Posted on 08/09/2018 1:38:31 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
In the summer of 2008, Bill Hybels stood in front of thousands of pastors and other church leaders gathered at Willow Creek Community Church and admitted his megachurch had failed.
“We made a mistake,” he told the crowd gathered for the 2008 Global Leadership Summit (GLS). A detailed Willow study had found that the church had helped many people find new faith in Jesus, but had failed to teach them how to practice the spiritual disciplines needed to grow their faith.
He vowed the megachurch would do be better in the future.
Ten years later, Willow Creek’s leaders confessed even more mistakes. On the eve of the 2018 GLS, they admitted in a special congregational meeting that church leaders had failed to appropriately handle recent allegations of sexual misconduct against their founding pastor
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Indeed. Hmm, one might think that it’s more about the money and power than about the gospel. Also, Heather may be a nice person, but she is not a pastor.
Well, that kinda stuff is bound to happen when the Catholic Church refuses to get with the times and let its pastors marr— oh wait, this is another PROTESTANT pastor accused of sexual misconduct? Nothing to see here, move along.
Huh?
Here's what the article itself ACTUALLY says about the "correct action" they took:
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When the first allegations surfaced, the elders, Larson, and Carter all backed Hybels. The church labeled the allegations as lies being spread by disgruntled former church staffers.
On the eve of the 2018 GLS, they admitted in a special congregational meeting that church leaders had failed to appropriately handle recent allegations of sexual misconduct.
That blindness, Rasmussen said, led to a number of missteps, including a rushed investigation when allegations that Hybels had had an affair first surfaced in 2014.
Church leaders did not move quickly enough to secure his’ devices or other forms of communication, she said. When the woman who made the first allegations later recanted, the church dropped the matter without a thorough review.
Other allegations were met with skepticism, and later defensiveness. On behalf of the elders, Rasmussen apologized for that.
Larson admitted her own failings as well.
“I know I’ve made mistakes,” she said, “and there are things I wish I could go back and do differently.”
“I am stepping down from my role as lead pastor,” she said, to sounds of shock. “Because this is really important. Trust has been broken by leadership, and it doesn’t return quickly. "
Larson told Willow members in an email this week that a group of outside Christian leaders would lead a third-party investigation into Hybels’s conduct.
But that announcement and the apologies appear to have come too late.
Hybels spent four decades as Willow Creek’s pastor. His successors lasted less than four months.
Tom DeVries, president and CEO of the Willow Creek Association (WCA), also issued an apology on Wednesday. He sent an email to host sites of the GLS addressing the behavior of a sales representative for the WCA. That representative had “made disparaging comments” about the women who have accused Hybels of misconduct. For that I am very sorry,” DeVries wrote.
The process of replacing elders will begin immediately. The church still plans to go ahead with an independent investigation.
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Hmmm...seems to me the church did exactly the opposite of what you claim. They did NOT take the correct action, now a outside source has stepped in clean up the mess AFTER the pastor resigned and the damage was already done, and heads are rolling because of their failure to act, so the church leadership is resigning en masse AFTER being caught red-handed.
The numerous accusers of this pastor who say he sexually assaulted them and made unwanted advances and harassed them repeatedly strongly dispute your argument that it's just a case about "adultery"
And after all these dozens of allegations from different sources, the church officials responded by keeping the pastor around, making excuses for him, ridiculing the accusers, and covering up credible allegations, which is why he got away with it for decades.
World of difference though... right?
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