Willow Creek Church in South Barrington, Chicago

I visited Willow Creek Church in South Barrington, a suburb of Chicago and joined in their Saturday 5.30pm service on 9 September 2008 (oops, actually 9 August 2008. Thanks be to friends who pointed this out). Willow Creek Church started in 1975 in the Willow Creek Theater in Palatine with approximately 125 in attendance. Moved to present site (campus) in 1981. According to their information brochure, in April 2008 the church has 6,934 participating members. Average weekend attendance is about 22,200 and average mid week attendance is about 2,900.

Here is a view of one of their carparks. There are 3,817 parking spaces. Man, their carpark is bigger than my church in Johor Bahru!

The campus covers 155 acres. They have their own lake which covers five acres.

View of the entrance to the main building. The building covers 748,940 sq. feet with 345, 940 of it being the main auditorium building.

The stage in the main auditorium building. The main auditorium opened on September 18, 2004 and can seat 7, 095 on three levels.

This is another view of the main auditorium before the service. It filled up rapidly when the service began.

There are two giant screens to show what is going on. It is a big auditorium. The sound system is state of the art and is fantastic.

This is the fellowship hall, compete with their own cafeteria for people to have fellowship after the services. I took this picture from their bookstore which is on their upper level. They have a large bookstore. Of course, I bought some books. How can I resist?

There are 120 ministries in the church. Full time staff numbered 350 and another 150 part time. There are 12,500 volunteers serving on a regular basis!

Great experience.