Beliefnet: September 2007 Archives

By Bill Hybels

I sincerely wish that I could have met Pastor Walter Rauschenbusch when he was alive. He sounds like someone who walked the talk, catalyzing whatever action was necessary to meet the holistic needs of those he served. That’s the kind of legacy a guy like me dreams of.

I read Paul’s response and was not at all surprised that he wonders if Willow Creek is an exception within evangelicalism. Many of the larger evangelical churches seen on television are eerily similar to the stereotype he laments. It’s a reality that bothers me, too.

Often, when I’m in a social setting and people learn that I am an evangelical pastor of a large church, the jokes begin: "So, who are you mad at?" Or, "Who are you guys bashing these days?"

By Bill Hybels

Pastor Raushenbush was right in predicting that he and I would feel essentially the same way on the Sandwich/Jesus issue. Stretching the metaphor a bit, I would add that the acid test for whether a person has indeed eaten the "Jesus" sandwich is whether or not he or she is then motivated to spend every day until the dying day offering both sandwiches—salvation and sustenance—to as many hungry people as possible.

The Rev. Paul B. Raushenbush is the Associate Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel at Princeton University and former editor at Beliefnet. He recently edited the 100th anniversary edition of Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century, written by his great-grandfather Walter Rauschenbusch. Rauschenbusch was a major proponent of the social gospel, a Christian philosophy which inspired a century of social activism on behalf of the poor aimed at transforming society to reflect God's will on earth as it is in heaven.

Bill Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of the 20,000-member Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill.

He is the best-selling author of more than twenty books, including Holy Discontent, The Volunteer Revolution, and Becoming a Contagious Christian.