3/11/2019 Bill Hybels Resigns from Willow Creek......

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Megachurch pastor “accelerates” October retirement weeks after former colleagues went public with misconduct
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APRIL 10, 2018 7:22 PM
BOB SMIETANA APRIL 10, 2018 7:22 PM
Bill Hybels Resigns
from Willow Creek

MARCH 22, 2018 8:15 PM

Bill Hybels Accused
of Sexual Misconduct
by Former Willow
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Image: Willow Creek D/CH / Flickr

B
ill Hybels has stepped down as senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, the
Chicago-area megachurch he founded over 40 years ago, citing the controversy over
recent allegations against him.

Many in the wider Christian community have been

confused by those allegations, he said, and the
controversy has distracted his church’s leaders from Current Issue
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their
Bill Hybels mission
Resigns and
from has hurt
Willow the church’s ministries.
Creek
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“They can’t flourish to their fullest potential when the

Saving
valuable time of our leaders is divided.” Retirement
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revealed the news Tuesday evening at a “family
meeting” where about 1,000 Willow Creek members My Cocaine Habit
AUGUST 08, 2018 8:58 PM Was Killing My NFL
gathered at the multisite church’s flagship South Dreams
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Creek Elders
and Pastor Heather Barrington, Illinois, campus.
Larson
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Bill Hybels READ THIS ISSUE
The crowd listened in silence as their longtime pastor
began to read a 12-minute-long prepared statement, Like 456K Follow 320K followers
AUGUST 05, 2018 3:20 PM
Hybels Heir Quits then groaned in disappointment when he confirmed
Willow as New what so many of them had feared. Several voices
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Hybels will also leave the board of the Willow Creek of CT.
APRIL 21, 2018 11:07 AM Association (WCA), a network of thousands of
Email Address
Willow Creek churches around the world, and will no longer host
Promises Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit (GLS) in MORE NEWSLETTERS
Investigation Amid
August. “This too was my decision and mine alone,” he
New Allegations
Against Bill Hybels said.

APRIL 10, 2018 7:22 PM Hybels has strongly denied the pattern of misconduct that former Willow Creek staff members
Bill Hybels Resigns recounted in an investigation published three weeks ago by the Chicago Tribune and covered by
from Willow Creek
Christianity Today. At the family meeting, he repeated his denial.

MARCH 22, 2018 8:15 PM

Bill Hybels Accused
of Sexual Misconduct
by Former Willow
Creek Leaders
“I’ve been accused of many things I simply did not do,” he said. “But let me acknowledge things I
have done. I confess to anger at the accusations. … I sincerely wish my initial response had been
listening and humble reflection. I apologize to you, my church, for a response that was defensive
instead of inviting learning.”

In last month’s Tribune article, Hybels called the accusations “flat-out lies” and accused a group of
former colleagues—including two prominent former staff pastors—of colluding against him to ruin
his reputation.

On Tuesday, he told the audience that “I realize now that in certain settings and circumstances in the
past I communicated things that were perceived in ways I did not intend, at times making people feel
uncomfortable. I was blind to this dynamic for far too long. For that I’m very sorry.”

“I placed myself in situations that would have been far wiser to avoid,” he said. “I was naive about the
dynamics those situations created. I’m sorry for the lack of wisdom on my part. I commit to never
putting myself in similar situations again.”

Hybels said he would withdraw to consult with counselors and reflect on what God is teaching him. “I
have taken these allegations seriously, as have our church elders,” he said. “Some have been
misleading, and some have been false. But I have been sobered by these allegations and I am inviting
counsel … to help me sort through these in the days ahead.”

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After
Bill Hybels the period
Resigns of reflection,
from Willow Creek Hybels plans to return to the church as a member of the congregation.
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“Willow will always be my church home,” he said, departing to a standing ovation.

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“We accept and see the wisdom in this decision,” said Pam Orr, chair of Willow Creek’s elder board.
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She said that the church’s work will continue without its founder.

