Willow Creek Leadership Summit 2009 - Day 1

This is the third year that I have attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit and the first time I have attended from a satellite location. I am in Omaha for the summit and then will spend the weekend 40 miles east of there in Harlan, IA.

The host church is Brookside Church. I haven't been to a lot of WCA churches, but it would not be too difficult to imagine that this was a WCA church. It has a very "Promiseland" like children's ministry wing, which coincidentally happens to be in the lower level of the church. Their primary worship space is much like the Activity Center, where Willow first met when they move onto the current South Barrington campus. They have a Chapel at the other end of the building from the worship center. If you have been to South Barrington, you would immediately recognize the architectural similarities.

I am really in no position to make any assessment of the church doctrine or beliefs. I will say that they were well prepared with an abundance of very friendly volunteers. Apparently this was not the first time that they have done this. Logistically, they did a fine job. I will say that I was surprised that lunch was not provided. It wasn't a big deal, but having been fed (abundantly) the two times I attended previously, I was unprepared to track down my own lunch. I ended up walking down to a local convenience store to grab a sandwich.

As far as the summit itself goes, I think that this was the BEST Day one in the past 3 years. I think that all today's sessions were home runs. Rather that recount my feelings, I'm going to jump over to Twitter.com and capture comments from others, posted throughout the day.

jaxnc: Tons of ideas from being @ the Summit #tls09. Best opening day in a few years. Challenged, inspired, convicted.

mikechem: Great day at the Leadership Summit. Speakers stressed the need for leaders to empower people for innovation, creativity and trust. #TLS09

leebiles: @donnamct I was blown away by tim keller retelling of the prodigal son; you always got to bring it back to the gospel! #TLS09

patamo: RT: "The longer you're down in your trenches, the easier it is to mistake the edge of your rut for the horizon." Gary Hamel // #TLS09

bexmann: Just spent a whole day getting my world rocked by the Leadership Summit...holy cow. #tls09

ajelwind: Here's Josh Wilson, who performed at today's Leadership Summit http://tinyurl.com/nk3ffy #tls09

gilesshih: #tls09 kiva.org provides over $85 million in micro-finance loans each yr to entrepreneurs worldwide - lives are being changed!

saddacracker: RT @tonysteward The elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son was lost, not in spite of his obedience, but because of it. #tls09

LifeVerse: People are not looking for a mild dose of God, they want a full dose of God. Bill Hybles Leadership Summit #TLS09

Want to read more? Check it out... http://twitter.com/search?q=%23tls09#search?q=%23tls09

Share your Vision!!!

Last night Karen and I enjoyed an evening BBQ with the family of one of my son's friends. This was the first time that both families had gotten together. The other father, Jeff, and I got to talking about Leadership and Vision. After sharing some of my thoughts another guest, Dale, suggested that I reminded him the the "Dancing Guy at the Sasquatch music festival. Check this out...

For those of you that know me, what do you think? That is just about how I dance. ;-)

In terms of sharing a vision, see how contagious it can be. You may feel a little foolish at first, but if you are confident in your vision and stay the course, others WILL follow.

If that wasn't enough for you, hers is the Loooong version. Watch this one with discretion...

Let all I do honor You

I'm sure this never happens to anyone else, but every now and then a song just convicts me! It's not so much that its a catchy tune that gets stuck in your head (if you were listening to Klove radio yesterday, you learned all about "ear worms.") but instead it rocks you and just won't go away.

I'm a huge fan of Chris Tomlin and he does a Billy Foote song called "You Are My King." The song is totally awesome but the refrain contains the phrase "Let all I do honor You" OUCH!

A challenge? A statement? A wish? What is it for you? I can tell you in my case it is NOT a profession of TRUTH... If it is a wish, what good is that? "Gee, I sure hope that everything I do honors You, Jesus..." "Oh, and BTW, if it doesn't - I'm sorry." If it is a challenge, what must I do to overcome it? I start by trying to remain "connected to the vine."

At Willow Creek, we are blessed with some of the best teaching pastors on the planet. When they aren't teaching, we learn from guest teachers that are World Class, such as Andy Stanley, David Nasser, Michael Durso Wayne Cordiero and others. You can listen to the regular weekly messages here, Media Player.

Quite some time ago, Willow changed it's mid-week service to a "campus-style" classes format. Classes range from "Seeker" to "Committed Christ Follower." All are captured in audio and some include streaming video. The Current Class archive is here, Classes at Willow.

Back to my point of how do I "Let all I do honor You." The truth is, not very well.

Mindy Caliguire has been teaching a series called "Experience Ephesians: Soul Care in the Scriptures." You will find it listed at the link I just provided. Mindy is one of my favorite teachers, and like the Chris Tomlin song, her lessons in this series have pierce me. Her teaching has "called me out."

The TRUTH is, whether I Honor my King in all I do or not, He Loves me! For that I am eternally thankful.

In God We Still Trust

My father sent me this a while back and I just got around to watching it. I haven't listened to our local C&W station for a looooong time, so I don't know if this received much airplay or not. You Diamond Rio fans will recognize this but for the rest of you, enjoy!

How would you introduce Christ?

Steve Harvey is a Comedian and Radio Show host.


Something you might expect at a Southern Baptist revival, but has near as I can tell, that wasn't the venue.