MCLEAN, Va. – Pastor Bill Hybels is often criticized for the guests he features at his highly prominent Willow Creek Leadership Summit, which tens of thousands of church leaders worldwide register for each year. His interview with former president Jimmy Carter this year was another one of those moments.
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(Photo: Willow Creek Association)A recording of a interview between Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, and former president Jimmy Carter is shown before thousands of church leaders at the 2007 Leadership Summit in South Barrington, Ill., Aug. 9-11.
"How wide is the field of candidates that you as a leader can learn from?" Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, asked participating leaders at the 2007 summit over the weekend. "Is it real narrow; is it mid-range; is it quite wide?"
Before featuring a pre-recorded interview with Carter on Saturday, Hybels made it clear that all summit speakers he invites and interviews are "absolutely intentional," although they may be met with protest.
"I know some leaders who can only learn from leaders who are pretty much like them, think like them, pray like them, vote like them, see the world the way they do," he said. "Whenever I see a leader like that, I feel sorry for the leader and even worse, for his or her followers because they're going to be cut off from a whole world of information, a world of powerful ideas that God could use to challenge that leader, to stretch them.
"Now, for what it's worth, it's my fiercest determination to keep putting faculty line-ups together that make a portion of you get your underwear in a bundle," said Hybels to laughter Saturday in the Willow Creek auditorium in South Barrington, Ill.
But at the end of the day, it's all about learning and helping church leaders expand their "learning bandwidth," Hybels highlighted.
"We think you're big boys and girls. We think you're discerning ... we think you can balance stuff out subjective to the witness of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, take the good and leave the bad," he further noted.
At McLean Bible Church, one of the largest churches in the Washington-area and one of the satellite sites hosting the Leadership Summit, the interview with Carter was not shown and was instead replaced with a 2002 leadership summit message from John Ortberg. McLean's speaker policy discourages politicians from being featured at the church, considering the church is located in a very political city.
On a more controversial matter, McLean also has a partnership with Jews for Jesus and engages in outreach to the Jewish community. Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid drew a storm of criticism and upset the Jewish community. Some have called Carter an anti-Semite and a bigot with critics contending the book is unfairly critical of Israel.
McLean does not take a stance on the issue but states, "We do not want to be alienated from the Jewish community because of showing a video of Jimmy Carter."
Out of desire to reach the Jewish community for Christ, McLean – whose founding and senior pastor, Lon Solomon, is a Jewish convert – received permission from the Willow Creek Association not to show the Carter interview and instead provided DVD copies of the interview to summit attendants after the session.
Meanwhile, some 100,000 church leaders around the world tuned in on the exclusive Carter interview Hybels conducted.
In the nearly 40-minute interview, Carter touched on his presidency, leadership, his passion for peace and racial reconciliation, his 24 years with Habitat for Humanity, and his Christian faith.
Willow Creek described Carter as having "done more since retiring from the office of president than most people accomplish in a lifetime." Continue >>
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For those who argue a case of hypocrisy concerning the judgments others make, you defeat your own arguement. Quit taking Scripture out of context. Really search the Bible and you can see that Christ never expected Christians not to pass judgments. Making judgments regarding a particular person, issue, or behavior is also known as exercising wisdom or discernment. Viewing 1 thing in light of another and then drawing a conclusion.
I think everyone would agree that we are not to "condemn" anybody for exercising a certain amount of discernment or lack thereof when making decisions or coming to certain conclusions; however, we should all judge how one came to a certain conclusion, why they came to that conclusion and if that conclusion aligns with the Christological thread that runs through the entire Bible.
If you read this...you just judged me by what I said...and that's okay.
It is ironic that the accusations of bigotry of others do not fall under the catagories of jugmentalism and hypocrisy. I suppose it's only a one-way street.
The arrogance of those who judge and make themselves experts on what God wants for others to do, rather than work on themselves...kills souls deader than any single other source of toxicity except lust or addicitions, icnluding to money power and lies.
Rather than share their love for the poor (all of the poor, or vulnerable-- see the Beatitudes) there are the hypocrites who hoard up their charitable currency and only squeeze out compassion for those they feel are deservoing.
Souls reflecting the magnanimty and mercy of God shine out as examples for us and show the path to God. Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Romero, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela: we are lucky we have lived in a time so rich in people of great and good spirit...ther are so many.
