Willow Creek’s Bill Hybels Denies Sexual Misconduct Allegations

(Photo: Willow Creek Association)Pastor Bill Hybels, founder of Willow Creek Community Church, addresses thousands at the 2011 Willow Creek Leadership Summit in South Barrington, Ill.

Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor of the multi-campus Willow Creek Community Church, has denied multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including a consensual affair with a married woman, who retracted her claims. Investigations commissioned by the church also could not substantiate the allegations.

In an extensive investigation of the allegations published by the Chicago Tribune on Thursday night, former members of the church, including those who resigned from high-level leadership positions, argue that the church’s investigations have been deficient. The Tribune report also alleges a pattern of behavior against Hybels that includes suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss, and invitations to hotel rooms.

“This is one of the most heartbreaking and frustrating things I’ve ever experienced—for me, for my family, for our church family,” Hybels said in a statement provided by Willow Creek addressing the alleged consensual affair which was first reported to Willow Creek elders in April 2014.

“I was shocked and saddened when the Elders confronted me with the woman’s claim….

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Bill Hybels accused of sexual misconduct: 4 biblical responses

No evangelical pastor in America has been more influential in my lifetime than Bill Hybels.

In 1975, he founded the Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, now one of the largest congregations in America. The Willow Creek Association he launched has become a global network of strategic pastors, churches, and ministries. His name has been synonymous with vision, leadership, evangelism, and integrity.

Now he has been accused of a pattern of sexual harassment and misconduct by former church leaders.

Christianity Today is reporting that John and Nancy Ortberg, former teaching pastors at the church and very well-known ministers and best-selling authors, are among the group asking that accusations against Hybels be investigated. Leanne Mellado, a former Willow Creek staff member who is married to the former head of the Willow Creek Association, is also in the group, as are several others.

Hybels completely denies all accusations, stating clearly that “all charges against me are false” and calling them “lies.” Willow Creek’s elder board conducted a “thorough and independent investigation” into Hybels’s conduct and cleared him of all charges. The board is accusing Hybels’s critics of making a “coordinated effort to undermine Bill’s reputation.”

Church leaders have sent an email to the entire membership describing the allegations as “false” and calling a “church family meeting” tonight, during which Hybels and the elders will directly address the accusations in the story.

This story will likely make headlines around the world. You may be asked about it by friends and colleagues this weekend and at church. If you’re a pastor or Bible study leader, you may feel the need to address the issue as well.

In that context, I would like to suggest four biblical responses.

Do not judge what you do not know.

I have no idea whether Hybels or his accusers are telling the truth. Unless I had been a leader inside the church when the…

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Willow Creek’s Bill Hybels rejects misconduct allegations

After concerns were raised about his behaviour by a group of pastors, including author John Ortberg, the Chicago Tribune put together an investigation which looked at various allegations made over a number of years including suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss, and invitations to hotel rooms.

It also looked into an investigation by Hybels’ church Willow Creek which was informed that he’d had an affair.

 

In 2014, elders at the church found him to have done nothing wrong after the woman who made the claim of an affair admitted she had lied.

Since then, other women have made serious claims. In one case a woman suggested Hybels summoned her to his hotel room and kissed her while on a trip to Sweden in 1998.

Another accused him of “a lingering hug” which made her feel uncomfortable while another claim suggested he’d invited a woman to his house, but only while his wife was away.

Describing the accusations as “one of the most heart-breaking and frustrating things” he’s experienced, Hybels posted a detailed rebuttal on the church’s website.

“The lies you read about in the Tribune article are the tools this group is using to try to keep me from ending my tenure here at Willow with my reputation intact.

“Let me be clear: none of these allegations are true.

“Many of these alleged incidents purportedly took place more than twenty years ago. The fact that they…

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Lee Strobel Makes the Case for Miracles to Christians ‘Embarrassed’ by the Supernatural

(Screenshot: Vimeo/Toby Canning)Lee Strobel in a Vimeo video talking about Easter, uploaded in March 2018.

