Just like everything else in our culture... Willow Creek beckons to me, "Come... chill out... Religion is not the serious chore you make it!"
It does sound nice to NOT take everything so seriously sometimes... to NOT be so idealistic. I'm not sure I'll ever get there.
Society beckons me to:
1. Go ahead and use that credit card to buy this cute outfit and lovely toys for the kids.
2. Go ahead and get a Nintendo DS, Wii, and Xbox for the kids... they should have what all the other kids have.
3. Go ahead and ignore years of tradition and the early church fathers... they didn't know what modern society would bring. Go to a church that has fun exercise classes, a huge play area for the kids, a coffee bar, a bookstore!
4. Just get cable and let the kids have free access to whatever they want to watch... heck you know you love Lifetime Movie Network and USA!
5. Send the kids to school and spend your days at the gym, in yoga, pursuing something fun and self actualizing.
6. Forget tithing... they have tons of money.. you don't even have enough money to get contacts! You need the money more than they do!
7. Get a second car... that way you can go and do anything you want to. You won't have to work out those trips to the store so much, and your husband won't "have" to ride his bike to work or take the bus!
8. Don't wait until you are married... you KNOW that you're marrying that person anyway!
9. Buy all that plastic and disposable stuff! It saves time!
10. What's so bad about McDonald's anyway???
Sometimes... that is what I think of when I think of FREEDOM. But I can't seem to leave my idealistic self in the dust... My idealism seems to rear it's (ugly?) head at every corner. When does it become easy to follow your principles of simplicity, authenticity, historical integrity, moral integrity, and family?
So Willow Creek is the kind of church I've always seen in my future!!!

You know... after I've quit trying to be principled and I've let all that go and I retire half the year in Arizona at a golf community with my convertible and my closet full of fun stuff... that's when I'll probably end up at a WillowCreek branch... when I've given up the idealism.
Gotta admit... it sounds fun.