Megachurch Pastor Steps Down Amid Misconduct Allegations

SOUTH BARRINGTON, IL – The senior pastor at a popular suburban megachurch has stepped down. The move by Bill Hybels, which he announced Tuesday night, came months before the founder of Willow Creek Community Church had originally planned to leave the post and less than a month after a Chicago Tribune investigation disclosed that Hybels had been the subject of inquiries into claims that he went against church teachings by engaging in inappropriate behavior with women in the congregation.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

At times choking back tears, Hybels told the somber crowd at a hastily called meeting at the church’s main campus in South Barrington that, while he continued to enjoy support from within his congregation, the controversy was proving to be a distraction from the church’s mission and work.
Referring to his wife, he said, “It has been extremely painful for Lynne and I to see this controversy continue to be a distraction.”

Hybels also told his congregation he believed he'd been cleared of all accusations, but he apologized for his angry reaction when those accusations were made public, according to the Chicago Tribune. Hybels has said since May 2012 that he would step down in October 2018. He spent 42 years building up the church, which has become one of the nation's most influential and iconic.

Hybels had originally planned to focus on his role with the Willow Creek Association (WCA) and The Global Leadership Summit — a movement of 400,000 leaders in 130 countries that he launched in 1995 — after moving off the paid staff in October. The Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that those plans have changed as well. Hybels said Tuesday he would not lead the church’s leadership summit, an annual event featuring leaders from business, government, entertainment and churches hosted by the Willow Creek Association.

Last month, the Chicago Tribune released a report regarding the inquiries by church leaders into Hybels's alleged misconduct. Church leaders have said the inquiries had nothing to do with Hybels's plans to step down in October, and that the inquiries into claims Hybels "ran afoul of the church's teaching by engaging in inappropriate behavior" — alleged actions that included suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss and invitations to hotel rooms — ultimately cleared Hybels of any wrong-doing, according to the Chicago Tribune's investigation.

A husband, father and grandfather, Hybels told the Tribune in their March investigation that he did nothing improper and the allegations were all lies. He said prominent members of his church "colluded" against him.

"This has been a calculated and continual attack on our elders and on me for four long years. It's time that gets identified," Hybels told old the Tribune. "I want to speak to all the people around the country that have been misled … for the past four years and tell them in my voice, in as strong a voice as you'll allow me to tell it, that the charges against me are false. There still, to this day, is not evidence of misconduct on my part."

Many church members spoke up in support of Hybels on a Chicago Tribune Facebook post, while others said there was plenty of evidence of wrongdoing on Hybels' part.

Willow Creek Community Church's main campus is in South Barrington, but it has additional suburban locations in Crystal Lake, Huntley, Wheaton, Glenview, Chicago and Lincolnshire. The church hosts more than 25,000 worshipers each weekend in South Barrington.

More via the Tuesday Chicago Tribune article, the March 23 Chicago Tribune investigative article and the March Chicago Tribune video

Photo caption: Willow Creek in South Barrington/Photo credit: GoogleMaps