Marshall Shelley, the editor of the Leadership journal, apologized yesterday on the Out of Ur blog for misrepresenting the results of Willow Creek Community Church’s Reveal study. Bill Hybels, Willow’s senior pastor, referenced an Out of Ur post in a recent video. The Out of Ur post from last October was titled “Willow Creek Repents?” In the video, Hybels said:

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, and I think it was very unfortunate and quite disingenuous to title the article that way.

Yesterday Shelley followed up a communication he had with me last week by specifically apologizing for the choice of words used in that October blog post. Shelley explained:

It did get attention on the blog, and the term [repents] provided Willow critics in the blogosphere a chance to gloat. But the gloaters were misreading both the blog post and the Reveal study. We have high regard for the ministry at Willow Creek and feel terrible that our wording led to a misrepresentation of what was actually happening. For that we apologize.

Here’s the rest of yesterday’s Out of Ur post including the remainder of Shelley’s comments.

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