My Willow Project

Picture 78761, originally uploaded by John Foong.

(picture = the Willow Creek Community Church Campus - well, some of it!)

Today is my second last day working at Willow Creek, this huge church in South Barrington, a suburb in Chicago. I've been working on a really exciting project around management metrics - how do you measure the success of the work you're trying to do at church? Unfortunately, the only easy things to measure are how many people show up and how much money they give, which isn't the best measure of how much God has worked in their lives! So, enter the consultant :)

It's been fascinating to work at a church that is renowned as being one of the most professional and innovative in the country - even BusinessWeek wrote an article about them! (See http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934001_mz001.htm, and http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934005_mz001.htm profiles some of the people I've gotten to work and have lunch with) ... I mean, I've only had one BusinessWeek article about me* :)

Really, Willow Creek is a big happy family. It doesn't feel like a corporation - which was honestly what I was expecting; it feels very much like a church, like my church back at home in Sydney (albeit a bigger version). Sure, it's situated on a huge campus (Even the parking lot is over 40 acres!) and does some incredible innovative work and massive conferences - but it still feels like a church - with all the benefits of friendliness and family and all the costs (for me anyway, being, um, somewhat fast paced) of a non-profit organisation ...

... I'm really grateful for my time here and glad that I was (hopefully!) able to add some value. It's made me think a LOT more about the kinds of roles I could do long term ... and the challenge it will be finding a church role that really fits! :)

*see http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/apr2006/bs20060414_7725.htm, though you won't see too much of me there! :)