MASSIVE EXITS AT WILLOW CREEK
Entire board of elders resigns amid allegations against founding pastor Hybels
The entire board of elders at Willow Creek Community Church will step down to allow the church to make a “fresh start” after allegations of sexual harassment against founding pastor Bill Hybels were mishandled, church officials announced Wednesday.
Elder Missy Rasmussen made the announcement at the South Barrington megachurch.
“The Elder Board wants to express our deepest sadness around the events that have occurred over the past few months at our church,” Rasmussen said. “But to limit our sadness around these past few months is to not recognize the obviously painful events that have occurred over the past 40 years of our existence.”
Hybels abruptly announced his early retirement in April following allegations of impropriety dating back to the 1990s that were detailed in a Chicago Tribune investigation. Several women described “suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss and invitations to hotel rooms,” as well as “an allegation of a prolonged consensual affair with a married woman who later said her claim about the affair was not true.”
Six more women came forward with similar allegations in a Christianity Today report published on April 21, and a former assistant to Hybels accused him of harassment in a New York Times report published last weekend. That prompted Pastor Steve Carter — who had replaced Hybels at the helm of the church — to step down himself.
“We believe that his sins were beyond what he previously admitted on stage, and certainly we believe that his actions with these women were sinful,” Rasmussen said Wednesday. “We believe he did not receive feedback as well as he gave it, and he resisted the accountability structures we all need.”
In May, elders issued an apology to women who had come forward with allegations and acknowledged they placed “too much emphasis on defending Bill.”
“We, as a board, know Willow needs and deserves a fresh start, and the entire board will step down to create room for a new board,” the elders said Wednesday.
Hybels has denied any wrongdoing, but while stepping down he said: “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.”
Willow Creek has grown to eight Chicagoarea locations and is one of the largest evangelical churches in the country. Leaders say it draws 25,000 attendees each week at its locations in Chicago, Glenview, South Barrington, Crystal Lake, Huntley, Lincolnshire and Wheaton.