Strangeness of the Month Club
Our Motto:  Christians Say the Strangest Things!
by Kent B. True

This is part of the story of Gene and Mike. They are two fun-loving guys who seem to have left that drab old colorless Kansas of the restoration movement and ended up over the rainbow in the wonderful land of Oz known as Willow - Creek, that is. But if you are in Oz, are you still in Kansas, too? Hang on to your New Testament Christianity hats as we try to follow these two wild and crazy guys on their journey.

"What Are You Doing at Willow Creek?"
An Interview with Gene Appel and Mike Breaux
by Paul Boatman
The Christian Standard
June 27, 2004

I must admit that I do not know Gene or Mike. From their pictures they really do look like fun guys: hip, happenin’ and holy. I wouldn’t mind going to lunch with them, and if I did, I would like to ask them some more questions, because this interview left me wondering, and wondering some more.

The question "What Are You Doing at Willow Creek?" can imply several things. For one, it might mean, "How did you get there?" Neither of them wanted to go, it seems. God told Gene to go. ("I sensed God saying, ‘Gene, this is not your mission field anymore.’") God didn’t speak directly to Mike like that. Instead, God just dropped Mike a lot of hints, so he finally went, even though he didn’t want to initially.

But those are mere details. The really interesting question was not "How did you get there?" but rather "Why are you there?" You see, both these fine fellows are restoration movement reared and schooled gentlemen. And although the interviewer only hinted at this direct question, what all inquiring minds really want to know is, "When you got to Willow Creek, did you leave New Testament Christianity?"

What Gene and Mike both answered, in so many words, is "No, no - a thousand times no!" Allow me to re-state what the Christian Standard put into a pull-quote from Gene Appel:

I think that is a wonderful idea. It’s something I have tried to do by teaching and preaching to Presbyterians, Methodists, and the United Church of Christ. But I never managed to delude myself into thinking that these folks were fully practicing New Testament Christianity. This is where Gene and Mike have me a little worried.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s fine - and strictly their business - if they want to hang with the "Willow" people. But when they seem to convince themselves that Willow Creek is just another - though bigger, better, and more glamorous - New Testament church, I have to wonder.

I have to wonder if Gene and Mike have ever read their Willow web site, or if they think any of us who saw their interview would read it. For example, Mike says, "This church has always believed that baptism ought to be by immersion." But Willow web site says:

What about the meaning of baptism? Gene says, "I have always believed that when a person sincerely comes to trust Jesus Christ as leader, forgiver, and Savior, and repents, the first step of obedience is to be baptized into Christ. That is what I have always taught, believed, and practiced." To this Mike adds, "We both continue to teach and practice that."

Gene and Mike think one is "baptized into Christ." That is good, Biblical language and it tells us something important. One moves into Christ via the route of baptism. But the Willow web site says:

"You do not have to be baptized to have Christ in your heart any more than you must exchange rings to be pronounced man and wife. But if the inner commitment to trust Christ alone for salvation has been made, then the outward symbol of Baptism should be as valued and as visible as the gold ring on a newlywed's finger."

That sounds remarkably like what Jack Cottrell calls the Zwinglian view of baptism, which is to be carefully distinguished from the New Testament view of baptism. I sincerely hope Gene and Mike can convert those Zwinglians at "Willow" to the N.T. point of view. Meanwhile, I also hope they realize there is a difference here. While it might be just an insignificant point about an obscure doctrine like what it means to be baptized into Christ, it is still a difference. (Yes, I am being just a tiny bit facetious here, in case anyone missed it!)

But the worrisome matters of the Willow Creek Duo do not end here. More important are the questions not asked by the Christian Standard. For example, when one visits the Willow web page for "Board of Elders" one finds some very interesting information. The so-called "elders" of the congregation include Betty, Diane, Elizabeth, Gail, and Laura. No, these are not five cases of "A Boy Named Sue."

Somewhere in my New Testament it says something, straight from the Apostle’s mouth, about a woman not having authority over a man, and a bishop being the husband of one wife. While I do realize that some people are advocating same-sex marriages today, but I don’t think any of these gals is a husband.

It’s not even enough for the Willow People that they have female "elders." They even have a little creedal statement, of sorts, that you must accept to be a member. It says:

"We ask that Participating Members of Willow Creek minimally be able to affirm with integrity the following: that they can joyfully sit under the teaching of women teachers ... that they can joyfully submit to the leadership of women in various leadership positions at Willow Creek."

Once again, I hope Gene and Mike are hard at work convincing the folks up at "Willow" that they have an unbiblical leadership arrangement in the form of five "head mamas." But it appears, unless some drastic change has taken place, that our Dynamic Duo accepts all this. I’m just guessing that this is not the way things work back at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Or perhaps this is just another one of those trivial differences that one hardly notices when migrating to Willow.

I have to wonder why interviewer Paul Boatman, whose wife preaches sermons with him, did not ask a question about this. Then again, maybe I don’t have to wonder.

I hope Gene and Mike are happy in their new endeavor. But please, guys, don’t pretend that Willow Creek is just a hop, skip and a jump from being a New Testament church.

Finally, I wish the Christian Standard would find some interviewers who don’t act like Dan Rather interviewing Bill Clinton. There are things that inquiring minds want to know - things that we will never know as long as Christian Standard interviewers pitch only softball.