Josh Benner

Tag: John Ortberg

  • Popular pastor John Ortberg resigns from church

    Popular pastor John Ortberg resigns from church

    John Ortberg is a popular Christian author and has spent the last 17 years as the pastor of Menlo Park, a megachurch in the San Fransisco Bay Area. Before that, Ortberg had served as the teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago. But today, Ortberg announced his resignation, effective August 2.

    The impetus of Ortber’s resignation is a complicated story that has unfolded over the last several months. In November, it came to light that a youth volunteer at Meno Park had confessed to Ortberg an “unwanted thought pattern of attraction to minors.” To my knowledge, there’s no evidence of any illegal activity ever occurring on the part of the youth leader, but Ortberg (1) failed to remove this leader from a position where he was working with students and (2) kept this secret from the elders of his church.

    Both of these were abysmal failures of leadership and judgment on Ortberg’s fault. At the time, I was of the opinion that it was hard to justify him remaining as the pastor. Those were very serious failures. Ortberg had learned of the volunteer’s attraction in 2018.

    After a few weeks of being on leave, the church’s leadership cleared Ortberg and he returned to the pulpit.

    The reason why this had become known in was not because of a sudden desire on Ortberg’s part to be transparent. Rather, it came to light in February that Ortberg’s daughter (who identifies as a man) informed the church’s leadership.

    As the story continued to unfold over the past few months, it was revealed earlier this month that the youth volunteer was another one of Ortberg’s children. This might have explained why it wasn’t disclosed. If it had been dealt with properly in the beginning, there were a lot of constructive things which could have been done. Instead, it’s brought down a very gifted pastor, it put students at risk, he failed to look out for his son’s best interest by allowing him to remain in a vulnerable position. He tried to keep it secret, but now the whole situation is known by far more people outside of his church.

    It’s a terrible situation all the way around.

    Thanks for reading!

  • Megachurch pastor accused of sexual misconduct

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    A long investigative story from the Chicago Tribune reports on several allegations of moral filings from Bill Hybels, the founding pastor of Willow Creek, a suburban Chicago church which is one of the largest churches in America.

    The article says:

    The alleged behavior included suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss, and invitations to hotel rooms. It also included an allegation of a prolonged consensual affair with a married woman who later said her claim about the affair was not true, the Tribune found.

    –Chicago Tribune

    I visited Willow a few times when I was in seminary. I like the church. I truly hope that these allegations are not true. But the most important thing is the truth. Unfortunately, it seems that these types of sins are often swept under the rug. Some of these allegations go as far back as the 90s. Willow Creek did an internal investigation through an outside party who cleared Hybels of any wrongdoing after conducting 29 interviews and reading through hundreds of emails.

    I hope it’s not true.

    But where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. The Tribune article includes on the record statements of several people who allegedly misconduct. The group also included former pastors and staffers at the church, notably former Willow Creek teaching pastor John Ortberg who’s now pastoring a church in the Bay Area.

    I’m sometimes skeptical of church internal investigations. In megachurches, a founding pastor, especially one as dynamic as Hybels, is crucial to the health of the organization. It can be crippling to the entire congregation’s longterm viability to lose the pastor, especially amid scandal.

    I guess I don’t understand why other respected leaders would say that there’s truth to these allegations if they didn’t think that. I don’t think there’s a massive conspiracy from within the Christian community against Bill Hybels or Willow Creek for no reason.

    In society, it’s become something of a punchline: well known Christian leaders having and/or pursuing affairs. It’s tragic. Just a couple days ago, a megachurch pastor in Tennessee (rightfully) stepped down/was pushed out after revealing a sexual assault perpetrated by him in 1998.

    Stories like these should be a reminder to all church leaders (and to all Christians) to continue to walk in integrity daily, to live out what we believe, and to fight temptation and compromise. The truth matters. Victims of assault deserve the truth to be brought to light.

    I pray for the people of Willow Creek, and for the victims.

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.