Bill Hybels Resigns from Willow Creek

Megachurch pastor “accelerates” October retirement weeks after former leaders and colleagues went public with misconduct allegations.

Bill Hybels stepped down as senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, the Chicago-area megachurch he founded over 40 years ago, citing the controversy over recent allegations against him.

Many in the wider Christian community have been confused by those allegations, he said, and the controversy has distracted Willow Creek’s leaders from their mission and has hurt the church’s ministries.

“They can’t flourish to their fullest potential when the valuable time of our leaders is divided,” he said.

Hybels, who previously planned to retire in October, revealed the news Tuesday evening at a “family meeting” where about 1,000 Willow Creek members gathered at the multisite church’s flagship South Barrington, Illinois, campus.

Hybels will also leave the board of the Willow Creek Association (WCA), a network of thousands of churches around the world, and will no longer host Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit in August.

“This too was my decision and mine alone,” he said.

“We accept and see the wisdom in this decision” said Willow elder Pam Orr. She said that the church’s work will continue without its founder.

“We will not give up doing the work he called us to day.” she said.

Hybels has strongly denied the pattern of misconduct that former Willow Creek staff members recounted in an investigation published three weeks ago by the Chicago Tribune and covered by Christianity Today.

At the family meeting, Hybels repeated his denial of most of the accusations against him.

“I’ve been accused of many things I simply did not do,” he said. “But let me acknowledge things I have done. I confess to anger at the accusations. … …