AUGUST 08, 2018 8:58 PM

“We will not give up doing the work he called us to,” she said.
Willow
EMAIL
Creek Elders
and Pastor Heather
Larson
PRINT Resign over Willow Creek members knew big news was coming when the church called the midweek gathering
Bill Hybels just a day in advance. Some held out hope that Hybels had been able to reconcile with those bringing
accusations against him, or even that evidence had been found to disprove the claims. But most saw
AUGUST 05, 2018 3:20 PM
the resignation coming.
Hybels Heir Quits
Willow as New
Accusations Arise As Steve Carter, the church’s new teaching pastor,
Before Global prayed over the Hybels family and the church’s elders
Leadership Summit
at the end of the gathering, more in the crowd—arms

APRIL 21, 2018 11:07 AM

extended to the stage—began to cry.
Willow Creek
Promises Donna Simale, who has been a member of Willow
Investigation Amid Creek since 1986, couldn’t hold back tears as she
New Allegations
described the evening. “I knew” that Hybels would step
Against Bill Hybels Image: CT
down, she said. “I just feel so brokenhearted.” Members and elders pray for the Hybels family.

APRIL 10, 2018 7:22 PM

Bill Hybels Resigns When the news broke last month, “I believed him, and I also knew the people coming forward with
from Willow Creek concerns,” said Simale. “I felt in my heart there was a misunderstanding.”

MARCH 22, 2018 8:15 PM

Bill Hybels Accused
of Sexual Misconduct
by Former Willow
Creek Leaders
Former leaders have accused the church of failing to adequately address several allegations against
Hybels, including inappropriate comments, private meetings with female staffers in his hotel room
and at his home, intrusive hugs, and, in one case, an unwanted kiss.
Among those raising concerns were Nancy Beach, the first female teaching pastor at Willow Creek;
Betty Schmidt, the longest-serving lay elder in the church; John and Nancy Ortberg, former teaching
pastors at Willow Creek and longtime friends of Bill and Lynne Hybels; and former Willow staff
member Leanne Mellado, whose husband Santiago “Jim” Mellado was the longtime head of the WCA
and is current president of Compassion International.

The church’s elders have defended their senior pastor, citing three investigations into Hybels that
found no misconduct. They also denounced the Tribune report in an email to the congregation,
saying it was “based on false allegations resulting from a campaign by a group of former church
members who want to damage the reputation of our church and our senior pastor.”

Steve Carter and Heather Larson, who were named to succeed Hybels last fall, will immediately take
over as lead pastors.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Larson said she was grateful for women leaders at Willow in the past—seeming
to refer to Beach and others who have made allegations. She hopes tonight’s decision will open the
door to reconciliation.

Larson also addressed the women in the congregation.

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“I know
Bill Hybels many
Resigns fromofWillow
you are confused or frustrated,” she said, saying media accounts did not match
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many congregants’ experience. “We can respect someone’s story and stand up for our own. You are
strong. You have your own voice. For all of us, as women and men, we will put our best energies on
4877 moving ahead.”
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Tom De Vries, president of the Willow Creek Association (WCA), was at the church Tuesday when
Hybels stepped down. A week earlier, he said, the pastor had voluntarily stepped from the WCA
AUGUST 08, 2018 8:58 PM
Willow Creek Elders board at a regular board meeting.
EMAIL
and Pastor Heather
Larson
PRINT Resign over “He came into the conversation and was burdened by all the things that were going on and how the
Bill Hybels
controversy was affecting the Global Leadership Summit,” said De Vries.

AUGUST 05, 2018 3:20 PM

Some of the simulcast sites were concerned about Hybels continuing on as host, and didn’t know if
Hybels Heir Quits
Willow as New they could promote the event if he remained part of it.
Accusations Arise
Before Global For now, it’s not clear who will host the summit this year. Several speakers from the past have called
Leadership Summit
and offered to help out.

APRIL 21, 2018 11:07 AM

Willow Creek
Promises
Investigation Amid
New Allegations
Against Bill Hybels
APRIL 10, 2018 7:22 PM
Bill Hybels Resigns
from Willow Creek
MARCH 22, 2018 8:15 PM
Bill Hybels Accused
of Sexual Misconduct
by Former Willow
Creek Leaders
De Vries said that Hybels could return to the WCA and the leadership summit in the future—after a
time away.
In order to return, he said, Hybels and his counselors would have to come up with specific outcomes
—and show proof that those outcomes had been met.
De Vries said he’s seen some contrition with Hybels behind the scenes. More is likely needed, he said.
That’s something he hopes Hybels’s counselors and advisers will work on. Hybels would also need to
make amends—where needed—to anyone he has hurt.
“We hope there will be a mending of the wrongs that have been done,” he told CT.
Several congregants told CT they did not view Hybels’s comments on regrettable communications or
unwise situations as admitting wrongdoing as alleged by the women who have come forward with
their stories. “He’s always been a man of character,” said Roberta Dusek, who has been attending
Willow Creek for 34 years. “He’d never put himself in a situation where he was alone with the
opposite sex.”

