Lead pastor Heather Larson announced that she was resigning immediately. The church’s elder board announced that its members would also step down in an orderly fashion by the end of 2018.Steve Carter, the church’s lead teaching pastor, had already resigned on Sunday, saying he could no longer continue at the church in “good conscience.”
At tonight’s Willow family meeting, elder Missy Rasmussen said she and other church leaders had been blinded by their faith in their founding pastor and had failed to hold Hybels accountable.
“We trusted Bill, and this clouded our judgment,” she said.
I knew their teaching pastor had just resigned. Now the CEO-ish "pastor for running the place" resigns, and the elder board promises to also go away.
Much to say, no time right now.
I was raised in a Dutch Reformed church that joined the UCC. At the time I was in Sunday School, the “mainline” churches all had confessions or creeds that defined them. 50 short years later - all gone. Dust in the wind. Even the Episcopalians, who thought apostolic governance was security - finished.
The collapse of the seeker movement is upon us. Rick Warren and Bill Hybels were not fruitful. Leaders, but not fathers. Mars Hill was a flash in the pan.
You Catholics beware. Your model is the strongest but it will not survive an antipope with Facebook. The old antipopes has short lives and limited reach.
Jesus, as they say, calls us o’er the tumult.