The Case for Christ author Lee Strobel is out with a new book making the case for miracles to an evangelical Christian audience, who is in many ways “embarrassed by the supernatural,” he says.

“And by [embarrassment] I mean they want to be respectable by their neighbors, they don’t want to be conflated with some televangelist, strange or over the top,” said Strobel in an interview earlier this month with The Christian Post about his new book The Case for Miracles: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Supernatural, which is set for release next Tuesday.

“In many evangelical circles there’s almost a skepticism toward the miraculous or a downplaying of the supernatural out of this sense of wanting to set themselves apart from the excesses we’ve seen in some circles,” he explained, noting he hopes the book proves helpful for both the spiritually curious and committed Christians who wonder if God continues to intervene in the world today.

As with his other “Case for” books, Strobel in his latest work interviews theologians, scholars, and experts from a variety of fields, including Roger Olson, a professor at Baylor University whose April 2015 essay, “Embarrassed by the Supernatural?” on Patheos, particularly resonated with him.

Olson wrote at the time that when he gives his Latin American, Asian, and African theology students absolute freedom to be totally transparent about what they think of American evangelical Christianity they often say that they are “shocked” by its…

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“God is in control:” A Nigerian Captive Defies Terrorists and Keeps her Christian Faith

“God is in control:” A Nigerian Captive Defies Terrorists and Keeps her Christian Faith



Nata Sharibu, whose daughter was kidnapped from her Nigerian school last month, wishes his daughter was home, but He is proud of her defiance towards her captors by refusing to denounce her faith.


“Boko Haram insurgents decided not to release my daughter because she refused to denounce Christ,” Sharibu told reporters today. “I am happy for that, even though as a father I wish she had returned home as the rest. But God is in control,” ABC News reported.


Monday, February 19, Boko Haram militants invaded a girl’s boarding school in northeastern Nigeria and kidnapped 110 girls. After making a deal with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, the militant group released at least 105 schoolgirls and 1 boy Wednesday, March 21. The one girl who was not released is a 15-year-old Christian who refused to convert to Islam. 


“One girl, Liya, is still with them because she is a Christian,” said Khadija Grema, one of the abducted girls who was returned to her family on Wednesday, as reported by The PUNCH.


The PUNCH also reported on Greme’s eyewitness account:


“They fed us very well, they treated us very well. They did not beat us; they did not molest us,” Grema said.


She also said that her experience in the hands of the insurgents was a sad one. The five girls are reported to have died from suffocation during the kidnapping. 


ABC News…

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Open Heavens 24 March 2018 Saturday Daily Devotional by Pastor Adeboye — Lessons From The Ten Virgins

Topic: Lessons From The Ten Virgins (Open Heavens 24 March 2018, Saturday) Memorise: “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” – Matthew 25:13 Read: Matthew 25:1-13 (KJV) 1 Then shall…

The post Open Heavens 24 March 2018 Saturday Daily Devotional by Pastor Adeboye — Lessons From The Ten Virgins appeared first on Flatimes.

Friend of suspected Texas bomber says he was a Christian

Police believe Mark Anthony Conditt was behind six recent blasts that have killed two people and seriously injured four others.

Authorities finally found him on Wednesday, but he blew himself up in his car as officers closed in on him. Conduitt’s motive remains a mystery.

 

A friend of the 23-year-old, who said he was close to him in 2012 and 2013, told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper that the suspected bomber attend Bible studies and church on Sundays.  

Jeremiah Jensen said: “I know faith was a serious thing for him.

“I don’t know if he held onto his faith or not. The kind of anger that he expressed and the kind of hate that he succumbed to — that’s not what he believed in in high school. I don’t know what happened along the way. This wasn’t him.”

His friend also described Conduitt as an assertive person who was “rough around the edges”.

“He loved to think and argue and turn things over and figure out what was really going on,” Jensen said.

Conditt’s family released a statement saying they had “no idea of the darkness that Mark must have been in”.

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Christian anti-knife charity says Home Office failing to fund knife bins

But a Christian weapons charity has suggested they need to put their money where their mouth is to tackle knife crime.

