Sweet Home Chicago
I was born and raised in the Chicago area the daughter of ballroom dancers who met at the Aragon Theater. My father, who grew up speaking German in his home, church, and place of work, performed a dance demo for Fred Astaire when he was in town looking to purchase a new studio.
Although I was not a dancer like my parents, after college my husband and I made the Chicago area our permanent residence. As we raised our children, a lot of our pastime has involved working alongside amateur fossil collectors that would play significant roles in the discovery and documentation of the Mazon Creek Fossils in Illinois. As time has opened up during and after raising our four children, I have researched and written on various subjects: genealogy, spirituality, archaeology, climbing, sea kayaking, an American Canoe Association’s Cover-up, the Deep Politics in Chicago , Gab CEO Andrew Torba’s Plans for Religious Supremacy, and most recently Summer Notes: Dave Dummitt Picks Up Bill Hybels’ Mantle at Willow Creek Community Church to Promote Peter Drucker’s “Next Society.
For many years, my love for the outdoors and my ability to be able to spend more time in it, especially by sea kayak, opened up a greater interest in the environment and archaeology where I documented many of my travels as I was able to explore many untamed and unspoiled locations: Mississippi River, Coastal Maine, Georgia Coast, Sea of Cortez, Hawaii, Bermuda, and The Great Basin.
Our landscape not only contains a lot of undiscovered fossils, but Native American relics and art that continue to help us understand the past. Scientists and archaeologists are continuing to reexamine and discover new or previously ignored information today as we are able to protect cultural material before modern development destroys it: Watertrails Reveal Rich Archaeological History in the Midwest
With new information we can become better stewards of our own resource. The state of Maine, in planning to produce thousands of megawatts of wind power from turbines on and off shore, worked with the National Wildlife Refuge System in hopes to monitor the flight and feeding habits of birds and bats to help with the placement of ocean energy projects. We don’t know whether the underwater acoustics of the turbines harm marine life or how fish and marine mammals might interact with the turbine’s rotors. Many marine species rely on the earth’s magnetic fields for migrating and searching for food and we don’t know yet if electromagnetic fields will repel or attract certain species. Wave, tidal, and hydrokinetic power devices, and the cables that bring electricity they generate to shore produce similar electromagnetic fields and there has not been a lot of research on whether or not marine life might be affected. Estimates of the value of tidal flats have been increasing as scientists understand more about the vital role that tidal flats play in sustaining urban areas as well as marine ecosystems.
It’s always good to research what is most important in your life. I home schooled our 4 children and between our Christian curriculum and our great teaching at a small Bible church I had been further encouraged to “study to shew thyself approved” (2 Timothy 2:15). We are living in the Church Age, but it is good to study what is to come and what has been: Revelation and Church History, and there is nothing like Old Testament Study to Strengthen the Faith. I welcome you to read Scripture here from the kings of Israel and discover what happens in relationships, depression, murder, friendship, jealousy, dating, rebellion, government, adultery, witches, lies, deceit, and even demon torment when man does what is right in his own eyes. Our priorities must always be right; God must always be first.
I became a Christian the summer after my first year of college. I had learned some of the basics of the Christian faith as I was raised in the Catholic church by my family, but I struggled with the ritual and the idea of the Pope and his place in Scripture. As I read the Bible on my own and began to research my heart was filled and led me to believe on the work of Jesus Christ alone, faith alone, and I would not follow any of the rules and rituals that have been added as is found in the Catholic faith.
“I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18,19
If its not adding to the faith many also subtract from it and make Jesus unimportant. True Christianity has always been a small remnant. Nothing is new under the sun. I have detailed my years at the Chicago area’s renown Willow Creek Community Church where, although at it’s beginnings many true believers attended, much error was apparently always there. You’d have to research what happened at the pastor’s conventions with the leaders or read books that the leaders praised and then research what those books really promoted because it was all so subtle. My original blog article was Protestant No More: Willow Creek is Infiltrated by a Mystic Quaker Movement Called Renovare. Most recently, my story has continued with, Nancy Ortberg Speaks at Willow Creek: Bill Hybels’ Women Unveil Deep Ecumenism (2013), and Summer Notes: Dave Dummitt Picks Up Bill Hybels’ Mantle at Willow Creek Community Church to Promote Peter Drucker’s “Next Society” (July 2022).
