Williw Creek chooses female co-pastor

[Sandy]

http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2 ... cceed.html

Succession to a founding pastor in a mega church is always a big deal. For most of us who came from a Baptist background, it's a totally different way of doing things, though many of the mega churches in the SBC, and that are Baptist, have long ago given up congregational polity. Though Willow Creek isn't Baptist, it's certainly pretty mainstream Evangelical conservative. This is a bit different, the idea of a co-pastor, though some mega churches consider husband and wife as pastoral teams, and the wives have pastoral roles and responsibilities. This appears to be the first female-male co-pastor team of a mega church who aren't married to each other.

Willow Creek is not "liberal" in any sense of that term. It's a church in a neighborhood in the more affluent suburbs of Chicago, clear across the metro area from the urban centers, across the county line, and is upper middle class, almost completely white, and demographically, mostly middle aged and older. They also function as a resource center for several hundred mostly Evangelical churches scattered across the country, so they have some influence in terms of church polity, operation and doctrine. It's one of those kind of non-denominational mega churches that grows by draining the surrounding congregations of members by what it offers in terms of professionally-provided ministry, and not all those churches and denominations are opposed to women serving in a pastoral role.

This is an interesting development, and it will be interesting to observe how Willow Creek weathers both the transition from Hybels and having a female co-pastor.

[William Thornton]

Interesting. Also interesting are the roles and vocabulary. "Lead" pastor, the woman, is administrative head. "Lead teaching" pastor, the man, is the main preacher. Odd, but maybe this is the latest terminology for the megas. One wonders exactly who is the leader, not that I care.

[Dave Roberts]

[Haruo]