Frank's Blog

Bill Donahue started at Willow Creek Community Church in 1992 and  helped Willow be a leader in group ministry.  But his influence has helped thousands of churches in the US and around world improve their small group experience and draw closer to Christ. 

Over the last three years Willow has had a challenging experience as they have attempted to move to a neighborhood model for group ministry and they are ready to try some new things.  That is where Donahue comes in.  Here is what he said about it in a recent blog post:

Over the last three years, after an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the Neighborhood initiative at Willow Creek Community Church, the church decided to return group life to the core of Willow. There were some positive experiences from doing the Neighborhood initiative, but Willow decided that the model had limited success. (For an evaluation, see my previous blog postings on this).

After taking a fresh look at what really constitutes biblical community, and learning from strengths and failures of the various expressions of group life for the last 30 years, the church has plunged headlong into a fresh expression of group life that encompasses the strengths of the past while trying to avoid the mistakes. And I have been asked to help.

My primary role will be to design the leadership development and support structure for this new era. With a variety of group sizes, purposes and formats, leaders will require a broad spectrum of experiences and services to guide them along. And with leaders who have anywhere from zero to decades of group leadership experience, it is clear that the support we provide must be readily accessible, customized, decentralized and use both face time and technology.

I look forward to hearing and seeing more from Willow Creek as they continue to experiment and try new things in group ministry.  Click here to read Bill Donahue's original post.