Willow Creek adds to Gender Role Confusion in the Evangelical Church

World Magazine’s The Sift ran a story this week, Willow Creek leaders voice support for Hybels, regarding recent accusations of pastoral misconduct against Pastor Bill Hybels.

Accusations such as these are always going to be messy and often seeking the truth comes down to a he said, she said, back and forth–though with proper protections (like those of Mike Pence) in place a pastor or any other Christian man can avoid many of these problems. Yet it is true that faithful Christians are going to be persecuted any, just because they are faithful Christians.

It doesn’t help Christians in these situations, however, when they add to the confusion. In this case, the thing that stood out for me when I read the story is this:

Pam Orr, the church’s highest-ranking elder, addressed questions about why leaders didn’t inform members of the inquiry into Hybels’ alleged misconduct earlier. “We had concluded in the first investigation that we found no evidence to support the allegation brought forward,” Orr said. “To bring that into full light, to bring that to the congregation just did not seem appropriate at the time.”

The Bible is very clear about who can be an elder, including a pastor, in the Christian church:

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. (Titus 1:5–9 ESV)

Apparently, Willow Creek takes the biblical instruction that elders must be husbands of one wife to mean that they can be “devoted spouses,” not just husbands.

When a church like Willow Creek undermines the plain language of Scripture and uses that as the basis for doing things (as in this case) like ordaining women as elders, putting them in a place of authority, and allowing them to speak as authoritative spokesmen (see the problem) for the church, all it does is it add confusion to an already confused situation. Not to mention the harm it does to spreading the Gospel and confirming Scripture as the very Word of God.