Schmidt, the longtime elder at Willow Creek who has criticized how the church has handled
allegations against Hybels, said that she was saddened but not surprised by tonight’s event.

She was disappointed that Hybels made no specific mention of people he has hurt or specific things
he did wrong.

It was all too general, she said. There was no contrition by Hybels, no confession, and no asking for
forgiveness from those he harmed.

“I don’t think that was much of an apology,” she said. “An apology with no contrition is no apology at
all.”

Schmidt was also troubled by Hybels’s plan to take time off and then come back to the church.

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“Bill
Bill Hybels laid out
Resigns hisWillow
from own restoration
Creek path there,” she said. “That is not how a church should be run. He4877
share

dictated all the terms of what he is going to do. I don’t see that as being biblical.”

4877 The Willow Creek founder’s early departure still leaves

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their accusations against Hybels public, as well as the
former church leaders who defended their claims, have
AUGUST 08, 2018 8:58 PM
Willow Creek Elders continued to restate their concerns in recent days and
EMAIL
and Pastor Heather call for a more thorough investigation.
Larson
PRINT Resign over
Bill Hybels
“It takes great courage for women to tell their stories,”
pastor and author John Ortberg wrote in a blog post
AUGUST 05, 2018 3:20 PM
Hybels Heir Quits last week. “In this case, the tremendous courage of
Willow as New several women has been met with an inadequate
Accusations Arise process that has left them without a refuge and with no
Before Global
way to be assured of a fair hearing.”
Leadership Summit

APRIL 21, 2018 11:07 AM Image: CT

Willow Creek
Promises
Investigation Amid
New Allegations
Against Bill Hybels
APRIL 10, 2018 7:22 PM
Bill Hybels Resigns
from Willow Creek
MARCH 22, 2018 8:15 PM
Bill Hybels Accused
of Sexual Misconduct
by Former Willow
Creek Leaders
He called Hybels’s initial claim that Ortberg and others
Hybels announces his decision to step down.
colluded to bring up the allegations “untrue and a
diversion.”
In a statement posted online today, Schmidt, the longtime elder, countered Willow Creek’s recent
claim that she said she heard “not an inkling” of allegations against the senior pastor. She said she
was clear about her concerns when she brought one woman’s story before the elder board.
Many who have raised concerns or called for further accountability cite their respect for Willow
Creek and its legacy as part of their motivation. Cases like Hybels remind Christians of the messiness
of ministry—of how even flawed people do great things for God, observed Amy Reynolds, who studies
female leadership as a sociologist at Wheaton College.
“The way that these situations often get portrayed is that there are good people and bad people,” she
said. “But there is nuance. You can say, look, this person did some good things and some bad things.
We want to hold people accountable for the bad things.”

One of the women who shared her story in the Tribune, former Willow Creek staff member and
vocalist Vonda Dyer, detailed her experience even further in a blog post published on Sunday.

Dyer, who traveled with Hybels and other church staff overseas, characterized Hybels’s behavior as
“grooming,” writing that he often complimented her on her looks and pressured her to spend time
alone with him.

Before Tuesday’s announcement, some of Hybels’s friends and colleagues had come forward to
defend his character. “I haven’t seen anything that would disqualify him from ministry,” said Rick
McDaniel, pastor of Richmond Community Church in Virginia.

He said the accusations about his mentor were hard to hear and that the alleged behavior seemed
unwise for a pastor, but that he also trusted Hybels’s commitment to personal ethics. He had
confidence that if Hybels had done anything wrong that he would admit it and try to make amends.
“I believe that will happen,” he said.