Thank you for visiting my website. I hope you will visit often as I continue to update with research, information, and pictures both in and outside the Chicago area. See my terms of use here.
Mary Fairchild
Excerpts from my Willow Creek Expose:
YMCA of the Rockies and the Peter Drucker Summit
I became a Christian during my time as college summer staff at the YMCA of the Rockies in 1980. I was encouraged by my roommate Joanne Schultz(we are 2nd row left 2nd and 3rd) to buy my first Bible and begin reading it at that camp. This was where my relationship with the Lord began. My life changed by reading the Word of God. I had already understood the history of the life of Jesus, but now understood my sin and I accepted His saving grace and I trusted Him as my Lord and Savior.
Christians know that they are saved by what God’s Word says and it testifies to your spirit. When you become a new creation you have a love for God that was never there before. He is your Father now and you sense that. You now have a love for the Word of God that was not there–the Bible becomes alive to you. Now you have a love for righteousness, you don’t want to live the way you used to live and you have love for Christians and a love for the lost. These values and character qualities begin to produce a life of good works. God in the person of the Holy Spirit dwells within the body of the believer in Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:19). We do not have to try to consciously think of God throughout the day; it is something that comes natural. The Holy Spirit brings to mind the things he would have us know.(68; Mooberry)
I began attending Willow Creek five years later, in 1985, that following year Bill Hybels attended the YMCA of the Rockies along with 32 others, including Bob Buford and Leith Anderson, for the Peter Drucker Summit Conference (69; Sutori).
Hybels was one of thirty-three attendees at the Peter Drucker Summit Conference held at the YMCA Camp of the Rockies, in Estes Park, Colorado, on August 19-22, 1986, for pastors and church leaders…. Because Hybels was inundated with requests from pastors of other churches who wanted to learn about the Willow Creek approach, he decided to set up a separate organization, the Willow Creek Association, devoted exclusively to teaching others. It is an example of what is called the “teaching church,” one devoted to the diffusion of innovation (70; Maciariello).
1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are both pastor epistles giving instruction to Timothy and Titus concerning the pastoral care of the churches. The recurring themes include: God the Savior (Titus 1:3); sound doctrine, faith, and teaching (Titus 1:9); and godliness (1 Timothy 2:2). The pastor is God’s spiritual example to the flock and the people of the community. The pastor is not only the head of the local church, he is an employee of the church and an elected servant of the people. The Lord has chosen the church as a means of spreading the message of salvation to the entire world. The pastor must be committed to feeding, organizing and leading a well-trained group of God’s people to fulfill his will.
Hybels of Willow Creek discovers through polling that one forth of worshippers were drawn by a role model–somebody they know whose life was fulfilled by religion. Rick Warren, Bill Hybels and others recognized the enormous potential in appealing to spiritual Americans who did not attend church (60; Sosnik, Dowd, & Fournier, p.119, 126.).
In 1977 Willow Creek purchased 90 acres of land in South Barrington and held its first service there in 1981. We had been lured in by research which had been done and what was reported in the papers. I was raised Catholic and after I became a born-again Christian I sought a Protestant Bible church. What attracted me to Willow Creek was not only that it was advertised as Protestant, but its simplicity. We had not read anything about Robert Schuller’s connections at that time and if we had we would have not been interested. We wanted expository preaching and ways to be active in reaching out to the community. When we heard outsiders complain that the church was watered-down we felt that they just didn’t understand how many of us had very good teaching along with our reserved Sundays for lighter messages.
Strange as it may seem, almost half the people at Willow Creek on any given weekend are former Roman Catholics…Willow Creek the second largest Protestant congregation in the United States…Weekends.. are designed to appeal to ‘unchurched Harry and Mary,’ Hybels’ term for the vast throng that is connected in no way with a religious institution. Robert McClory (71; Chicago Reader)
Chicago Bears Influence
When my husband I began attending Willow Creek the Chicago Bears where dancing their Super Bowl Shuffle. We were in a couples small group with Ken and Deb Gargula for two years. Our group memorized Scripture with the Navigators Scripture memory to hide God’s Word in our hearts, avoid sin, always be prepared to give an answer to others, and to be able to teach, rebuke, correct and train others in righteousness.
