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Bill Hybels

Biography

Bill Hybels

Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, which has six regional congregations and a total weekend attendance of more than 24,000. He is the bestselling author of more than 21 books, including SIMPLIFY, AXIOM, HOLY DISCONTENT, JUST WALK ACROSS THE ROOM, THE VOLUNTEER REVOLUTION, COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP, TOO BUSY NOT TO PRAY and BECOMING A CONTAGIOUS CHRISTIAN.

Hybels also serves as chair of the board for the Willow Creek Association, a not-for-profit organization that equips and empowers more than 14,000 Christian churches from 92 denominations.

WCA's premier event is the Global Leadership Summit (GLS), a world-class, two-day leadership event that gathers the best and brightest leadership speakers in both the church and marketplace worlds. The GLS infuses vision, skill development, and inspiration in Christian leaders so that local churches around the world can reach their full Kingdom potential. With more than 1.8 million participants to date, the Global Leadership Summit is the largest leadership event in the world.

The GLS telecasts live from Willow Creek's central campus (near Chicago) to more than 260 churches in the US every August. Then, throughout the fall, Summit events take place via DVD and live hosting in an additional 350+ global cities. In 2013, GLS events reached more than 170,000 leaders in 100 countries --- and were translated into 45 languages.

Hybels convened the first Leadership Summit in 1995, following a prompting he sensed from God to help pastors develop their Romans 12:8 spiritual gifts of leadership. Since then, he has become a highly sought-after speaker who utilizes his leadership expertise and church experience to train and equip Christian leaders as they seek to transform their churches and communities with the hope of Christ. Drawing on well-honed wisdom acquired over the past four decades, Hybels speaks and consults internationally, utilizing his passionate style, relevant teaching, and cutting-edge leadership principles to equip leaders of the local church.

Willow Creek Community Church began in 1975 when Bill Hybels and a ragtag team of young people gathered in a rented movie theater with a vision of turning irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Today, Willow Creek is one of the largest churches in North America, and one of the most influential.

Hybels holds a bachelor's degree in biblical studies and an honorary doctorate of divinity from Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. He and his wife, Lynne, have two grown children and two grandsons.

Bill Hybels

Books by Bill Hybels

by Bill Hybels - Christian, Nonfiction

If you crave a simpler life anchored by the priorities that matter most, roll up your sleeves: Simplified living requires more than just cleaning out your closets or reorganizing your desk drawer. It requires uncluttering your soul. By eradicating the stuff that leaves your spirit drained, you can stop doing what doesn’t matter --- and start doing what does. In SIMPLIFY, Bill Hybels identifies the core issues that lure us into frenetic living --- and offers searingly practical steps for sweeping the clutter from our souls.