Michael Smith, founder of the charity Words 4 Weapons told Premier he’d had a look at the Home Office’s campaign and approved of their adverts but criticised what he sees as their hypocrisy in failing to fund knife bins.

The charity has placed many secure bins on streets for people to anonymously throw away their weapons.

Michael Smith said: “My challenge in all of this is that they’ve spent somewhere between £1.35-1.5 million to put this massive advertising campaign out there, which is not a bad thing…however the Home Office has consistently fallen short in its responsibility to support organisations like Word 4 Weapons.”

“There is no one else in the United Kingdom putting secure weapons bins on the streets to reduce knife crime other than us and the Home Office have consistently turned down police forces when they have applied for funding to help us put knife bins in areas around the country, so it’s a bit of double standards.”

He continued: “If you’re going to tell people ‘do not carry a knife’, ‘do not carry a weapon’ – where on earth do you expect these people to put the weapons that they are carrying?”

Describing what he sees as a practical solution to the government’s problem, he explained: “What we have done for the last 11 years, without the support of the Home Office, is that we have been putting these bins out on the street…

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The heroes who caught the Austin serial bomber

As authorities hunted for the Austin serial bomber, people phoned in hundreds of tips. A reward of $115,000 was posted. Police pled with the bomber through television.

But the case was solved by hundreds of federal and local authorities working tirelessly. They pieced together the bombs that were used, discovered that the batteries had been ordered online, and determined that a single person was responsible.

They were also able to use cell tower signals to distinguish mobile phones near the blast sites. They canvassed neighborhoods where the bombs were delivered and sifted through hundreds of reports of suspicious packages. Examining surveillance footage at FedEx centers, they identified the suspect.

These unnamed law enforcement professionals are heroes today to everyone in Austin and the rest of us as well.

A SWAT officer and courageous athletes

In related news, Blaine Gaskill is being recognized for his courage in stopping the shooter at Great Mills High School in Maryland last Tuesday. The police deputy rushed toward the sound of gunfire, risking his life to disrupt what could have been another mass shooting.

This was not the first time the SWAT-trained officer has dealt with armed confrontation. In 2016, he engaged an armed man standing not far from the high school, convincing the man to drop his weapon without firing a shot.

Meanwhile, the underdog Loyola men’s basketball team defeated Nevada last night in the NCAA men’s tournament. Loyola has been making headlines largely because of their team chaplain, a delightful ninety-eight-year-old nun named Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt.

But they made headlines fifty-five years ago for a very different reason.

Sportswriter Pat Forde has a terrific story about the 1963 national championship team that included four African-American starters. The unwritten rule of the time was that teams would not start more than two black players.

The African-Americans on Loyola’s team were the targets of slurs;…

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Boko Haram releases girls, but keeps Christian girl who refused to renounce faith

The girl’s name is Leah Sharibu and she is 15 years old.

The terrorist organisation reached an agreement with the Nigerian government that there would be no interference with the return.

 

In the early hours of 21st March, Boko Haram drove into the town with nine trucks and unloaded all of the girls, except the five that died during the kidnaping, and Sharibu.

“Her friends said they tried to convince her but she said she will not convert to Islam,” the girl’s mother said.

“Boko Haram said since she will not convert to Islam she should remain behind.

“That was how they left her.”

Leah Sharibu asked her departing Muslim classmates to pray for her.

 

One of girls who was released confirmed to Nigerian Newspaper The PUNCH, “One girl, Leah, is still with them [Boko Haram] because she is a Christian. About five are dead but it was not as if they killed them – it was because of the stress.”

Religious freedom charity International Christian Concern (ICC)  said since the incident in Dapchi, Borno and Yobe states have closed down all boarding schools in order to protect their children.

It’s been four years since the abduction of the 276 schoolgirls from Chibok. There are currently still more than 100 schoolgirls missing from that incident.

AP Photo/Hamza Suleiman

The girls from the Government Girls Science and Technical College Dapchi who were kidnapped…

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