This was something that was very deeply ingrained in their culture. I was the senior pastor of Bent Tree Bible Fellowship for nearly 30 years. If you have six members of the Board of eight, lets just say its eight or 10. So, you know, Julie, its really its death by 1000 cuts. For the next 90 minutes, Pete Briscoe enraptured us with his presentation of The Bema. I was blown away. At one point, the elder board at Willow became what people call a policy governance board. And if you are not willing to as an organism, or as an organization say, We messed up. And really, I came back to the Lord at Willow and He used that church to help me reestablish my relationship with Him and with His church. Lawyers are, by definition, advocates, right? And then everyone could say, Oh, how sad that that one person did that one thing. So thank you. This is simply a place where I share the message of Gods unadulterated grace through my preaching sermons and bible teaching. Well, I want to turn our discussion to what youve experienced at your own church, which is a multi-site mega church there in the Dallas Fort Worth area, because those are things where youve been able to apply some of these lessons that youve learned from watching the negative example maybe of Willow Creek, youve learned an awful lot from going through crisis at your own church. And now lets put that in the past. Willow did not want to reckon with the deformed culture that had manifested underneath Bills leadership. Thats a bad default state. WebSince that time he has ministered on every continent, written more than 40 books, pastored a church for 30 years, and founded a media ministry called Telling the Truth which now broadcasts daily worldwide. Hi. Briscoe stepped down as senior pastor at the end of 2000 but remained involved in the church and active in overseas missions. I think, as believers, we should be standing for truth, we should not look the other way. I just, Im amazed that they were in such geographic proximity to one another dealing with almost the exact same problem. Pete Briscoe @petebriscoe 12 Dec 2021. Like so many of you, I love Pete. WebBriscoe says that he wants Bent Tree to be a place where people can agree to disagree over this issue. And I have other thoughts about that and how that all worked out. And presented them with the information, he essentially tossed it to the side and said, So what?, No consequences. How are you? I came out of Wheaton College, as I know a lot of kids do when youre in a Christian environment and maybe see some disillusioning things and I just, it was really a hard spiritual time for me. I know about the deleted emails. But theres a sense that the Church of Jesus Christ Universal is represented all throughout not just the United States but the world. I think he lost it. Or what is the church think about Calvinism? something along those lines. Thank you so much. And I think it wasnt a problem, Mitch, because everybody always agreed with whatever the senior pastor wanted. I dont know the answer but rampant clergy abuse just took my discontentment to a whole new level. Pete Briscoe, our pastor at our church came out in support of the Dyers, which was bold, and it was brave. And heres what we have to do as people leading churches, okay, you have to understand what the signs of grooming are so one of the things that I did that really helps me, my good friend, Boz Tchividjian, put out a book through his organization G.R.A.C.E. So many people are looking the other way. Well, since you brought it up, youre gonna youre gonna have to address the Vanilla Bean. To me, this was one of the beautiful God moves about the entire situation. Frankly I find church to be excruciatingly lonely. And I do think theres a spiritual stronghold, I hope and pray that it will be broken in our area. If anything has a whiff of impropriety, we would jump on it immediately. But you lose the guarding mechanism, which I think in todays in todays cultural moment, its probably the most important aspect of eldering. Now, I coach pastors and business leaders in communications and self-care. I do. Im so grateful now for that heritage. Well, lets talk a little bit about the leadership that protected him because I think that is the question that I keep hearing over and over from folks is, How do we prevent this from happening? Its one of the beauties and the deformities of social media is social media is agile. He is with us today to talk about growing communication skills to improve preaching as well as how we can find deeper fulfillment in our work and lives. Then, I did what all good Christian college students did at that time I acquired a boot-leg copy of the drama and listened to it several times on my own. The Roys Report seeks to foster thoughtful and respectful dialogue. Mike is a dear friend and Im sad this day has come. And theres a lot of people asking, Is that just too great a burden to ever put on one person? How do you respond to that? Briscoe And Willow lost the battle of PR on social media. Can you imagine how many books that sold her? To us, he was Stu, Dad and Poppa and we already miss him achingly." Great question. For that we are forever grateful. I was blown away. Well, and that is one aspect of the story that I wanted to explore together because I know that what happened at Willow from my understanding of speaking with Vonda and several victims is that it was far worse, the abuse there and far more pervasive than most people know, and thats one of the frustrations I know of a lot of the victims is that Willow hasnt publicly acknowledged that or publicly said how bad it was. JULIE ROYS 23:38, What I meant by that comment is that unanimity didnt create any problems for the board and senior pastor because everyone agreed with James MacDonald. And yet here we see a church thats ostensibly about serving God, and its about proclaiming the gospel and yet this is happening within the church. The radio program began to attract listeners and supporters, enabling the ministry to expand its broadcasting to a growing number of stations throughout the United States and abroad. At that age, I had never had