Hybels steps down at Willow Creek

[Tim Bonney]

If an outside investigate happened, I’ve not found anything to indicate that.

[Sandy]

From Hybel's statement:

While some of the stories that have been told about me are misleading and others are entirely false, and while investigations have found no evidence of misconduct, I have been sobered by these accusations, and as I said earlier, I have invited the input of wise counselors, friends, and family members to help me engage in a process of humble reflection.

There's no mention of an "outside" investigation. The Tribune story made note of the fact that Hybels became angry over the suggestion that an outside investigation (other than church elders) be conducted. On the other hand, the way he has expressed himself lacks a lot of the self-righteous defensiveness that has happened when other high profile, conservative Evangelical megachurch leaders have been accused, or caught. The incidents described are strange, but the credibility is equal, at least from what can be seen in these media reports.

I must admit, I have a bias when it comes to the leadership culture in the megachurch movement. Most of the pastors and church leaders insulate themselves inside of their celebrity status, and while they tend to deflect criticism by accepting reasonably low "salaries" from their churches, they have a separate, 501-c-3 "ministry" corporation set up from which they earn far more through their book and media sales, and those operations are not accountable to the church. Hybels has a similar set up at Willow Creek, along with his leadership role in the Willow Creek Association, which is the equivalent of a medium-sized denomination that is a marketing and media group for Willow Creek products, mostly book and media productions authored by Hybels and his staff. And while collecting all that money, and gathering large congregations by developing a whole platform of inwardly focused ministries, evangelism of the lost is dying, because the megachurches aren't coming anywhere close to smaller congregations when it comes to their baptism to membership ratio, while they suck the life and resources out of the churches in the communities that are actually reaching the lost.

[Rvaughn]

[William Thornton]

[Sandy]

I wonder, when a church that size has an elder board that hires "lawyers," if the lawyers are elders, or church members. I think that's a legitimate question. Even though Hybels doesn't exhibit a lot of the characteristics that many megachurch pastors do in acting as if they are above the same standards as everyone else, and as if they are the emperor over a large domain, and its all about them, I'm sure his wealth, and his position and standing put him in a place where he had a lot of control over any investigation involving his behavior. That's the culture of the megachurch.

On the other hand, it is interesting that a female ordained minister has ascended to the throne of one of the country's largest, most influential Conservative Evangelical megachurches, one with an association that involves 11,000 other congregations, about half of them also affiliated with the SBC.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

[Rvaughn]

[Tim Bonney]