Community Corner Megachurch Reels Following Week of Resignations What's next for Willow Creek Community Church South Barrington? Reply SOUTH BARRINGTON, IL – It has been a tumultuous year for megachurch Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington. Amid allegations he overstepped his boundaries with women in the congregation, lead pastor and founder of Willow Creek, Bill Hybels, announced he would be stepping down in April. His 42 years with Willow Creek ended and new leadership took over. This past week, multiple other church leaders also resigned. The resignations came following a New York Times article, which shared the story of Pat Baranowski — Hybels' former executive assistant. Barnowski lived with Hybels' family for a period in the 1980s. Now 65 years old, she told the New York Times how Hybels first crossed the line in 1986. While his wife and children were away, she said he offered to give her a back rub and straddled her, unhooked her bra and touched her near her breasts Get News Alerts and Newsletters from Patch On Sunday, the same day the New York Times story broke, lead teaching pastor Steve Carter announced he would be stepping down. In a message to the congregation, which was posted to his personal blog, he wrote he could not "in good conscience, appear before you as your Lead Teaching Pastor when my soul is so at odds with the institution." "After many frank conversations with our elders, it became clear that there is a fundamental difference in judgment between what I believe is necessary for Willow Creek to move in a positive direction, and what they think is best. That is not to say that I am right and they are wrong. But I must follow the path that I believe God has laid out for me to live with integrity, and that path now diverges from Willow Creek," Carter wrote. Then during a special meeting on Wednesday, lead pastor Heather Larson and the entire Board of Elders for Willow Creek also announced they would be resigning. As she addressed a congregation of thousands, elder Missy Rasmussen said the "painful and troubling events have scarred these women, their families and tarnished our church." Rasmussen, who sat on the Board of Elders for six years, said when allegations regarding Hybels having an affair surfaced in 2014, the board was shocked. "We thought we knew what Bill's weaknesses were, but his interactions with women were not something our board thought we had any reason to be concerned about," Rasmussen said. She added the allegations seemed out of character, but "were so serious we knew we had to investigate.<doc-sep>Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment I will always remember the first time I heard Bill Hybels speak in person. I had been invited to be one of the teachers at an evangelism conference hosted by Willow Creek Community Church. Hybels addressed the opening session, calling us to use our influence to reach the unreached with urgency and creativity. His passion for the lost was palpable. His leadership charisma was unmistakable. It was not surprising that he was leading not just one of America's largest churches but one of our generation's most influential ministries. In the last year, so much of his story has changed. And now the crisis at the church he founded has reached a new level. Last night, Lead Pastor Heather Larson resigned her position. The entire elder board of the church resigned as well. Christianity Today is calling their resignations "a seismic shock for one of the nation's most influential churches." Elder Missy Rasmussen spoke for the board, stating: "We are sorry that we allowed Bill to operate without the kind of accountability that he should have had." She added: "We exhort Bill to acknowledge his sin and publicly apologize." As a consequence of their handling of this crisis, she announced: "Willow needs and deserves a fresh start, and the entire board will step down to create room for a new board." Steve Gillen, lead pastor of Willow Creek's North Shore campus, will serve as interim pastor. The church still intends to move forward with an independent investigation into the allegations against Hybels. Why is the story of a single church's struggles so significant? Because that church is one of the most significant congregations in American history. A model for churches around the world Bill Hybels was born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the son of a wholesale produce operator. He came to personal faith in Christ as a teenager. In 1971, Hybels was a youth pastor in Chicago when he started a worship service called "Son City." The service targeted young people by using contemporary music and language, skits, and multimedia, virtually unprecedented innovations for a church at the time. Son City grew from twenty-five to 1,200 in three years. In 1975, he and his leadership team opened a new church, naming it after the space they rented: Willow Creek Theater in Palatine, a residential suburb of Chicago. Costs were paid by one hundred teenagers who sold 1,200 baskets of tomatoes door-to-door. Attendance grew exponentially, leading the team to buy and build on property where the church is located today. The congregation grew to more than 25,000 members. Its "seeker-sensitive" approach to reaching unchurched people became a model for churches all over the world. In 1992, Hybels launched the Willow Creek Association (WCA) to link and resource thousands of like-minded churches. In 1995, he began the Global Leadership Summit, an annual training event for hundreds of thousands of ministry leaders. The 2018 Summit begins today. A day for grief Last March, I wrote a Daily Article responding to allegations of sexual misconduct against Hybels. Monday, I wrote another Daily Article on this issue after Hybels' former personal assistant came forward with very serious accusations against him. Her statements and the handling of this issue by the church's elders led Steve Carter, then the church's Lead Teaching Pastor, to