CHICAGO (IL)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
August 13, 2025
By Julie Roys
Leadership guru John Maxwell publicly praised Bill Hybels at the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) last week, despite credible allegations the disgraced pastor sexually harassed and abused multiple women over several decades.
Hybels founded the GLS in 1995—a leadership conference which once attracted more than 400,000 people worldwide and featured major speakers like Bono and Bill Clinton. But in 2018, Hybels resigned from the GLS and the Chicago-area megachurch he co-founded, Willow Creek Community Church, after several women came forward with stories of his alleged sexual misconduct.
Those allegations were later deemed credible by an independent group of pastors commissioned to investigate the claims.
Yet, last Friday, Maxwell told thousands of GLS attendees at Willow Creek, “I would be incredibly remiss if I would not say that every one of us in this room today are a part of the calling and the heart that (Hybels) had to train leaders around the world. And I’ll never forget it. I’ll always be grateful, Bill! Thank you, buddy!”
In addition to those attending the annual conference at Willow Creek, the conference was also broadcast to another 240,000 people at more than 800 sites worldwide. Maxwell’s comments prompted applause from those attending in-person, though some refrained, as video of the event obtained by The Roys Report (TRR) shows.
Vonda Dyer, one of Hybels’ alleged victims and former director of vocalists at Willow Creek, told TRR she was “disappointed and defeated—but not surprised” by Maxwells’ comments and the response of conference attendees.
“Years after the truth about his treatment of women came to light, throngs of Christian leaders still choose to honor a man who abused his power, exploited women in multiple ways, and defrauded the church when he took his money and went silent,” Dyer said.
“I never imagined that leaders once held as ethical examples would stoop so low—dishonoring the abused while honoring the abuser.”
Dyer noted that Hybels has never apologized publicly or privately for his “sexual, verbal, and emotional abuse, his gross lack of leadership, and his moral corruption.”
She added, “This applause and hero worship are not only a disgrace to the Christian community but a scarlet letter on the church’s head.”
TRR reached out for comment to John Maxwell through his assistant but did not hear back.
We also reached out to the Global Leadership Network, which runs the GLS, but did not receive a response from GLN either.
Maxwell stresses values Hybels reportedly violated
Maxwell praised Hybels immediately after receiving a Legacy Award from GLS and immediately before speaking on the importance of character and leaving “a legacy that matters.”
Maxwell explained how the GLS was birthed by Maxwell and his “precious, dear friend” Bill Hybels during a dinner in Dallas in 1991.
“In our conversation, I looked at him and I said, ‘I love what you’re doing at Willow, but you need to train leaders around the world,’” Maxwell said. “And he said, ‘How do you think that should happen?’ It was in that dinner hour that the Global Leadership Summit was birthed in his heart.”
Maxwell said he and Hybels worked together to launch the first summit, which was “very much of a success.” But when Hybels suggested they do the summit together the following year, Maxwell told Hybels to get other leaders.
“You need to expose them to the best leaders in the world,” Maxwell recalled telling Hybels, adding, “That’s exactly what he did.”
Maxwell then told GLS attendees that they “are a part of the calling and the heart” Hybels had “to train leaders around the world.” Maxwell then thanked Hybels, and the audience applauded.
Maxwell proceeded to teach the crowd at GLS about leaving a legacy that matters, highlighting principles that Hybels reportedly violated.
These included, “BE BIGGER ON THE INSIDE THAN THE OUTSIDE . . . Character Matters!” and “FOLLOW THE GOLDEN RULE . . . People Matter!”
Maxwell also urged conference-goers to “FINISH WELL . . . Consistency Matters!” and “PLAY THE INFINITE GAME . . . Legacy Matters!”
Willow Creek and GLN further harmed women
Maxwell’s comments highlight a long and painful history between the Global Leadership Summit (GLN) and Hybels’ alleged victims.
