More than 50,000 leaders and emerging leaders across North America are expected to meet at locations around USA for The Leadership Summit 2005, an annual gathering of church and business leaders. Starts today – Satellite locations here.
HT: US NewsWire. If any bloggers are there, let me know
50,000 expected at Summit
It’s weird. i have been to two of them in Chicago and enjoyed them but looking at hte last couple of years, it is the same old speakers as in the past. Kind of too bad because in many ways, leadership has changed but the churches ideas of it has not.
I’m at a satellite location – almost scared to admit it 😉 Today was great – we heard from a pastor in South Africa who has started a church in an impoverished township and is transforming the community there, as well as the director of Focus: HOPE in Detroit (http://www.focushope.edu/) and the person who started the Guardian Angel movement in New York (he kind of called Hybels a wimp).
I have mixed feelings about the summit but I sense this year it’s a little less hyped and it has a more holistic focus in serving our communities.
I was also at a Satellite location and agree fully with Darryl’s positive feelings about today. I just posted some of my own thoughts/summaries on our church blog at http://www.uconnchurch.com/blog
I will try and post tomorrow and Sat as well.
Leadership Summit, Day 1
I just got back from Day One of the Willow Creek Association Leadership Summit. I was at the satellite location in Hartford CT. I’m pretty tired and haven’t had time to fully process, but wanted to get my thoughst up…
thanks, and ben- thanks for the link
you said on your blog:
“Both Bill Hybels and Rick Warren, the keynote speakers today, focused almost entirely on the idea of “holy discontent” for the state of the church, the world, and in justice…and the call of leaders to step up.”
i can see where they are coming from and some people need to say it . . . i wonder how that fits with the emerging getting criticized for discontent with the church?
I think that is a great point Andrew…
My guess, both Hybels & Warren would be (and as far as can tell are) supportive (though not without some qualified critique) of emergent’s general “holy discontent”.
In fact, Hybels told the story of his own holy discontent and how that led to his own calling to plant Willow.
It’s ironic because I think we (in the emergent church) are often quick to criticize the amporphous “megachurch” and their pastors–and often vice versa. Yet, at least in the case of Warren and Hybels, I suspect we are more similiar than difference, sharing mission if not style/emphasis.
I am thankful for guys like Hybels and Warren and what they and Willow/Saddleback have done for the Kingdom. And I also recognize that some of their strategies/approaches/styles simply won;t work in the context I find myself called to minister to in a post-modern, emergent, New England college town like Storrs CT.
Oh dear! I can’t think of anything much worse than being “recognized” as an “emerging leader” because it means that someone somewhere other than God is controlling the action (you don’t think so?…explore that more fully!) and indoctrinating according to vernacular vision all over again in a closed circle.
As long as the churchianity systems still have such dreadful gatherings as this which merely reproduce after their own kind, people will be held back from discovering Christ in them beyond the imposed limitations of fixed mindsets. Leave leaders to lead themselves up their own bottoms…and follow Christ!
(And yes, I quit the nonsense of being classified a “leader” years ago by others who had reached their “ceiling” and who perpetuated the myth that they had something more vital to share with me than Christ within does every day without organizing me into anything less than who He is!).
It was completely reassuring to me that my wrestling these past couple of months is really not just me whining. It’s about a holy discontent! I have a better idea how to keep my hope alive.
I didn’t attend last year on purpose for some of the reasons Boltono expressed. I was forced to attend this year by a board I’m on – it’s a requirement. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what I’ve found.
I think I used to go looking for a model to bail me out. Now I’m there, not looking fot “the answer” but quietly listening for God in what’s being said. Turns out I can learn something from almost anyone.
I resonate with a lot of what Boltono’s said but I also know that I can be too quick to write off something that may be useful if approached the right way.
I’ve been here at Willow for the Summit all week, along with about 7000 others. It’s my first experience, and I’ve found it quite cross-cultural which is *good*! I’m a bit behind on the blogging of it, but you can get my first learning experiences of corporate America on the blog. It’s not been a particularly ’emergent’ experience, and some parts have left me feeling somewhat bemused (partly because I’m British, partly because I’m postmodern). But the event has an integrity to it, and I’m going to take away some stuff that’s relevant, and learn from what is not. The real issue for me is how ‘leadership’ is interpreted here (where it goes on the nod what we’re talking about) and in my work back home in Bristol (where it’s a highly undefined and problematic question). I promise I’ll get more on the blog later….
Leadership Summit, Day #3
The 2005 Leadership Summit is now complete. I would say that at every level it exceeded my expextations. This morning there were two sessions, one with Bishop Kenneth Ulmer on “A Leader’s Unshakable Resolve” which was energizing and excellent. The…
Leadership Summit, Day 3
The 2005 Leadership Summit is now complete. I would say that at every level it exceeded my expextations. This morning there were two sessions, one with Bishop Kenneth Ulmer on “A Leader’s Unshakable Resolve” which was energizing and excellent. The…
Leadership Summit Core Values
It is always fun to look at an event afterwards that you had nothing at all to do with organizing and try to figure out what the driving core values behind the event were. Having just gotten home from the…
I was there, actually on the music team. It was a good summit I would say better than last year. The topics stayed on leadership and not so much about raising money and building big buildings as last year. It was a good spend of 2 1/2 days.
Emerge
Coffee For One
Intricately Woven