As you know, AC3 hosts the Willow Creek Association
Leadership Summit every August. And if
you haven't heard by now, the whole WCA (of which AC3 is a
part) has been reeling since Bill Hybels was accused of sexually inappropriate
gestures and overtures during his tenure as pastor and leader of the WCA. He has denied the accusations, but has
resigned from his all his roles at Willow.
This week, we received a couple of appeals for AC3 to
suspend hosting the Summit in order to stand in solidarity with the
victims of sexual abuse and the #metoo movement. In case you have been wondering about that
yourself, I thought I should show you one exchange I had which reveals our
reasons for continuing to host the Summit this year, despite the scandal
surrounding Bill Hybels.
Dear Pastor Rick,
I am the personal friend of one of the victims of sexual harassment by Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church. I would gently request that you might consider pausing on hosting the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit at Allen Creek Community Church later this summer, to show solidarity with the multiple victims at Willow Creek Community Church.
Christ Church of Oakbrook https://www.cc-ob.org/glsupdateand
Grace Church Indiana: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQLNs-6RS0have set a really beautiful example, as the leadership at both these megachurches have already withdrawn from hosting the Global Leadership Summit in solidarity with the victims.
Thank you so much for taking the time to consider my request
My reply:
Thanks for the email and for voicing your request in this
way. I really appreciate the spirit of
your appeal.
I have viewed both the sermon you posted below from Grace
Church and the PSA from Christ Church.
There were very touching in places and I understand why those churches
are deciding to Pause the Summit at their locations this year. We’ve considered doing the same. However, to this point, the elders have
decided to continue to host the Summit.
We talk about what happened at Willow and our decision here:
and here:
The question before us, is whether a pause is required to
advance the cause against sexual harassment in the world and in the church, or
needed to express solidarity with the victims of sexual abuse overall, or those
specifically involved with Bill. I’m not
certain there’s a direct correlation. In
fact, as I’ll mention below, I’m not sure all the victims would want us to make
this boycott for their sake and the #metoo cause.
Of course, the Summit is deeply connected with Hybels. Because of that deep connection between one
man and the Event, any participation in the event will be seen by some as some
kind of endorsement of that man and his alleged bad behavior. To me, to suspend our participation on these
grounds gives credence to a fallacy.
Namely, that the Summit and the movement that Willow spawned and the
leadership passion and vision they’ve inspired is tied to that single man.
It’s not. We never
believed this, and to cancel our participation now, would seem to put the lie
what we said we believed (the Summit isn’t about Hybels). And it would be implicit agreement with the idea
that if his name is besmirched then the Summit itself carries a black
mark. And finally it would suggest that
all Christians of good conscience and who care for the sexually abused must now
defect to look better in the eyes of those who are making what is essentially a false
equivocation.
I’d rather live a little less pragmatically, for the sake of
the optics of a thing, and more for the ideals of a thing. And in this case the Summit ideal is about
Leadership, and about the Local Church thriving and persevering and being well
led. The Summit ideal is also about
inspiring this kind of passion, vision and leadership in women as well as
men. If we all pull out, that vision
takes a huge hit.
I suspect the real effect of a defection from Summit
sponsorship now will be twofold: one, it
will make those who pull out look like they really care about women and the
#metoo movement, which I’m certain they do.
Two, it will serve to punish the WCA for what Bill did.
Regarding those two outcomes: First, I’m not interested in punishing
anyone, that’s not my business or my job, that’s God’s job. Secondly, about showing people what we care
about: if people don’t already know that
we, at AC3, care about women, and give them an equal seat at the table, and
think that sexual abuse is bad, by anyone, but most especially by those in
Christian leadership, then they simply don’t know us.
If our reputation goes down in the world or in the church
because we continue to host the Summit, an event that has nothing to do with
endorsement of sexual abuse… that’s a hit I guess we’ll have to endure. Our reputation as a church has been built by
what we’ve been about over a long run, and will not be radically affected by
soundbites and guilt by association. To
those who would allow themselves to be so affected, we’ll be sorry about that,
but they’re not thinking very deeply.
We have members at our church who also were close friends of
one of the accusers in the Hybels scandal.
They are certain of her character and obviously are heartbroken for both
their friend, and their former church (Willow) and for Hybels who affected them
so positively for the many years they lived in Chicago. And their friend, while wanting truth to out,
and Hybels to be held accountable, would not wish for Willow or the mission of
the WCA be devastated because of his sin.
I hope, as you implore churches to consider pausing the
Summit to make a statement, you also consider that those not joining you are
not necessarily disagreeing with the statement you want churches to make.
