Emotional health and spiritual maturity are inseparable. Is is not possible for a Christian to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.

What are you mad about? What are you sad about? What are you anxious about? What are you glad about? Do this exercise often. Even if we’re not aware of it, it’s still going on. Buried emotions don’t go away. It is unbiblical and inhuman not to feel.
How do you build healthy community with people who don’t feel?

Are you still living your family commandments? Every family has a ‘ten commandments.’ All the time we have family scripts from our childhood going on in our minds. But God has a new script.

In my day I need a rhythm of pausing. Communion with God is the goal. Nothing more and nothing less.

When I’m quiet with God, it’s amazing how much he wants to say.

There are two extremes of Sabbath: Legalism and irrelevance

On the sabbath, God says, ‘Let go of all you’re unfinished goals and let me love you.’

We don’t keep the sabbath, the sabbath keeps us.

If you don’t delight in the Sabbeth then you’ve missed the point. Stop working and learn to play!

Create a rule of life. It’s purpose is to anchor your life in God in the midst of enormous change. Do you have a rhythm of life that makes this possible?

The goal of life is to receive the love of God and give it away.

I embrace the limits God has given me.

Healthy churches can’t help but grow…at God’s pace.

Will Salmon
Willow Creek UK & Ireland

When Andy Stanley works with his arts team, rather than tell them what his message is, he tells them what the tension is that he wants them to create. He finds this a more powerful way to set him up for the message.

Bill: As Sunday goes so does Willow. No Sunday should be normal.

Will Salmon
Willow Creek UK & Ireland

Mentoring is slow growth. It is deep and powerful. Be willing to take the long haul approach.
Andy Stanley usually hand picks the guys he wants to invest in and generally turns down guys he doesn’t know that approach him, because when the match is right mentoring can be extremely powerful.
Bill has been mentored by people he hasn’t met – he reads lots of books by top leaders.

Recommended read: Mentor Like Jesus by Regi Campbell

Will Salmon
Willow Creek UK & Ireland

Be careful with your references to church in your conversations. Check your attitude about it. Is your conversation about church flavoured with gratitude?

Bill was very careful how he referred to his workload in front of his children when they were growing up. Despite the pressure, he made sure he didn’t make bad quips about how much he had to do etc. And come meal times and family gatherings, he made sure in his prayers that he thanked God that they belonged to a church which enabled them to be together etc. He wanted them to grow up with an attitude of gratitude towards church. It was a discipline of his.

Will Salmon
Willow Creek UK & Ireland

Do your best to hire fantastic people. At Northpoint, they are very slow to hire. They have a motto, “Have a ministry, don’t hire a ministry.” Look for people of integrity, people who are covenant makers and keepers.

Audience question: How and when do you decide to create a job role rather than a volunteer role?

Bill: It’s going to be on the plus or minus side financially. For example, a good evangelist or children’s ministry person will attract people to the church. In the early days, you need to hire people who will grow the church, that can grow the income of the church so that the church can continue to grow. Be careful about the rate of which you hire people on the operational side as this just drains your income so that you can no longer function.
In most cases it is better to hire into where the momentum is. Of course, sometimes you will want to hire to create growth e.g. Children’s Ministry.

Hire people magnets.

Look to hire key positions first…Senior Pastor, Children’s Pastor, Service Programme Director/ worship Leader…

Will Salmon
Willlow Creek UK & Ireland

The Senior Pastor has to be the voice for lost people…especially come budget time because they are not there to represent themselves!

It’s core that your church staff need to have a heart for people who are from God.

Willow invests totally in relational evangelism. But some people have exhausted their relational networks. So now they are exploring other methods. Bill referred to the “math” behind the Parable of the Sower. There’s 4-1 success ratio. You have to sow a lot before your reap. So if you want to reap more, sow more! Sow in different ways.. Internet, advertising, phone calls, mailers.

Bill’s cat story: Bill drove into the church grounds one morning to find a guy who lived across the road looking for his cat. Bill called the groundsman to keep a look out. In conversation, the guy asked Bill what he did. Bill explained he was a pastor of the church. Then the guy asked what all the other buildings were. He had seen the sign for Willow Creek Community Church but had assumed they were something else, that the church was only a small part of the whole. It was a lesson that Willow needs to revisit its outreach to its neighbours.

Create empty seats at optimal times… The obvious being Sunday.
Who in your church expects the Senior Pastor to fill the empty seats? Everyone! Bill is encouraging the evangelists in his church to pray for certain sections of the auditorium, to take ownership for that section. To have parties for that section, to love and shepherd the people who start regularly attending there. It is a great way to create ownership among people in your church.

Setting good standards for what your church provides on a Sunday instils confidence for people to invite others…. Teaching, Music, Children’s, etc.

Make your baptisms raucously celebratory! Baptisms can be great evangelistic events. At Northpoint, they make a high quality 2-3 minute video of their baptismal candidates as they tell their story.They invite friends and family, and they make it a big deal. They also create celebratory gatherings so that friends and family are exposed to the community aspect of the church.

Will Salmon
Willow Creek UK & Ireland

God bless,

Mike.