someone in spiritual authority lie or manipulate me. You know, I believe in spiritual strongholds and things like that. It is not a building. At the end of the day the aftermath of destruction is felt on so many levels by so many people and we all react differently in our humanness. WebPete Briscoe answers that question by pointing us to Paul as the perfect example of one who speaks with tender boldness. Board members selected in such a way are unlikely to honor their fiduciary duty ahead of their desire to please the board chairman or senior pastor. He has been married to Jill for more than 59 years and has three children and 13 grandchildren. And I realized that as we were discussing this, that there might be some people who have heard about what happened at Willow Creek, but somewhat superficially, through the headlines and dont really know beneath the surface. And which really makes me sad because theyve had a change in leadership. He is with us today to talk about growing communication skills to improve preaching as well as how we can find deeper fulfillment in our work and lives. And it had all of these allies not just in the media, but among the angelical industrial complex, other megachurch pastors, everything. And yet, when these issues started being raised about Bill Hybels, the larger church, other than you know, a few people you mentioned the Ortbergs, for example, they came forward and spoke. If youre looking for a car I encourage you to visit my friends at Marquardt of Barrington. He currently leads a multi-faceted media ministry called Telling the Truth which he shares with his parents Stuart and Jill Briscoe. However, there should be a bubble level of character in Christ that we return to. This is what manifests. Everyone I knew from childhoodparents, grandparents, pastors, Sunday School teacherswas upright and honest. Yes, probably a number of your listeners are aware of the situation where the Ortbergs and Mellados had tried to report to the board an alleged long term affair that Bill Hybels was engaged in and the church hired an outside investigator to investigate the situation. And thankyou for all you do in the NAME of JESUS! Today, Telling the Truthis heard anytime and anywhere, thanks to international radio programming, the internet, and our mobile app. I know for a fact that his article was circulated among the staff at Willow, and they crossed the Rubicon of credulity. WebPete Briscoe, Stuart and Jills youngest son, was a key contributor to the ministrys teaching team from 2003 to 2021. Pete reminds us that our goal is not to win arguments, but to win people. The cover up of his behavior manifested at the elder board level. It is also the church in which Pete Briscoe, my former wonderful pastor, grew up in. He was running and we were praying that he would surrender fully to God. As I look back on my own four years on staff, Im thankful for the teaching and leadership that Pete Briscoe has brought to Bent Tree, and I know that so many of us have been impacted by his attention to the Lord and quick obedience to however God leads him. Yeah, without using any names. Why did so many look the other way for so long? The Elder Board has accepted Petes decision, and his resignation is effective March 31, 2019. And he committed sex acts with her. Nobody who is an elder at a church should have any aspect of their identity wrapped up in either the role of being an elder or in the success or failure of the organization. I totally agree with you Julie on how I viewed the Clergy and Church growing up. Yes, in the course of representing these women, it became obvious that this was not what Ill call an echelon or tier leadership problem, just at Bill Hybels level. it is. So, while I have strong feelings about this, as you can imagine being a lawyer, but at all points, legal advice has to be subservient to Scripture. Friends are important! Gifted with wisdom, discernment, and a bit of English humor, the Briscoe's bring God's Word to life. None at all. It took me a long time to agree that he had done the things of which he had been accused. That is a very fair question. Heres to better days and better church health. Now, I coach pastors and business leaders in communications and self-care. I followed the Harvest situation, which I think is its own it, you know, separate facts. Julie, thats whats so interesting about this story to me as I got deeper into it, I started to understand That, you know, when you go to the movies, and you see a story, you expect, okay, that guys the villain. I am with you in this sad place of justified disappointment in the church. So since youve seen a lot of this kind of up close and personal through talking to witnesses and elders and staff people, how bad was the abuse at Willow Creek? Well, I tried other churches and its more of the same. They made a lot of friends a lot of money over the years selling books, promoting programs, platforming them at conferences, platforming them at the Global Leadership Summit. Very few. So Mitch has a very unique perspective. What eventually broke the culture of secrecy and protection? I think one of the ways that Willow tried to reckon with the situation was to permit Bill Hybels to retire from his role at the church. Why is it that nobody outside a very small group of women who had no power, really no position, why didnt others come to their rescue? Im doing well but probably not as well as you because youre on vacation in Florida. I was blown away. I think the larger the platform, the more rigorous the accountability needs to be. But what happens when there is a sheep within the flock who needs to be defended? At the same time, hes writing a book and writing articles for Christianity Today about marriage purity. What eventually broke the culture of secrecy and protection? So a young person in our high school ministry. You formed a nonprofit corporation. Id like to share a few things as we navigate this loss together. You can read about them at their website Teaching the Truth. They made a lot of friends. We bought the routine and its shocking. 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