Hybels Affirms Commitment to Seeker Church Movement
After months of perceived misrepresentations of the recent changes at WIllow Creek Community Church, Bill Hybels, the founding and senior pastor, has decided to let people hear the truth about his position on the future of Willow’s ministry and his ongoing commitment to the seeker church movement.
Earlier this week, Hybels sat with Jim Mellado, the president of the Willow Creek Association, and recorded a seven-minute interview addressing questions that have surfaced in recent months in both the blogosphere and in print. The video of that interview is available on the WCA website.
Specifically, Hybels addressed a recent article in Christianity Today entitled Willow Creek’s Huge Shift. Hybels characterized it as “an unfortunate article that was written without a proper understanding of what we’re actually doing these days.” He also referenced an Out of Ur Blog post from last October entitled Willow Creek Repents. Hybels reacted to the post by stating:
“I don’t think when you make a strategic adjustment it qualifies under the term ‘repent.’ I think every evangelical knows that’s kind of a loaded-up term, and I think someone wanted to get some action on a blog.”
In preparation for the release of the video through my site this morning, I had the opportunity to view the video in its entirety yesterday. Honestly, my reaction was I’m glad Hybels has finally decided enough is enough. Should he have addressed this sooner? Possibly. Has Willow made mistakes along the way? In the interview, Hybels admits they have. Is Hybels or Willow shifting away from the seeker model? They’ve never indicated that to be their intent. In fact, Hybels used the interview to make it clear:
“We have had the same one-sentence mission statement for 32 years. We’re trying to turn irreligious people into fully-devoted followers of Christ. We have never been more committed to either side of that mission statement.”
It’s refreshing to see Hybels take the gloves off. When you view the video, you’ll see that he’s in a bit of a feisty mood. He wears that well. Deep down, that passion likely comes out of his ongoing commitment to reach seekers. At the end of the interview, Mellado asked the question, “Is a leader of the seeker church movement abandoning seeker ministry?” Hybels replied:
“There’s no real worry about that ever happening… I’ve wanted everyone in my life to experience grace, saving grace the way I experienced it on a hillside in Wisconsin when I was 17 years old… I think the older I get, the more aware I am that I only have from this day until my final day to get the Word of Christ out to as many people as possible.”
My sources at Willow tell me there will be more videos like this one in the coming days. It’ll be interesting to see how Hybels and the Willow team engage the conversation and debate that this video will certainly generate.
That’s the big news in church-world this morning. You heard it here first. Check out the video and tell all your friends.
I’m so glad that they’ve finally decided to set the record straight. Its got kind of old hearing those who have always opposed Willow’s model take the Reveal study out of context to make their point. Thanks for covering this.
BTW thanks for visiting my blog the other day.
It’s about time! I’ve long known in my heart that Hybels felt that way. Having been to Willow a few times and knowing people who are involved there, I knew that the stories coming out were incongruent to what I had experienced firsthand. Plus, I found it curious that the stories did not quote Willow sources (always a dead give-away that some reporter didn’t do their homework thoroughly). There’s a reason why this church continually tops the charts as the country’s Most Influential each year. With Hybels at the helm, I don’t think the evangelical community has anything to worry about as far as this ship going off course. Their current mid-course adjustments that everyone keeps wanting to slam is just good old-fashioned business-sense! I wish all of our churches would do such introspection. Kudos to Willow for taking a stand on this — and for setting the record straight. I look forward to more of these types of video responses!
With the Willow Arts Conference starting on Wednesday this is good timing for them – they get the video out in time for it to make a little buzz and get some people talking before thousands of arts leaders from across the world gather in Chicago. It gives a platform for Nancy Beach or another Willow leader to stand at the conference and remind people of their commitment to reaching people who are far from God.
The leaders at Willow are not fools. They’ve seen everything written related to Reveal and were just waiting for the best time to respond.
I’ve gotta say – my respect for them is through the roof. First, to say “some things aren’t working, and we’re making adjustments”. Second, to labor through criticism in love. Third, to come out and “set the record straight”.
I’ll be at Willow Creek’s “Arise – Worship & Arts” conference next week and can’t wait!
I say let the bloggers “get togetha” out there somehow!
For the Kingdom,
Fred McKinnon (Worship Director)
http://www.fredmckinnon.com
Haha, I just posted today about this as well.
I am really pleased to hear Bill respond and as Fred said, my respect just went up another notch.
And I thought you were going to tell us where in the world Gene Apple is. I guessed it had to do with Willow but I was way off on the actual subject. Thanks for keeping us posted on big news around the church world. It is also nice to see Bill seem more and more passionate.
This gets me even more stoked about going to the Arts Conference this year. I wonder what sort of follow up I should expect there?
I applaud Hybels for admitting that they could do better. Instead of questioning the ministry of Hybels and Willow Creek, I think this admission should serve as an opportunity for so many of us should make the same declaration.
We often seek to add to our fellowship but then forget to nourish the members who are already apart.