CHICAGO — Just months before his already-planned retirement, Bill Hybels, pastor of the Chicago-area megachurch many tried to emulate in past years, has resigned after a series of sexual misconduct claims he described as “flat-out lies.”
Hybels, 66, founded Willow Creek Community Church more than four decades ago, building it into an eight-campus evangelical Christian megachurch with a 7,000-seat worship center.
Hybels has been dogged in recent years by a series of investigations into claims of inappropriate behavior with female staffers and congregants. Accusations of lewd comments and inappropriate touching stretching back more than 20 years are “flat-out lies,” Hybels told the Chicago Tribune in March.
In a statement released April 10, Hybels said church elders had clearly stated that outside, independent investigations found no evidence to support the “allegations brought to their attention.”
“In recent times, I’ve been accused of many things I simply did not do,” Hybels said. But he said he had been “naïve” and “placed myself in situations that would have been far wiser to avoid.”
Hybels said he appreciated what he described as the continued support from within his congregation. But he said the controversy was a distraction from the church’s mission.
Hybels had previously planned to retire in the fall to focus on the Willow Creek Association, a nonprofit dedicated to leadership development that conducts a leadership summit each year.
“But it has been increasingly clear to us that [neither the church nor association can] flourish when the valuable time and energy of their leaders are divided,” he said. (RNS/USA Today)
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