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The
Bill Hybels early retirement
Resigns puts
from Willow an end to Hybels’s decades-long career at Willow Creek, where he
Creek share 4877

pioneered new approaches to church life, Christian leadership, and ministry.

4877 He first made his mark in the early 1970s as a youth pastor fresh out of college, when he and Dave
Developing
TWEET Holmbo started a program called Son City at Park Ridge’s South Park Church near Chicago.
Story
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Featuring contemporary music and drama combined with Hybels’s preaching, the group grew from a
few dozen to more than 1,200 in a few years.
AUGUST 08, 2018 8:58 PM
Willow
EMAIL
Creek Elders
and Pastor Heather Eventually Hybels and friends from Son City decided to found a new church. They rented out the
Larson
PRINT Resign over Willow Creek Theater on Sunday mornings, funding the new venture by selling tomato plants door to
Bill Hybels
door.

AUGUST 05, 2018 3:20 PM

The church was so successful, it eventually launched the so-called seeker-sensitive movement—a
Hybels Heir Quits
Willow as New church model aimed at attracting newcomers to the faith. Willow Creek’s success made Hybels one of
Accusations Arise the most influential American pastors of the past 40 years.
Before Global
Leadership Summit
That movement revolutionized how many evangelical churches operate; it transformed Sunday

APRIL 21, 2018 11:07 AM morning services from times of spiritual growth for church members to outreach events aimed at
Willow Creek attracting newcomers.
Promises
Investigation Amid
Starting Willow Creek took a toll on Hybels and other leaders. In their book, Rediscovering Church,
New Allegations
Against Bill Hybels his wife, Lynne Hybels, describes how those early years nearly ruined the couple’s marriage.

APRIL 10, 2018 7:22 PM
Bill Hybels Resigns
from Willow Creek
MARCH 22, 2018 8:15 PM
Bill Hybels Accused
of Sexual Misconduct
by Former Willow
Creek Leaders
And the church nearly foundered after an incident known as the “Great Train Wreck,” when a key
leader left the church after being accused of having several affairs. Some church members blamed
Hybels for ousting the departed leader, while others were angry that church leaders had failed to
inform them of the alleged misconduct.
“The dream is over,” Lynne Hybels recalls her husband saying after discovering this misconduct,
which stalled building plans and fundraising. But the church recovered, as did Hybels’s dream.

Willow Creek became one of the 10 biggest congregations in America, and Hybels grew in national
prominence. Starting in 1992, WCA’s annual Global Leadership Summit, hosted by the pastor and
featuring top business figures, introduced new strategies to inspire hundreds of thousands of
Christian leaders.

Schmidt has called for a thorough, independent investigation of Hybels’s conduct. She said that she
knew of two incidents involving Hybels, but thought both had been dealt with. “I want the truth to
come out,” she said. “That’s the only way true healing can begin.”

Tuesday’s meeting began like countless services at Willow Creek, with members making their way to
the seats they sit in every Sunday and standing beside their church family for worship. But as soon as
Hybels stepped on the stage, the tone shifted from friendly chatter, laughter, and neighborly hugs
and handshakes to rapt attention.

The pastor’s remarks repeatedly pointed to the good of the church he founded and the future of
Willow Creek.

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SECTIONS
JayResigns
Bill Hybels Rasmussen, a Willow
from Willow Creek member who was not expecting Hybels’s resignation, sat in the
Creek back
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row of the auditorium processing the news. “It does force us to look at the church not as one person
but as a place God has blessed with his leadership,” said Rasmussen.
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Developing
TWEET The songs that began the gathering—“Cornerstone” and “In Christ Alone”— underscored this
Story
LINK
message, as the members sang out, “I find my strength, I find my hope, I find my help in Christ
alone.”
AUGUST 08, 2018 8:58 PM
Willow
EMAIL
Creek Elders
and Pastor Heather Larson told the congregation, “It’s not the end of Bill’s story. It’s not the end of Willow’s story. It’s
Larson
PRINT Resign over certainly not the end of God’s story. God is still writing new chapters for all of us.”
Bill Hybels
Additional reporting by Kate Shellnutt in South Barrington, Illinois.
AUGUST 05, 2018 3:20 PM
Hybels Heir Quits
Willow as New
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Bill Hybels Accused
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