Willow Creek Community Church

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Bill Hybels, founding pastor of the WCCC

The Willow Creek Community Church is an independent US megachurch without denominational affiliation (English: non-denominational church ) in South Barrington , Illinois near Chicago . It was founded in 1975 by Bill Hybels , who pastor the ward until April 2018. The parish is the fifth largest in the United States, with over 25,000 worshipers, according to a 2016 survey.

history

Religious Movements of the University of Virginia states for 1997 that Willow Creek was the second largest congregation in the United States at that time, with 2,000 members and 15,000 worshipers. Willow Creek reports 17,500 worshipers on weekends and 6,000 during the week, plus around 2,700 house groups with around 17,000 participants (2005 figures).

In 2015 the Chicago Tribune named Willow Creek the best medium-sized employer in the Chicago area, and in the same year the 40th anniversary of the Church was celebrated at the United Center in Chicago.

After the Chicago Tribune published reports from former employees and female parishioners in March 2018 that Hybels had behaved suggestively or sexually harassed them, he resigned from his post as senior pastor six months earlier than planned on April 10, 2018.

He was succeeded by Pastor Heather Larson and Pastor Steve Carter. They also resigned in August 2018, as did the entire Board of Elders . They apologized for not believing the women concerned and instead defending Hybels without scrutiny and insensitively. Steve Gillen, head of the North Shore Willow Regional Ward, was then appointed interim director to direct the elders elected and the search for a new senior pastor. An independent commission has also been appointed to investigate the allegations against Bill Hybels.

At the end of January 2020 it was announced that the interim pastor Steve Gillen would also give up his office at the end of March 2020. The search for a new chief pastor would begin again; neither of the two shortlisted candidates is suitable as a long-term leader .

Willow Creek Association

The Willow Creek Association was founded in 1992 as an inter-community network. Today, around 11,000 congregations worldwide belong to this network; Willow Creek stated over 300 partner congregations for Germany in 2011. At the beginning of May 2012, Willow Creek only listed 13 partner communities in Germany on its homepage. Each ward pays a membership fee of $ 249 annually.

An annual Willow leadership congress “Global Leadership Summit” is translated into 59 languages ​​and broadcast to 125 countries.

Willow Creek Germany / Switzerland

The board of directors of Willow Creek Germany / Switzerland includes: a. Hartmut Bärend , Ulrich Eggers (1st Chairman), Hartmut Steeb , Karl-Heinz Zimmer (Managing Directors). Since 1996 Willow Creek has organized various conferences in Germany and Switzerland (community congresses, Promiseland congresses, youth congresses, management congresses). In addition to Bill Hybels as the main speaker, speakers from Germany were increasingly invited. In recent years, Michael Herbst, Professor of Practical Theology from Greifswald, has been a regular speaker.

The attendance at the Willow Creek Leadership Congresses was:

  • 2002 in Oberhausen: 8,100
  • 2005 in Stuttgart: 11,000
  • 2006 in Bremen: 5,400
  • 2008 in Oberhausen: 4,500
  • 2010 in Karlsruhe: 7,800
  • 2012 in Stuttgart: 7,500
  • 2014 in Leipzig: 8,000
  • 2016 in Hanover: 9,500
  • 2018 in Dortmund: 10,000 (and 2,000 for live broadcasts)

The next Willow Creek management congress will take place in Karlsruhe in 2020, without Bill Hybels, and will be broadcast live at 15 locations.

Willow Creek Germany takes over the management and organization of the Dynamissio congress planned for March 2017 under the sponsorship of the Coalition for Evangelism in Germany - the missionary congregation congress 2017 in the Berlin Velodrom.

criticism

In addition to being very popular, the Willow Creek Movement, like other megachurches, is also criticized by the media like Spiegel , which speaks of the “soul businessmen of the Willow Creek Community Church”, and parts of evangelicalism as too little biblical and too competitive , Marketing, performance and pragmatism oriented.

literature

  • Bill and Lynne Hybels: Church Rediscovered . The story of Willow Creek . Asslar 2006, ISBN 978-3-86591-047-9
  • Rainer Schacke: Learning from Willow Creek? Church Services for Seekers in German Milieu Contexts . Cuvillier Verlag, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-86955-104-3

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ The Washington Post : Bill Hybels, prominent megachurch pastor, resigns from Willow Creek following allegations (accessed April 11, 2018)
  2. ↑ Bill Hybels has 141 more people than Rick Warren. Retrieved February 3, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Religious Movements: Willow Creek ( Memento July 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Willow Creek: Information Sheet ( Memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Chicago's Top 100 workplaces: How they compare. In: Chicago Tribune . November 13, 2015, accessed February 16, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Chicago Tribune: After years of inquiries, Willow Creek pastor denies misconduct allegations (accessed on April 11, 2018)
  7. ↑ Idea Message Service: Willow Creek: Hybels resigns prematurely as senior pastor (accessed on April 11, 2018)
  8. ↑ https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/april/bill-hybels-resigns-willow-creek-misconduct-allegations.html Bob Smietana: Bill Hybels Resigns from Willow Creek. Megachurch pastor “accelerates” October retirement weeks after former colleagues went public with misconduct allegations . CT April 10, 2018
  9. ↑ Willow Creek Church's Lead Pastor and Board of Elders Resign , New York Times, August 8, 2018, accessed August 9, 2018
  10. ↑ https://www.willowcreek.de/index.php?id=1015
  11. ↑ Senior pastor candidates, interim pastor out at Willow Creek , Religion News Service, January 30, 2020, accessed February 1, 2020
  12. ^ "Willow Creek" founder Bill Hybels 65: A movement of 11,000 churches. In: IdeaSpektrum No. 49.2016, p. 14.
  13. ↑ Ten praise and one criticism. The Willow Creek Governing Congress advocated “being an intelligent Christian”. The Evangelical Alliance in Germany, February 3, 2010
  14. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ Visitor numbers at the Willow Creek Congresses , ideaSpektrum , Liestal / Wetzlar February 14, 2018, p. 22
  16. ↑ Spring 2017: "DYNAMISSIO - The Missionary Congregational Congress" on the website of the Evangelical Alliance in Germany, February 26, 2015 (accessed: September 24, 2016)
  17. ↑ Tunten and technology: The Protestant Kirchentag in Hamburg will be a meeting of superlatives: never before have there been so many celebrations, seminars and Bible studies . In: Der Spiegel . No. 24 , June 12, 1995, pp. 68 : "For example, the soul businessmen from the Willow Creek Community Church are now able to proclaim the Hallelujah faith in an American style for the first time in Germany"
  18. ↑ z. B. from the leader of the conference for church planting Wilfried Plock in God is not pragmatic. How expediency destroys the church. ISBN 3-935558-67-8
  19. ↑ http://www.bibelkreis.ch/charism/WCK.htm
  20. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive )