Allegations against Hybels deemed 'credible'

BP ^ | Friday, March 01, 2019 | Diana Chandler

[robowombat]

Report: Allegations against Hybels deemed 'credible'

SOUTH BARRINGTON, Ill. (BP) -- Allegations of sexual misconduct against former pastor Bill Hybels are credible, an independent group of ministers commissioned to investigate the claims concluded in its final report Thursday (Feb. 28).

Disciplinary action would be recommended were Hybels still pastoring Willow Creek Community Church (WCCC), the Willow Creek Independent Advisory Group (IAG) said in its report. Since Hybels resigned his pastorate in April 2018, the IAG recommended no action against him, but recommended he seek counseling. "Allegations of sexually inappropriate words and actions by Bill Hybels in the context of his ministry and leadership of Willow Creek Community Church and the Willow Creek Association are credible," the IAG said in a 17-page report. "The credibility of the allegations is not based on any one accusation or accuser, but on the collective testimony and content of the allegations."

The IAG had no legal authority to accuse or convict Hybels of any crime or establish civil liability. The Willow Creek Elder Board, which did not have a seat on the group, explained IAG's scope in an online letter accompanying the report.

"This was not a court of law or a legal proceeding," the elder board said. "While the IAG members conducted scores of interviews, they did not have subpoena powers and could not place people under oath. They could not compel anyone to speak with them who refused to participate."

Hybels never admitted to specific wrongdoing. When he resigned, he told his congregation he had been accused of many things he "simply did not do." Some things were not perceived as he intended, and he at times made people uncomfortable without realizing the damage for far too long, Hybels told his congregation. He also apologized for responding with anger when accused.

Comprising the IAG, which has concluded its work, are Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Washington, D.C.; Margaret Diddams, provost of Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill.; Jo Anne Lyon, general superintendent emerita of The Wesleyan Church, Indianapolis; and Gary Walter, past president of the Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago.

The IAG also concluded it believes that Hybels "verbally and emotionally intimidated both male and female employees," and that he at times blessed and then damaged the congregation he helped grow to a multisite megachurch.

"Some may choose to discount or discredit the past blessings of God on Willow Creek Community Church and the Willow Creek Association, pastoral leadership, past elders and Bill Hybels because of specific words and actions in 2018 and before," the IAG wrote. "Mistakes and sins should not be denied or forgotten, but neither should God's blessings and the faithfulness of God's people.

"The good accomplished is significant and long-lasting, and should not be minimized or discredited by allegations or disruptions," the report said. "The good should be celebrated and perpetuated."

The IAG was commissioned to conduct the study in August 2018, four months after Hybels resigned his senior pastorate amid allegations of sexual abuse and unwanted advances towards women he pastored and counseled. Hybels was never charged with a crime.

Among several preventive and corrective measures the IAG recommended are generally:

-- Hybels should seek counseling to address issues raised in the report, and should do so outside of the Willow Creek church and association;

-- The church should create criteria to provide financial assistance for counseling or other resources for women and men who were directly harmed by their interactions with Bill Hybels, minimizing their related personal expenses;

-- The church and association should establish written policies regarding appropriate and inappropriate language, jokes, relationships and use of alcohol by staff and volunteers;

-- The church should establish a written policy and procedure for biblical discipline and restoration of church leaders, with restoration not implying the disciplined person's return to church leadership, and

-- The church and association should establish separate third-party hotlines to receive misconduct reports, and to review them as an ongoing agenda item.

Diana Chandler is Baptist Press' general assignment writer/editor. BP reports on missions, ministry and witness advanced through the Cooperative Program and on news related to Southern Baptists' concerns nationally and globally.

[robowombat]

Unfamiliar with this case. Anyone know more about it than what is posted?

[PetroniusMaximus]

False prophet.

[Bonemaker]

“The church should create criteria to provide financial assistance for counseling or other resources for women and men who were directly harmed by their interactions with Bill Hybels, minimizing their related personal expenses;”

Oh my, aren’t we a bunch of fragile flowers.

[ConservativeMind]

It’s a well-known mega-church. Bill actually could preach well, but with any ”seeker-sensitive” church, it doesn’t get too deep. House churches were where things were to get deeper into Scripture. I only attended a handful of sermons there. It was the first such church I’d attended, and it was over two decades ago.

It sounds like the church has handled the situation generally well. It seems no sexual behavior happened, but it was borderline behavior.

Thankfully, he was not a stupid lightweight like Joel Osteen, who has brains of mush and only speaks of the happy, nonjudgmental stuff of the Bible.

Catholics could learn from this example, but with 80% of Catholic leadership gay and so many actual crimes committed, intervention before the act can’t be done (and no parishioner will ever have authority over their priest).

[imardmd1]

A bad tree has bad fruit, and it cannot heal itself. A very imaginative scene is invoked when anyon tries to postulate that firing Hybels is the end of it, that his organization which he assembled had any other good outcome than to be self-terminated.

[dfwgator]

False prophet.

Seems to be a lot of that going around.

[tjd1454]

Wow. Back in the 70’s when I was a grad student at Wheaton college west of Chicago, Willow Creek was already a megachurch - one of the first. Oops, forgot about Jack Hybel’s church just south of Chicago. Wonder whatever happened to him and “the world’s largest Sunday school.”

[ConservativeMind]

Not at all. Never set himself up as that, either.

He’s a man that did plenty of good by God, but had some weakness start to show up.

There’s a functioning leadership over him that did the right thing. He reported to parish members who made up the elder board.

Catholics have absolutely no chance in Hell of correcting their church issues.