Barnabas File

Although I never heard it mentioned from the platform this year, the Global Leadership Summit continues to rebuild its credibility after the sexual harassment charges against Bill Hybels, former pastor of Willow Creek Community Church and former leader of the Willow Creek Association (now Global Leadership Network).     Allegations about Hybels’ inappropriate relationships with female staff members, church members, and business associates have negatively impacted the church, the association, and this event. Even though this history was not on the printed agenda at the Summit, planners chose several speakers who addressed the issue of harassment and power in very clear ways. In an interview with Paula Faris, guest Bozoma Saint John talked about her work as Chief Brand Officer at Uber, a corporation whose culture of discrimination and misogyny is well known. She discussed the challenges of working in that situation and seemed relieved that she no longer has a con...

Craig Groeschel, the founder and senior pastor of Life.Church. The Global Leadership Summit which began as a project of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and its founding pastor, Bill Hybels, over 25 years ago was held this week without Hybels. For several years, the GLS has been now produced by the Willow Creek Association, a spin-off organization and a loose network of churches but Hybels has been its driving force. Attended by thousands at the church facility in South Barrington and broadcast to thousands more at satellite locations, the annual meeting brings together not only evangelical leaders but outstanding speakers from business, charitable organizations, politics, and business.  For the first time, Hybels did not appear due to allegations of sexual impropriety brought against him over the past year by former employees, staff members, and business associates.  He has already left the church and resigned from the board of t...

File photo of Steve Carter, Heather Larson, and Bill Hybels As Christian brothers and sisters, we need to pray for Willow Creek Community Church.   On the eve of the Global Leadership Summit, a worldwide conference sponsored by the church in cooperation with the Willow Creek Association, church leadership imploded as a result of further allegations against former pastor Bill Hybels. Last year, Hybels introduced the team who would assume church leadership upon his retirement--lead pastor Heather Larson and teaching pastor Steve Carter.  Although the founding pastor planned to stay on to assist in a time of transition, reports of sexual impropriety involving Hybels surfaced early this year.  He accelerated his departure from the church and left the board of the Willow Creek Association. When other charges emerged last week, teaching pastor Carter resigned. On Wednesday evening, Larson and the entire elder board--lay leaders who provide accountability ...

When I served as collegiate minister, I tried to get to know as many freshmen students as possible.  When leaders come and go as they do on a college campus, you are always looking for the next generation of leaders. Whether a minister is working with volunteer, part-time, or full-time people, she or he needs to have the same mindset. Although turnover happens less frequently in a congregation, leaders come and go more often than we would like.  Volunteers are those lay leaders who form the core of every church’s ministry.  They teach Bible study for adults, youth, and children, work with preschoolers, lead in worship, provide maintenance and administrative support, and perform vital ministries both within and outside the walls of the church.  Ministers need to identify, cultivate, and encourage these lay leaders. Often in churches today, a gifted lay leader shows the potential to become a part-time staff member in a specialized area such as music, a...

I usually come away from the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit with ideas to pursue, new books to read, and at least one new “person of interest”—someone I did not know about before and whose work I would like to learn more about. The speaker who was the “person of interest” for me this year was Chris McChesney, the Global Practice Leader of Execution for Franklin Covey.  McChesney is the co-author of The 4 Disciplines of Execution and is a very dynamic presenter.  He emphasized something that most leaders have learned the hard way—developing strategy is easier than executing that strategy (just ask any church that has produced a strategic plan and never looked at it again).  He explained that execution involves people and a change in human behavior which is often hampered by the system in which they function.  His insights were helpful and I look forward to reading the book. Another speaker that I anticipated hearing was Erin Meyer, an instructor ...

No, we are not talking Tennessee Basketball here, but the Global Leadership Summit sponsored by the Willow Creek Association.  The conference is held live in South Barrington, Illinois, each year and broadcast to 590 locations across the United States. It is also repackaged and presented in over 125 countries around the world.  I have often said that Willow Creek, the parent congregation, knows how to do big church better than anybody else.  One reason is Bill Hybels, the pastor, who can get a bit emotional at times, but is willing to address social issues (like AIDS, racial relations, and the refugee crisis), is clearly a lifelong learner, and is remarkably transparent about his struggles and those of his congregation.  Once again, the Summit has brought together a great line-up of speakers—leadership gurus, business leaders, ministry entrepreneurs, and preachers—to challenge and inform.  Hybels himself is one of those people....

In a recent blog, I commented on the diversity among the speakers at the recent Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit.  Some might dismiss this intentional effort to include women, blacks, Hispanics, and internationals as affirmative action or “quota” programming.  I see this more as an attempt to address an oversight and move toward a change is practice and attitude. Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, has explained that church leadership suddenly realized one day how homogenous they were and how heterogeneous the Church was meant to be.  They began to intentionally seek out African-Americans and members of other races to become part of their lay leadership, their worship teams, and their staff.  They not only wanted to be more inconclusive but they wanted to visibly communicate their desire to be more inclusive. Here again, you might criticize this approach, but there is a management axiom which applies here:  “What...

The two-day Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit was inspiring and informative as usual.   In addition to those attending on the South Barrington campus, about 70,000 participated by satellite feed in hundreds of local sites across the nation.   The conference is videoed and will be repackaged and used to reach about 160,000 leaders around the world in the next year. Some things about the Summit have remained unchanged over the years.  There is a strong evangelical spirit; Hybels and his team leave no question that every person would be better off knowing Jesus as personal Lord and Savior.  Worship is always spirited and well-done, but it has evolved over the years (more about that below).  There is a strong commitment to learn about leadership not only from church leaders but from those in the business, not-for-profit, and educational sectors.  Cutting-edge technology is important as well, and the Willow Creek Association has learned how to use all...

Pastor Bill Hybels serves as host and speaker. God willing, I will spend the next two days attending the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit at a satellite location in our state.  The purpose of the Summit is stated as:  “T he Global Leadership Summit exists to transform Christian leaders around the world with an annual injection of vision, skill development, and inspiration for the sake of the local church.” I have lost track of how many of these I have attended—one on site in South Barrington, Illinois, and the rest at various satellite locations.  Some may wonder why I bother to attend a meeting put on by a megachurch located in an upscale suburb.  Although I may disagree with some of the presenters from time to time, the Willow Creek Association consistently enlists some of the most interesting and knowledgeable communicators of the day to present  practical ideas about leadership.  The speakers are drawn from churches, universities, consult...

At the Global Leadership Summit last week, pastor Bill Hybels set up a hypothetical situation and provided several possible responses. He suggested that the leaders present imagine that they were sitting there and received a text message that a staff member had just resigned. He suggested several possible responses. First, the leader might say, “Whew! That’s a relief.” Second, the leader’s reaction might be, “Ugh! That’s a real loss for us.” Third, the response might be, “Oh, no! This is an irreplaceable person. What are we going to do now?” Let me suggest a fourth response. When receiving such a message, the leader might respond, “Well, this will be a loss, but it may be an opportunity for us to rethink some things.” In most churches and church-related organizations, we are reluctant to make staff changes. When tough economic times come, we struggle with budgets and will “lay off” staff members only as a last resort. In normal circumstances if a person is doing an adequate but no...