The sudden resignation of Willow Creek Community Church's top leaders following sexual harassment allegations against Rev. Bill Hybels, their founding pastor, has shaken evangelicals far from the church's base in the Chicago suburbs.
There are few bigger names in the evangelical world than Mr. Hybels, and few churches more influential than Willow Creek. Christians worldwide looked to it as a model of smart leadership.
“When a falling star, a literal star falls out the sky, everyone looks at it, notices it, gasps,” said the Rev. Jack Graham, of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Tex., who said he worried that people would view the scandal as evidence that all evangelicals were hypocrites. “Yet there are millions and millions of galaxies of stars that stay in their place and keep shining.”
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