When i see the bigots whinging on this page and claiming they can judge the way to God by demonizing a good and holy man, who has used his life to help others and can only be admoired for his simplicity and honesty, as well as his untiring unflagging spirit and truthfulness even when it is umpopular...then i feel strongly that sorrow that comes form the walls we humans raise to protect ourselves from goodness and decency, all the while claiming we are being scripturally sound in our chariness. so claimed the pharisees and sadducees.such blind judgementalism is the mark of a hypocrite.
Jimmy Carter is for sure no hypocrite.
This is my first time on this site and I am amazed that there is even a debate about Jimmy "the baby killer" Carter. Paul in his letters to the Churches demanded that Christians not judge non-Christians, BUT he commanded that we judge amongst Christians (1 Corinthians 5:12,13). The Western Church is facing imminent extinction (not so, the rest of the world) only because it engages in dialogue with murderous apostates, perverts and pagans who call themselves “Christians”. In the face of a worldwide Jihad slaughter of our Christian brothers and sisters in hundreds of non-western nations we debate credentials and “mind expanding” ideas with Jew-hating-terrorist-loving-homosexual-justifying-abortionist-Christ-deniers while innocent blood flows down our streets. Put down your café latte and cast out the apostates.
“God will judge those on the outside; but as the scriptures say, ‘you must remove the evil person from amongst you’”.
My church was a satellite site and did not show the Carter interview, mainly due to our ties in the NY area with the Jewish community and Carter's theological issues.
The Summit should showcase a variety of leaders from different walks of life. Carter, however is someone who is believer and is in a teaching position in his church, but is denying some of the orthodox truths of the faith. As such, he should not be showcased in that capacity, otherwise the Summit is giving its imprimatur to him. If he were not a believer, then that would issue would be null.
There are so many well-qualified Christian leaders that Pastor Hybels could have interviewed. Are we so limited in alternatives that only former President Carter can sufficiently add to our leadership knowledge? Any "leader" that advocates the killing of the unborn does not deserve a platform to mentor other Christian leaders. I'm sorry, Pastor Hybels, but I look for integrity and a biblical world view in my leadership models. Mere leadership styles and techniques ring hollow without biblical substance.
Jimmy Carter's always smiled "pretty" for the camera unless you disagreed with his agenda or his political/religious beliefs. He wasn't much of a President, and as a Christian...well, only God can sort that one out, but based on the fruits of his faith...I find that his stance supporting Palestine/terrorists, and his anti-semitic diatribes, not to mention the fact that he wants to re-shape the Southern Baptist Convention into one of his own image...well, the proof is in the pudding.
Habitat for Humanity, I agree, is not a substitute for Christ's passion for the lost or for the Cross of Christ which provides forgiveness through the shed blood of Christ. Carter has always been "something-correct," and believers need to remember that he is, first and foremost, a Democrat, and secondly, a Christian. At least that's how it appears. He's a card-carrying Clintonite and you can be assured that he will be campaigning for Hillary if she gets the nomination or Obama or the other abortion rights/homosexual rights candidates. Did you now know that Mr. Carter believes it's a woman's right to terminate her babies? So much for his walk with God.
"received permission from the Willow Creek Association not to show the Carter interview "...did Hybels get paid for giving that permission?
Since when is Habitat for Humanity a substitute for Christ's work on earth, His commission and His indwelling in the church. While we are at it, celebrate humanity, no need of celebrating Jesus.
Please Bill, don't call willow creek church. It's a building and promotional project that draws money from its poor, i.e. spiritually impoverished, members.
When did the truth ever become about "doing more" altruistic deeds than abiding in Christ? The things an individual does, does not make them righteous or even a "good example" to follow because he has "done more after retirement than most people have done in a lifetime."
I believe a good dose of discernment will forego increasing one's "learning bandwidth" in order to avoid corruption. An adequate exegesis of Ephesians tells us that if it's Christ we believe in, then we should not be confused with the heathen. I believe that there are many non-Christian folks that make sense, have good things to say, and do many good things, but as a Christian leader, I can't help but wonder what Hybels motives are in forming his most recent public alliances. Is it truly to obtain a different perspective? If so, I think his approach should be more like Lee Strobel's "Crossfire" in order to gain certain perspectives while drawing a line by asking relevant questions that portray an Orthodox view of Christianity.