How to Read Hybels: Book Review of Axiom by Bill Hybels

Bill Hybels started Willow Creek Community Church in 1975. It is probably the
most influential church in the United States and also one of the largest with a
weekly attendance of some 23,500 people. In Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs, Hybels
gives 76 leadership tips and briefly describes each in 2-3 pages. Most will find
the book inspiring and thought-provoking. But this is a book that will be
incomprehensible to others and revolting to a few.

If you sense that churches are too often poorly managed, their programs
shoddy, their staff aimless, and their efforts mediocre, you will love this
book. Hybels's father expected him to take on the family business but instead
Bill decided to plant a church and he has managed it better than most
businesses.  Hybels sees no reason why the doing things well is inconsistent
with God's work.

But, if you think the pastor's role is to be a nurturing shepherd and that a
church should never grow beyond the size where the pastor can know everyone's
name, then Hybels's advice will be incomprehensible to you and likely disgust
you. The kindly parish priest—who preaches, administers the sacraments, and
visits the sick—Hybels is not.

The insights of Hybels—many of which assume a large paid staff—will apply
best to the pastor of a church with 500 or more weekly attendance because at
this size it is difficult for the pastor to oversee everything and his or her
role begins to entail significant staff supervision. According to Duke
sociologist Mark Chaves in Congregations in America, in 1998, "71
percent of [U.S. congregations] have fewer than one hundred regularly
participating adults" (p.17-18). The size of the church radically changes the
way a pastor functions. (See also his post Congregational Size). Roy M. Oswald writes in "How to Minister
Effectively in Family, Pastoral, Program, and Corporate Sized Churches" of
the smallest size of congregation,

This small church can also be called a Family Church because it functions
like a family with appropriate parental figures. It is the patriarchs and
matriarchs who control the church's leadership needs. What Family Churches want
from clergy is pastoral care, period. For clergy to assume that they are also
the chief executive officer and the resident religious authority is to make a
serious blunder. The key role of the patriarch or matriarch is to see to it that
clergy do not take the congregation off on a new direction of ministry. Clergy
are to serve as the chaplain of this small family.

But one need not confront the family of the church antagonistically, one can
learn to thrive as a pastor of a smaller congregation by soaking in the rich
work of Eugene
Peterson, enjoying the delightful little book The Art of Pastoring by David Hansen, and learning
from the example of the wise Father
Tim in the fictional Mitford series by Jan Karon.

Another complication besides size for some readers will be that many
denominations closely define the role of the pastor and the local church with
policies and committees. Hybels had the freedom and danger of making these
structures up as he went along as the founder of an independent
nondenominational church. I would recommend the writings of Will
Willimon, Patrick
Keifert, Alan
Roxburgh, and Mark
Lau Branson for advice about navigating leadership and effectiveness issues
in an established small denominational church.

Finally, there are those who argue that a church with 500 plus weekly
attendance and multiple staff loses much of the intimacy and flexibility of what
a church should be. To Alan
Hirsch, David Fitch, Neil Cole and Frank Viola, Hybels's tips would
probably be evidence of the corporate, cold, impersonal and bureaucratic dark
side of the large “attractional model” church. However, even they might find the
insights of Hybels valuable in their efforts leading large church planting
organizations.

Despite the disclaimer that pastors of small churches, ministers of
denominational churches, and critics of large churches may be turned off by this
book, let me praise this book for what it is: candid insights by an extremely
capable church leader. A sign of Hybels's considerable leadership ability is
that he could not help but start a huge consulting arm called the Willow Creek
Association and a widely-acclaimed annual leadership conference The Leadership
Summit—there was huge demand for his advice.

The 57-year-old's tone is intense. He sounds like a drill-sergeant, a CEO, or
a tough football coach. This week Connecticut
basketball coach Jim Calhoun was hospitalized for dehydration. A nurse asked
him, "Are you type A?" to which he replied, "What's beyond that?" I thought of
Hybels. Hybels writes, "Those who know me well know that I'm intense and
activistic. For me, the bigger the challenge, the more I like it. I've always
pushed myself hard to solve problems, raise the bar, and make as many gains for
God as I possibly can" (142). Hybels's personality reminds me of the apostle
Paul, the Puritan Richard
Baxter, Methodism founder John
Wesley and the energetic Dietrich
Bonhoeffer—they are all driven and intense. Out of the 76 tips, all but
about a handful suggest the need for harder and more strategic work. Still,
Hybels tells of a few ways he has learned to soften his approach and slow down
his pace. See for example, 9. "The Fair Exchange Value," 58. "Create Your Own
Finish Lines" and 75. "Fight for Your Family."

The 2-3 page tips and stories are a great medium for his thoughts. He
illustrates and explains his ideas clearly. It is an easy read. If you liked
this book, also read the 99 practical hints in Simply Strategic Stuff by Tim Stevens and Tony Morgan.  Both these books give the
uninitiated and naive church leader a glimpse of the nuts and bolts of the
dreaded "administrative" part of pastoral ministry.

If you are not turned off by Axiom, perhaps you belong serving in a
larger church where these leadership and organizational skills are highly
valued. Chaves points out that more and more people are attending large churches
so it is not correct to see them as an anomaly: "the median person is in a
congregation with four hundred regular participants" (p.18). Or you may resonate
with Hybels and play the thankless but necessary reforming role in the small
church. Or you may take his insights and apply them to the pioneering
entrepreneurial work of a new church plant.

I am grateful for the opportunity to hear the candid thoughts as over a lunch
conversation from one of the most important American church leaders in the last 25
years.  Hybels may eventually write an autobiography but much of what is
fascinating about him he has generously already shared in Axiom.