Singletary gets off Interstate 90 at the Barrington exit…, then it leads to Singletary’s church. Willow Creek Community Church… He’s been attending Willow Creek …since the church’s pastor, Bill Hybels, led prayer sessions for the Bears. …The church tries not to abuse his fame, but he does speak at a men’s breakfast and, once a year, to the Sports and Fitness Ministry. ‘I think our church had really responded maturely, giving Mike and Kim love, and not expecting him to be a celebrity,’ says Hybels (72; McClelland).
Football couldn’t help but be popular In the 80s in Chicago and Willow Creek was growing rapidly during this time. Honestly, the size of the church and who was attending didn’t really have any bearing on why we attended at all. I was active in the area with the Schaumburg Christian Women’s Club Bible studies, luncheon, and prayer breakfast. Although some of the events were in the wealthy neighborhoods of the very large homes of Walter Payton and Mike Singletary, the hearts of the women in these wealthy homes were just as large. We were regular attenders and with having 4 babies in 5 years I was in the nursery area or helping serve and I never saw Mike Singletary there nor sought him out, but I do remember he got a book published that was sold in the church bookstore (Singletary on Singletary).
We moved to a larger home and began attending a smaller Bible church after the dedication of our 4th baby in ’92. The new church we began attending, pastored by Jim Mooberry, was where my home school group as well as other women from Willow Creek met for the Kidnastics gymnastics classes. Mary Anne Cousins, wife of Willow Creek’s pastor Don Cousins, who also left Willow Creek in ’92, had brought their son Kirk there at that time, too. What all seemed so innocent began to rapidly emerge into something else in the 90s. The Willow Creek Association, now Global Leadership Network began in ’92, and the head of women’s ministries, Kathy Dice, was let go supposedly due to budget cuts as a new staff of women filled her role alongside female pastors Ruth Barton and Nancy Ortberg who began to teach Spiritual Formation and New Age thought.
South Barrington is a wealthy suburb of Chicago featuring some of the largest homes in Illinois. It is the location of the famous megachurch Willow Creek Community Church. Famous residents of South Barrington have included Walter Payton, hall of fame running back for the Chicago Bears and Mike Singletary, hall of fame linebacker and coach for several NFL teams. Bob Goldsborough (73; Goldsborough)
In the 1980s, Bill Hybels served as chaplain for the Chicago Bears, shepherding them through the Super Bowl Championship of 1986 (38; Brachear). Although he never attended Willow Creek, Walter Payton’s home, 34 Mundhank Road, was only 2.3 miles from Willow Creek.
They(the Payton family) then built the six-bedroom house, which has four fireplaces, maid’s quarters, a tennis court and an indoor gun range, according to listing information. Fittingly, the estate bears the address of Payton’s long-retired uniform number of the Bears, 34….Mike Singletary, also lives in South Barrington, having built his current, multimillion-dollar home in the village in 1998. Singletary, who owns a slew of other properties in the Barrington area, sold a former home in the village in late 1998 for $1.15 million” (74; Goldsborough).
Schuller and Hybels both sought time with world leaders and celebrities. Manya Brachear Pashman reports in the Chicago Tribune, “For 26 years, the Global Leadership Summit at Willow Creek Community Church has made headlines with celebrity guests like Bono, President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Started by Hybels in the mid-1990s, the summit has come to symbolize the iconic pastor’s provocative leadership style, sharp business acumen and international appeal. It has been fueled as much by his star power as that of celebrities he brought in” (75; Pashman).
Deepa Bhorath reports in the Orange County Register, “The Rev. Robert H. Schuller spent a lot of time in the company of celebrities, from actors to world leaders” (76; Bhorath)
Historically, if you wanted to sell something new to a bunch of rich people, you went to California due to the gold rush and Hollywood with its largely unchurched population. Jane Borden (77)
Marion Goldman, University of Oregon professor emeritus claims it was because California was largely ‘unchurched’ in the early days which made the area particularly appealing to founders of new religious movements and international communities. .. If you want to steal even more money, … you’ll need stronger recruitment tactics–enter celebrities. USC media and religion professor Diane Winston explains, One of the best ways for a cult to advertise itself is by attracting high profile members.” (77; Borden). Read full report here.