Dave Dummitt

Dave Dummitt is the current senior pastor of Chicago area megachurch Willow Creek Community Church (as of 2024). Before becoming senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in 2020, for 15 years he was the founding and senior pastor of Michigan based megachurch 242 Church.

In May of 2021, at a public meeting for Willow Creek Community Church's core/most-committed members, campus pastor Shawn Williams publicly lionised Bill Hybels, saying, "Both of my interactions with Bill Hybels were incredibly powerful, one of which was pretty personally life changing. I can share that story with you later. So Bill had a very profound impact on my life ..."

"One could argue he [Bill Hybels] was a once in a generation leader. What God accomplished through the ministry here--through his leadership, the influence that God extended through Willow Creek under his leadership, it's unlike anything that I've probably ... I don't know of another example around the globe. It's a beautiful thing. Sometimes we're hesitant to celebrate the history of Willow. Let's don't be bashful. God did some amazing things through the leadership of Bill Hybels and through the ministry of Willow Creek. We don't have to be bashful about that. It's beautiful."

At that same meeting, Mr. Williams also did Impression management for Bill Hybels by minimising and refusing to name Mr. Hybels' crimes. He said "There is a shadow to Bill's leadership, and there were hurtful things, there's pain in a culture. In some senses there is a wake in the leadership that is also incredibly hurtful." Mr. Williams went so far as to compare unrepentant sexual predator cleric Bill Hybels to the son of Rick Warren, who committed suicide, saying "In the garden of God's grace, there's a broken tree that bore a lot of fruit." This latter, making perpetrator Mr. Hybels the victim, is part of a pattern of Impression Management called DARVO--Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender--a coin termed by Dr. Jennifer Freyd of The Center For Institutional Courage. You can read more about DARVO here.

As senior pastor, Dave Dummitt was sitting on the stage at this meeting with Shawn Williams, and he explicitly verbally endorsed everything Shawn Williams had said, giving him a fist bump and saying "I agree with everything--everything!--that you said."

References

Barringer, L. (2021, June). Willow Creek's core meeting: A response. Christianity Today. https://www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight/2021/june/willow-creeks-core-meeting-response.html

Freyd, J. J. (n.d.). What is DARVO? https://dynamic.uoregon.edu/jjf/defineDARVO.html

Mullen, W. (2020). Something's not right: Decoding the hidden tactics of abuse and freeing yourself from its power. Tyndale House Publishers

Smietana, S. (2020, April). Willow Creek announces new senior pastor. Christianity Today. https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/april/willow-creek-new-pastor-david-dummitt-242-community-church.html