A senior pastor at a Chicago megachurch has tested positive before their appearance at a major leadership conference.

Dave Dummitt, a lead pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, was notably absent from service on August 8th, when he was supposed to preach. On their livestream, fellow pastor Shawn Williams stated that Dummitt had tested positive as of Saturday and that "he is feeling fine, just mild symptoms."

In an email to Religion News Service, another Willow Creek pastor Tim Stevens said that Dummitt completed this test after one of his family members also tested positive and that Dummitt was isolating at home. "We are praying for the Dummitt family, as well as everyone who continues to be impacted by the global pandemic," Stevens stated. However, he did not say whether Dummitt had received the vaccine.

This infection came about after Willow Creek's Global Leadership Summit, which Willow Creek hosted on August 4th-5th, where Dummitt also spoke. The Leadership Summit is a popular event among religious leaders and business leaders in the United States. It often hosts thousands of attendees alongside a livestream of the event.

Tom De Vries, the Global Leadership Network president, told RNS that "Willow Creek had informed him of Dummitt's positive test. De Vries said the network was doing contact tracing and informing people who had been in close contact with Dummitt of the positive test."

Dummit became lead pastor in Willow Creek after Bill Hybels, the co-founder, resigned in 2020 after being accused of abusive leadership and sexual malpractice.