resign. Now the church's Lead Pastor and elder board have resigned as well. Willow Creek Community Church was one of the largest and most influential churches in American history. And so, today is a day for grief. Grief for women who have felt that their stories of abuse were not heard or believed. Grief for the families who have shared their suffering. Grief for Heather Larson and Steve Carter, gifted leaders whose ministries at Willow Creek ended so tragically. Grief for their families and all who love and support them. Grief for the staff ministers and leaders of Willow Creek and its related ministries, thousands of women and men who have dedicated their service to Christ through this global movement. Grief for the multiplied thousands of Willow Creek members, so many of whom found Christ through their church. Grief for the pain and shame this is causing them in their community. Grief for the reputation of Christianity in our culture. Willow Creek was lifted high as a stellar example of a relevant church for our day. Now, critics have even more ammunition in their ridicule and rejection of our faith. The image of Jesus' bride has been tarnished by this tragedy. A day for faith, hope, and love But this is also a day for faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Faith in the Father who rules the universe. Our faith is to be in God, never in man. Our security is as sure as the omnipotence of God. Hope in the Son who founded the church and promises that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Our future is as bright as the providence of God. Love produced by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) that extends to sinners and their victims, knowing that we have all been both. Our compassion is as needed as the grace of God. Brother Lawrence: "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." The church of Jesus Christ is the mightiest movement in human history. Rasmussen closed her statement last night by affirming, "We believe that God is still building his church." And one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11). The best is yet to be. Originally posted at Denison Forum.<doc-sep>
Following new allegations against Willow Creek Community Church founder Reverend Bill Hybels, the lead pastor and elders on Wednesday announced their decision to step down taking responsibility for mishandling previous misconduct allegations. In an announcement made at a service at the South Barrington megachurch, the elders and the lead priest, Heather Larson, apologized in front of the congregation and said the church will now be led by a new set of people who don’t have any associations with the earlier council or Hybels. "In recent days and weeks it's become clear to me that this church needs a fresh start," Larson said. "The staff, this staff that I dearly love, they also need a clean running lane to heal, to build, to dream." The elders reflected that they had failed to believe in the women who accused Hybels of sexual harassment due to their personal attachment to the priest. “To all the women who have come forward,” one of the nine elders of the church, Missy Rasmussen, said at the congregation. “We are sorry that we added to your pain.” “We have no reason to not believe any of you. We are sorry that our initial statements were so insensitive, defensive and reflexively protective of Bill,” she said. “We exhort Bill to acknowledge his sin and publicly apologize.” "The timing for my transition is now right," Larson said. "I have carried what God has asked me to carry." The lead pastor of the church’s North Shore branch Steve Gillen will "step in as interim pastor to set up the new pastoral team," Larson added. The news came days after lead teaching pastor Steve Carter announced his resignation on Sunday after a new allegation by the founder’s former executive assistant came out, accusing Hybels of groping and misbehaving with her. Hybels stepped down from his role in April after a Tribune investigation brought to light the countless allegations by women, some of whom were church employees, accusing him of sexual misconduct over the years. Hybels has denied all allegations. The elders got wind of the allegations four years ago when a woman privately told them she had a lengthy affair with Hybels. But, on further questioning by the elders, she said she was lying. Missy Rasmussen, who served on the elder board for seven years, told the congregation that they believed that Hybels’ sins go “beyond what he previously admitted on stage.” “We were not aware of many of the choices he made in private and therefore did not hold him accountable in meaningful ways,” Rasmussen said. The elders acknowledged that “allowing him to have counseling conversations with the woman who was the subject of the first investigation” was wrong and was a result of “trust we had in Bill, and this clouded our judgment.” “We have engaged an outside, independent governance expert to conduct a robust governance review,” Larson said. “We are also convening a group of respected, independent Christian leaders to spearhead an investigation to look into … allegations and areas they determine need to be investigated.” Larson served as an executive pastor of Willow Creek for five years. She was the lead pastor, a role similar to that of CEO, and oversaw the church’s main campus in South Barrington and the seven other campuses as well. Photo: Reuters/Larry Downing The country’s fifth largest megachurch, Willow Creek has more than 25,000 members. The church was founded over 40 years ago. The elders will start leaving the church in waves starting next Wednesday so as to ensure smooth running of the church. “This is not the outcome I would have ever wanted. My hope was that Bill Hybels would have admitted his sins, and that Willow Creek leaders would have come to repentance voluntarily, not through pressure from the national media,” Vonda Dyer, one of the women who accused Hybels of misconduct told New York Post.