Jim Mellado President The Willow Creek Association was founded in 1992 in response to a fresh movement of God’s Spirit in the work of the local church. At that time, many churches—including Willow Creek Community Church—were sensing a renewed call to build biblically functioning communities that shared the Gospel with relevance, in ways that those still outside the church could understand. Willow Creek Community Church soon became a gathering place for these pioneering church leaders to meet, network, and learn what God was doing. Willow Creek Association was created in order to serve this movement of churches and to find and disperse breakthroughs with widespread Kingdom potential—not just from Willow Creek Community Church, but from churches everywhere. I was called to lead the WCA in 1993, after attending one of Willow’s very first Church Leadership Conferences. A recent graduate of Harvard Business School, I was envisioned by Bill Hybels to use my education and my gifts in a cause far more important than any corporate arena could offer. In those early days, I remember there being some question as to what the Willow Creek Association was to become. Some were saying it was going to be a denomination, since there was an historical precedence for associations turning into denominations. And yet, I remember recognizing early on that we already had over 50 denominations represented in the Association. It wasn’t long before we began to understand more deeply what God might be doing through the WCA. He wasn’t calling us to create a new denomination, or to replace the role of denominations. Ours was a calling to serve some of the most progressive and innovative church leaders and churches in the country and around the world from all denominations. What anchors WCA churches together is a common refrain: “We are going to give everything we can give to build an Acts 2 church in our time and in our community. We are going to innovate, take risks, try new things, follow the fresh winds of the Spirit wherever they may lead and toward whatever new patterns of church life that may represent.” Over the past 15 years, God has continued to call Willow Creek Association to be a trans-denominational agency of church renewal. In every generation God calls the church to innovate, to better connect God’s solutions to the needs of people. Because people are constantly changing and culture is constantly changing, the way that the church is going to connect to people is going to change. And so in every generation, there are church pioneers who lead the development of thriving, healthy, prevailing churches. And if they prevail, lead many other churches to prevail as well. I’m convinced that our particular calling is to put a towel over our arm and serve today’s church pioneers. And as long as God gives this organization breath, we will be focused across denominations to serve church leaders who say, “I want to do better for my church.” If that’s the heart of a church and of its leaders, the heart of WCA will be right there with them. About Us Overview >