As Willow Creek Community Church tries to raise $100 million over the next two years, leaders are praising congregants who went into debt decades ago to give.
Back in 1977, dozens of people took out personal loans or second mortgages on their homes to help Willow Creek fundraise $450,000 for its first building, according to a video shown during the Oct. 11 service. The fast-growing church, which numbered about 2,000 at the time, had outgrown its rented space in a local movie theater.
Senior Pastor Shawn Williams told the roughly 10,000 people who attend now that families stood in lines at a local bank to secure the personal loans.
He described it as an act of faith.
“They signed their names to loans that they weren’t sure that…