Elder Leadership at Willow Creek

Leadership and governance have been critical since the church’s inception. Much of the New Testament sets forth descriptions of both what church leaders should look like and how the church should be governed. We see leadership models throughout the Gospels as Jesus calls together his apostles and disciples. And we see a furthering of these models in Acts and in Paul’s letters that follow. There is great diversity in who leads, how many people lead, and what governance looks like in what the New Testament describes. But what is common and what stands out in the descriptions of leadership is a specific kind of leadership—leadership that is servant-oriented, sacrificial, Spirit-led, and wisdom-based.

Willow Creek operates with an Elder Board and a Senior Pastor under a model called “policy governance.” Policy governance draws clear distinctions between the overall governance of an organization and the day-to-day management of that same organization. Under policy governance, the board of elders sets the goals the church is to meet, the values the church is to embody, and policies the church is to follow. The Senior Pastor and the rest of the staff, then, are to implement strategies and programs to meet those goals, embody those values, and follow those policies. We believe this type of leadership to be appropriate for Willow Creek given the size, context, and history of our church. (If you have additional questions about Willow’s leadership model, please email elders@willowcreek.org).

If you have a concern about a senior or lead pastor at Willow Creek, please contact Red Flag Reporting at www.RedFlagReporting.com or 877-647-3335 and use the client code: Willow.