Willow Creek Leadership Summit Day 1

Went to Willow Creek's Leadership Summit at a satellite site today and it was great. It was held at LCBC, another big church in lancaster. We actually had time to tour the building during one of the breaks and it was freaking awesome to see that they had a freakin slide going from the main level down to the kids wing. Freaking awesome!


All in all, it was pretty good and I would highly recommend it to anyone, even if you aren't a Christian. They have some great leaders who bring ideas to the table that aren't coming from a Christian background. For example:

Jim Collins (business thinker)
Daniel Pink (business thinker and ex-White House speech writer)
Terri Kelly (president and CEO of W.L. Gore & Associates)
Tony Dungy (football coach)
Jack Welch (famous CEO)

For highlights from Tony Dungy and Adam Hamilton, go to highlight vid #3 at the link
http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2010/highlights2010.asp

Anyways, here are some takeaways from today:



Bill Hybel-pastor at Willow Creek church

1. Leaders move people from here to there
2. You need fantastic people
3. Celebrate mile markers!
4. Listen for whispers from God

Jim Collins-writer and nationally acclaimed business thinker

Good is the enemy of Great
5 stages of decline
1. Hubris born of success
2. Undisciplined pursuit of More
3. Denial of risk and peril
4. Grasping for Salvation
5. Capitulation
We need to setup BHAGs (Big hairy audacious goals)
Never, ever give up on your core ideas/values

Andy Stanley-pastor of North Point church

Myth- If you're a great leader, you'll solve all your tensions and all your problems
Truth- great organizations have tensions that are never resolved and problems never solved. The leaders learn how to leverage them in a way to create progress

Whatever it is, its not a problem to solve or a tension to resolve, its something to manage
-in church, there's a tension between letting the Holy Spirit lead the pastor to speak till the Holy Spirit is "done" and finishing the message on time so the children workers can go home!
-there's a tension between attracting seekers to the church and developing believers

Adam Hamilton-pastor of Church of the Resurrection

The final word of the church must not be a word of judgment but a word of grace.
We serve a Lord who is a friend of drunkards, prostitutes, and sinners
No one is beyond redemption, for God is the God of the second chance