Global Leadership Network, formerly Willow Creek Association, Names New CEO
David Ashcraft, who was pastor of a large Pennsylvania church, will lead the Network.
The Global Leadership Network (GLN), formerly known as the Willow Creek Association, has named David Ashcraft as its new president and CEO.
Ashcraft, who served for 32 years as senior pastor of LCBC (Lives Changed by Christ Church) in Pennsylvania, replaces Tom DeVries who left the role at GLN in April to lead CityGate Network.
Robert Yi has been serving as interim president but will return to his role as chief operating officer.
“David has been a good friend and leader I’ve admired over a decade. I am genuinely excited to partner with him to infuse new and transformative energy into the mission and work of GLN around the world,” GLN Champion and Life Church Pastor Craig Groeschel said in a press statement.
Under Ashcraft’s leadership, LCBC apparently grew from 150 persons in weekly attendance to over 22,000 in 19 locations. He has been involved with GLN for 25 years, including as a member of the GLN board for the last four years.
“We are very excited for David to take on this position with the GLN. We know that their organization and programming will continue to advance because of David’s leadership,” LCBC church said in a statement on its website.
GLN, which was founded by controversial pastor Bill Hybels in 1992, hosts the Global Leadership Summit which is “the largest leadership experience in the world that partners with local churches, ministries and organizations to help leaders grow and become a catalyst for change,” according to the organization’s website.
This year’s summit is August 3-4 and features former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a speaker.
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The controversies and scandals surrounding Hybels negatively impacted GLN membership and attendance at its annual Global Leadership Summit.
In 2019, an Independent Advisory Group investigated allegations of sexual misconduct by Hybels and found them “credible.” It recommended counseling for Hybels but specifically found that Willow Creek Association was increasingly independent from Willow Creek Church and that it was managed well.
In an interview Ashcraft conducted with Hybels in 2016, he called Hybels a “friend to LCBC” and a mentor. “I look at you, whether you had ever realized it or not, I look at you as somebody who has mentored me in my younger years,” Ashcraft told Hybels.
In a book published in May 2022, Ashcraft doesn’t name Hybels in his chapter entitled “When Leaders Fall,” but he wrote, “This was someone I looked up to. This was someone I considered my mentor, even if only from a distance. This was someone who had helped shape and stretch my leadership skills. This was someone who had greatly influenced our church.”
Ashcraft said GLN is slowly rebuilding trust some five years after Hybels’ exit from the organization.
In the MinistryWatch database, GLN has a donor confidence score of 69, a C transparency grade, and a one-star efficiency rating.
Main photo: David Ashcraft speaking at LCBC in June 2021 / Video screengrab
