What Can We Learn from Willow Creek?
BY MIKE HESS
Over the past few years the evangelical world has watched the situation unfold at the famous Willow Creek
Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., with profound sadness.
Growing up in the Chicago area, I was familiar with the fame
of then pastor Bill Hybels and the innovative methodology
that WCCC became known for. One close pastor friend told
me years ago that he believed Bill Hybels was “the best pastor
in America.” While I never subscribed to Hybels’s philosophy
of ministry, I had long respected his heart for the lost and his
pioneering thinking. As many movements and megachurches
go, WCCC was built around Hybels’s engaging and influential
persona. His entrepreneurial thinking, winsome speaking, compelling style, charming personality, and engaging writing made
WCCC the hub of the “seeker-sensitive” and “church growth”
model that thrived in ’80s and ’90s.
His books were bestsellers. Thousands of pastors flocked to his
famed Global Leadership Summit for many years. He oversaw
a large association of churches. Scores of churches studied and
emulated his model of ministry.
But certain events and accounts that God has brought to light
in recent years have suggested that there was another side to
Hybels’s ministry. While many were concerned with the troubling
content (or lack thereof ) of the WCCC model, recent revelations
also brought to light a troubling and scandalous trend—a trend
that included sexual misconduct allegations spanning nearly three
decades and including dozens of women who have now alleged
that Hybels made numerous sexual advances toward them.
While the elder board at WCCC initially defended Hybels, the
chinks in the armor eventually began to appear. The allegations,
which spanned long periods of time and involved several women,
began to multiply. Over the course of a few months, the entire
elder board and pastoral staff at WCCC resigned. Local and
national media outlets made the scandal common knowledge. On
a personal level it was heart breaking in that WCCC is just a few
miles from my home. I have a few close friends who were led to
faith in Christ as a direct result of WCCC’s ministries.
Scandals and moral failures in recent years have rocked not
only the evangelical world, but other worlds as well. Fundamen-
talism has had its own series of high profile moral failures, and
the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandals are fresh in everyone’s
mind. When a high-profile minister like Hybels falls from grace,
it provokes us to ask, What are some important lessons we can
learn from this?
Those privileged to serve in leadership must reflect and pursue
Christlikeness constantly, no matter the size of their platform or
the reach of their influence. Here are a few takeaways:
• Leadership without accountability is fatal. Structures of loving
and heart-targeted accountability are vital to those pursuing
Christlikeness in leadership.
• Elevated pedestals are fertile ground for pride. Certain streams
in both evangelicalism and fundamentalism have been guilty
of putting their leaders on pedestals, lionizing them to an
almost idolatrous degree. Pedestals are dangerous because
they invariably lead to disappointment for both the leader
and his followers.
• Prioritize your marriage above ministry. A false dichotomy
often exists between leadership in the church and in marriage.
Stay close to your spouse. Grow spiritually together as you
serve the Lord. Prize and cherish your marriage more than
any other human relationship.
• Character matters more than personality or giftedness. When
someone’s character does not live up to the influence of his
platform, a terrible disaster is in the making. God’s priority
for the qualifications of a pastor concentrates far more on the
man’s inward character than the gravitas of his personality.
Constantly guard your own heart.
• Servants should dignify women, not demean them. Those who
have a pattern of being flirtatious, demeaning, condescending,
domineering, or disrespectful toward women have no business
being in any kind of church leadership position.
• Pursue lasting faithfulness instead of passing fads. It’s easy
to become enamored with ministry methods that promise
quick results. But the Biblical model that God has prescribed
requires patient and prayerful plodding in a long-term disci-ple-making ministry. There’s something to be said for churches
that have been faithfully serving decade after decade without
achieving significant levels of fame or national influence.
And humble, faithful service never goes unnoticed by God
(1 Cor. 4:1– 5).
Tragedies like this happen in both the broader spectrum of
evangelicalism and in circles like ours. But by God’s grace, they
can be and must be avoided. God’s design for the local church is
one of mutual encouragement and accountability. If God chooses
to broaden the scope of your ministry influence, be sure to humble
yourself regularly and endeavor always to act as a faithful steward.
The greater your stewardship, the greater your accountability. Jesus
said, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be
required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will
demand the more” (Luke 12: 48, ESV).
We are not the final judge of Bill Hybels—or of any other
professing believer, for that matter. Our response should be one
of prayer for him and his family. Grief over what this does to the
name of Christ. Introspection on our own hearts and spiritual
trajectories. May we never forget that those privileged to serve in
leadership must always reflect and pursue Christlikeness.
Mike Hess is national representative of the General Association of Regular
Baptist Churches.