Recently a question arose as to how many LCMS congregations belong to the Willow Creek Association. It turns out that it is an alarming number. Willow Creek is church in the northwest Chicago suburbs that has set the standard for using church growth principles to grow the church. They use psychological and sociological principles to change the church so that it is more appealing to the culture. It is not a confessional church. They reject the efficacy of the sacraments to forgive sins and reject the power of the word to create faith.

This was announced on the BJS site, and disussion is going on at that location.

Click on LCMS in each line to see the report from LCMS.org which lists the church; click on WC to open a window showing the Willow Creek membership information. Leave these windows open as you view other churches.

"nam" appears to the right of the name of the LCMS church name is listed differently than in the WC listing; mouseover this to see how the church is named in the LCMS directory.

It is by default sorted by District; you may click on Name, City, or State to change the sort order.

If you notice problems in this listing or know of an LCMS church that is a WC member that is not on this list, please contact us.

This database was created in August 2009 and has not been updated since.