In 2018, Dyer was one of several women included in the Chicago Tribune’s first report on Hybels’ alleged misconduct. Dyer told the paper that Hybels called her to his hotel suite during a trip to Sweden in 1998. He then kissed her unexpectedly and suggested they could lead Willow Creek together—an offer she rebuffed.
When the Tribune story first published, leaders at Willow Creek and the Willow Creek Association (WCA)—now GLN—labeled the women “liars” and “colluders.” The association also sent sales representatives to churches hosting the Global Leadership Summit to convince them not to back out, according to a 2018 Chicago Tribune article. One pastor reportedly told the Tribune that the WCA salesman insisted that the “women had a vendetta against Hybels and lied.”
However, in August 2018, Hybels’ former secretary, Pat Baranowski, told her story of being repeatedly groped and sexually harassed by Hybels to the New York Times. Within days, Willow Creek’s entire elder board resigned, along with Lead Teaching Pastor Steve Carter and Lead Pastor Heather Larson.
Then-president of the WCA, Tom DeVries, sent an apology to the GLS host sites for “disparaging comments” about the women. However, the organization did not give a broader public apology at that time.
In February 2019, the Willow Creek Independent Advisory Group concluded that the allegations against Hybels were credible. The WCA, which had rebranded as GLN, accepted the report’s conclusions, but did not issue a direct apology to Hybels’ victims.
Three months later, a longtime member of the GLN—First Baptist Church of Athens, Texas—issued a public apology to Hybels’ victims and criticized GLN for not doing the same.
In July 2019, the Willow Creek elders issued a final statement on the scandal, affirming findings of the Independent Advisory Group. The elders’ statement also noted that Willow Creek’s initial response led to “verbal and written attacks against the women.” The statement said “the narrative persists in identifying (the women) as liars and colluders” and called on those who had attacked the women to apologize.
In December 2019, Vonda Dyer and her husband, Scott Dyer, told a conference at Dallas Theological Seminary how both Willow Creek’s and GLN’s response had harmed them profoundly.
“I had no idea that the church that I loved would not believe me and the nine other women as claims mounted,” Dyer said. “I did not imagine that they would assassinate my character publicly. I was naïve and could not imagine being persecuted, slandered, lied about and continually bullied by the church on a global scale for reasons I may never fully know.”
Similarly, Scott Dyer recounted, “They (Willow Creek Community Church and GLN) believed him (Hybels) and called my wife a liar in front of the church we loved and had given our lives to help build,” Scott said.
“And then they told the entire global church community that she was a liar. My wife—who has done nothing but love and serve and sacrifice herself for the church, and live her life with the utmost integrity—had a cloud of suspicion placed over her that was incredibly unfair, unwarranted, and untrue and unkind. And by connection, that cloud was placed over me, as well.”
Maxwell hires adulterous former pastor
Maxwell’s praise of Hybels is not the only time his actions have seemingly violated his company’s principles, which emphasize character and serving others.
In 2023, Maxwell Leadership hired adulterous, former megachurch pastor, Jeremy Foster, as a marketing executive, as TRR previously reported. And last March, Foster was a featured speaker at an invitation-only event for “High Capacity Leaders” with Maxwell and Tim Tebow in Orlando, Florida.
In 2022, Foster resigned from his Houston megachurch, Hope City, in the wake of his adulterous relationship coming to light.
Foster then left his family and married his mistress, prompting gut-wrenching posts from his oldest daughter, Jayden Foster, on Instagram.
“From the moment I found out he had an affair, my dad moved in with his mistress,” Jayden said in a video posted on Instagram. “. . . And then, a month and a half after my parents’ divorce was finalized, I got an email—because I don’t have communication with him—got an email, and he was telling me that he had gone ahead and gotten married. . . .
“And it, like gutted me—like it really, really wrecked me. And I don’t know if I can adequately put into words how that felt.”
TRR has repeatedly reached out to Maxwell for clarification on Foster’s position and why he was hired despite his infidelity, but Maxwell has not responded.
UPDATED: The information about Foster speaking at “High Capacity Leaders” was added after the initial publication of this article.