Responding to Willow Creek

I’ve just gotten off the phone with some of the pastors of Northgate Church, a Free Methodist Church in the Genesis Conference (which I oversee). 

Together, we decided that - with the most recent allegations and news - it’s time to pull the plug on hosting the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Yes, it’s a last-minute call. But we felt it was necessary. Before I explain why, one detail: for those who have already purchased tickets and want to go, they can be transferred to other sites. There are still two sites in Rochester. 

Why did we cancel? And why now?

Perhaps I should start with why we didn’t cancel before now.  One reason is that we know that both Willow Creek Church and the Willow Creek Association are huge organizations. In huge organizations, it takes a longer amount of time to handle the kind of in-depth reflection that is needed in this sort of a situation. In grace, we wanted to wait to allow Willow that time. We hoped they would move forward humbly and wisely.

For me, as a woman leader, there was one more ironic reason that I wanted to wait. Willow is one of the very few Christian leadership conferences that seriously works towards making sure there are many women speaking — not just tokens, but powerful women with something to say. 

As a woman leader, I want to see women empowered. Part of empowering women is listening to (and believing) their stories… Willow clearly failed abysmally in this. But another part of empowering women is giving them models to see and hear… something that the Summit did well, and which other organizations do very poorly. (Just a few weeks ago, I was called by a representative of another well-known Christian conference, asking me to send my pastors to one of their regional gatherings. I told him that my experience going to his conference - twice - had been so bad there was no way I’d send people there. He asked good questions, and listened as I complained about my experiences at this conference in the past, where women pastors were criticized and marginalized. He assured me that things were different now, and I could safely send my pastors. After I got off the phone with him, I looked at the speakers for this regional gathering. Ten men, no women.)

I find myself in this place of disappointment and grief: one of the only “safe” leadership conferences for me to send women to is no longer “safe.” Where can I now send these women to hear the voices of women leaders? I can think of only two conferences: Missio Alliance “She Leads” and WHWC. Beyond that? I don’t know. And where do I send men to hear a broad spectrum of women in leadership? I have no idea.**

After all I just wrote: why are we cancelling now? Why not wait longer, extend more grace, hear the voices of the women speaking at the Summit? 

This past week, further allegations came out against founding pastor, Bill Hybels, from yet another long-term employee. In response, teaching pastor Steve Carter (who followed Hybels at Willow Creek) resigned with these words: “At this point, however, I cannot, in good conscience, appear before you as your Lead Teaching Pastor, when my soul is so at odds with the institution.”

It would seem, from Carter’s resignation, that neither Willow Creek Church, nor the Association, is doing the soul-searching it needs to, in the midst of this. The “institution” is quite ill.

But the church and the association are different organizations. Is the institution of the association as sick as the church?

In July, in an interview with the Daily Herald, Association President Tom DeVries was quoted: “Another addition to the faculty -- pastor and author Danielle Strickland -- will address ‘the elephant in the room,’ … by speaking on how men and women can work together in professional environments.”

I read this and shake my head. The elephant in the room is NOT “how men and women can work together.” The elephant(s) in the room, the things that must be dealt with, are sin, abuse of power, lack of accountability. 

It would seem that Willow - both the church and the association - are still far from coming to grips with this reality. 

Because of this, Northgate is not hosting the Summit. 

Willow is an organization teaching on healthy leadership. It MUST be aware of its own “stuff”… or it loses the right to teach.

A few final thoughts. While I won’t be headed to the Summit this week, Willow is still teaching me. But this time, the teaching is coming not through their positive example, but their negative one. I am pondering these “take aways” from observing all of this…

1. I’m thankful I’m part of denomination that has authority to step in to churches in chaos, removing pastors, righting the ship. My first 11 years of ministry were at an independent church. When I left there, I sought to join a denomination. I wasn’t comfortable being in a place where a celebrity pastor had too much power. Does this mean that in our denomination this sort of thing never happens? No. There’s plenty of sin and chaos in our midst. But when it happens there is a larger context that can both help and correct. I’m thankful for the Free Methodist denomination. 

2. Accountability is important, both in my own life, as well as in the lives of the pastors I oversee. Twenty years ago, a mentor asked a group of us young leaders: “How many people do you have in your life that can say ‘no’ to you and make it stick?” I remember realizing at that point my answer was “none.” Twenty years ago I started on a journey to intentionally invite people into my life who COULD say ‘no’ to me and make it stick. I continue that crucial journey today, regularly considering who those people are, and inviting them in.

3. Power differentials are real. Pastors to congregants, counselors to clients, superintendents to pastors, whites to people of color… we must be aware of where we hold power, using and intentionally sharing that power with accountability (see #2), grace, and humility. My foot-washing Savior leads the way on this one.

UPDATE: I'm posting conferences here that DO ensure women are more than token speakers:
Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy Conference: http://www.whwomenclergy.org
Embrace All: https://www.westmorrisfm.org/embrace-all
SheLeads: www.missioalliance.org
Call and Response Conference: https://www.callandresponseconference.com
CBE: https://www.cbeinternational.org/content/created-partnership (primarily doing international conferences at this time).
Ezer Collective: https://www.josaxton.com/ezer-collective/
Apprenticeinstitute.org