STANDING IN THE CROSSFIRE
An interview with Bill Hybels
January 1, 1993
Pastors may have more in common with the slim-hipped gunslinger of the Old West than the well-groomed corporate CEO of today. In ministry, OK-Corral shootouts at high noon are more frequent than carefully planned red-tie power lunches.
Bill Hybels knows conflict. While leading the innovative Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, he's faced sunset showdowns and ambushes not only from cynical media types and governmental regulatory agencies, but also from critics within the Christian world and even people within his own church. Contrary to megachurch-pastor stereotypes, when Bill Hybels speaks, even at Willow Creek, not everyone listens.
LEADERSHIP editors David Goetz and Marshall Shelley sat across the table from Bill and asked him about his survival tactics-physical and spiritual-when the lead starts flying. Bill leaned back in his desk chair, kept his back to the wall, and talked straight with us about standing in the crossfire.
Given the assortment of people and ministries at Willow Creek, how do you keep the church united?
Unity isn't the word we use to describe relationships at Willow Creek. The popular concept of unity is a fantasy land where disagreements never surface and contrary opinions are never stated with force. We expect disagreement, forceful disagreement. So instead of unity, we use the word community.
We say, "Let's not pretend we never disagree. We're dealing with the lives of 16,000 people. The stakes are high. Let's not have people hiding their concerns to protect a false notion of unity. Let's face the disagreement and deal with it in a godly way."
The mark of community-true biblical unity-is not the absence of conflict. It's the presence of a reconciling spirit. I can have a rough-and-tumble ...
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