we’re doing the same thing. That’s how you go from seeker to believer.
Some people might question why a Jewish federation would want to study a mega-church.
If we can’t learn from all of the settings out there and tease out the things that work best, then shame on us. My interest is not that they’re a church, but the business model and emphasis and listening to what the population wants, which leads to more success. They are a model worth analyzing and replicating. They’ve been incredibly successful.
Should synagogues be analyzing Willow Creek as well?
Willow Creek is a model when you look at it on paper. The results don’t lie. So if you want to ratchet up membership, there’s something to learn from this.
Next week: Willow Creek’s “GenerationNext.”
Read more of this three-part series on the Chicago area’s Willow Creek Community Church