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leadership summit: semi-live blogging (day 1)
willow creek’s annual leadership summit began today and CCC is one of the satellite locations in the chicago land area, so naturally i joined up with the volunteer corps in order to attend for free! i’m really looking forward to hearing from colin powell and the most controversial figure to speak at the summit since bill clinton, jimmy carter… should be interesting!
throughout the day i’ll blog about the sessions after they conclude and give you my two cents…
i have to admit, i haven’t heard bill hybels speak very much but he’s always highly touted and considered a great visionary speaker and leader. i however, found myself a little bored. he communicated the importance of vision, the need to create a climate of ownership in the vision and the need for the leader to be willing to die for the vision that they believe in. he gave some interesting thoughts and processes for making this happen, but overall it read much like andy stanley’s book visioneering… nothing new. i was a little disappointed… therefore, not too many thoughts.
the days of leading like moses did on mt. sinai telling people what to do no longer works. we have to begin giving a slice of ownership to the people that we seek to lead so that they will have a stake in the mission and in turn are willing to give their lives over for the mission as well. what better of a place to be in, what better of a team to lead than those that are so invested in the mission that they are willing to trade their lives—dreams, aspirations, desires and preferences—for the Jesus mission! we must begin to lead in community instead of in a “dictatorial” role
carly fiorina, the former ceo of hewlett-packard (she was fired) sat down with bill hybels for a one-on-one interview type of setting. carly, recently wrote a memoir detailing her time at HP and the questionable circustances that surrounded her firing entitled: Tough Choices: A Memoir. hybels highly recommended the book…
carly’s main point was this: the leaders greatest challenge is overcoming fear, not only in themselves but in the people that they are attempting to lead. everyone has fear, fear of change, fear of failure, fear of risk, fear of defeat, fear of newness, etc, etc, etc, and it is the fear within that breeds prejudice in people. prejudice is real and comes from a base of fear within the person. it is the leaders responsibility to not allow other people’s fears and prejudices to become their burden. the leader must know what they are capable of and they must find a way to reach across the divide of fear and prejudice in order to find and establish some common ground. it is through this common ground that fear will melt away and change and progress can be made.
this was a great session and some things that i truly wish i would’ve known earlier. fear is such a controlling aspect for so many people that it can completely cripple a church if it is allowed to run rampant. and the amazing thing is that fear can manifest itself in a wide variety of ways: over-confidence, bullying, weakness, unflexibility, in-adaptability, etc, etc, etc. fear is a hard thing to locate—but if we recognize that fear is in everyone we can begin to find and locate that common ground from which to work and from which to move forward.
right before floyd came up to speak there was a special performance by the african children’s choir. i have seen them on one other occaision and was moved like crazy. if you haven’t seen them before, i would highly recommend it when you get the chance!
floyd intermixed the pro’s and con’s of different leadership models with personal stories of the 23,000 member church that he pastors in queen’s, new york. his basic message above all else was “The church can change the community!”
This was an absolutely inspiring message of hope as he shared stories of transformation in his community because of the hope that the church has brought into the community. allen cathedral has started schools, retirement homes, and many other things in the community in an attempt to transform the community from a desperate, desolate place into one of hope because of the good news. i was floored… it gave me a strong sense of hope that the dreams that have been sitting in my heart for so long are actually possible… the church can change the community!
one of the great statements made by rev. flake was, “too many things fail because too many people start the process without knowing where they’re going.” we always seem to talk about vision but we never seem to know how to get where it is that we’re wanting to go. we mainly fly by the seat of our pants wishing and hoping that the leadership ability and vision casting without putting any meat to the bones. we have to begin to put systems in place to make these things happen. flake said that, “you must have a design for change that includes a goal so that we can know where we’re going and we can know the reason we’re doing what we’re doing.” without these things we’ll never get anywhere and we’ll lose our purpose in the process of doing without purpose.
what a great close to the first day! i took more notes on this session than any other one… fantastic and challenging stuff. the basic thesis of his message was simply this: “build on your strengths and manage around your weaknesses.” it’s not earth shattering news and many of us would probably agree with this statement and even say, “duh”. however, the amazing thing is that according to gallop (whom he worked for) this is what people actually practice:
gallop poll 2000: which do you think will help you be more sucessful?
build on your strengths: 41%
fixing my weaknesses: 59%
gallop question: what % of people spend most of the day playing to their strengths?
2005: 17%
2006: 14%
2007: 12%
obviously we’re more concerned with and fixiated upon our failures and our weaknesses working and striving to be more “well-rounded” (i suppose). we could even begin to look at it this way: we should play to our strengths like we play to our spiritual giftings. it’s so odd that we tell people time and again, “fix your weaknesses” or “you suck at this, you need to get better” but when it comes to spiritual gifts we tell people that they should move on from trying something because it’s not their gift. rather, they should focus on how God has gifted them because that’s how he has meant for them to contribute to the Kingdom. i think our strengths are the same way… we have been made a certain way, for a certain purpose by God and to deny our strengths is to deny the blue-print by which we were created. in fact marcus said this: “people are not our greatest asset—people’s strengths are our greatest assets.” and we should begin to translate that into a Kingdom mentality. people’s strengths are what will help build the kingdom, we shouldn’t deny that because this is our part to play. it is through our weaknesses that God shines through, and that’s his part to play. we need to start pulling our weight and stop expecting God to do it all, because he’s not failing… we are.
our conversations need to begin to shift from expecting people to improve in their weaknesses to bringing even more to the table with their strengths. we should be challenging people to step it up, to “bring it” if you will, in their strengths. we should be challenging people to get better and better at what their passionate about, because it is only then we will see the best teachers, the best leaders, the best artists, the best church planters, the best small group leaders and coaches that we’ve ever seen in the history of the church. we need to challenge our people to bring it.
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9 Responses to “leadership summit: semi-live blogging (day 1)”
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I have attended a couple leadership conferences there and overall have been “bored” as you noted. I hear John Ortberg will be back there, he was someone I always liked to hear speak. Otherwise, not a big willow creek fan.
i’m looking forward to ortberg as well… i think there’s a pretty good lineup of speakers this year, and i’m looking forward to getting a lot out of it. i’m sure the boredom will subside!
Bill Hybels has really made a difference in my life with his two books “Too Busy Not Too Pray” “Working Your Best Life Now”. He is a great leader and I know he is going to be training a lot of great men this week to do the same. I wish I could be there. It is great that you Aaron that you are posting and keeping us informed on what is going on. I apprecaite it and so do the countless other ministers who weren’t ables to attend this year’s conference. God bless you brother as you serve Him.
thanks preacherman, i appreciate it! i’m glad i could offer up a few insights that might help somehow and someway!
i updated my hybels remarks based on something floyd flake mentioned—it was something that i must’ve missed when hybels was speaking….
I agree with preacherman. Hybels was always one of the highlights of the summit. Not attending this year, I will especially miss his second leadership session where he basically just talks about any leadership issue that he wants to and usually covers quite a few.
Anxious to hear your thoughts on Marcus coming up. Several leaders at our church have been challenged by his writings recently. Thanks monts.
i’m looking forward to his second session… (i hope it’s better than his first). i think for me i was expecting something along the lines of what he did at the national new church conference (i listened to the podcast) where he just laid it all out on the line and was absolutely invigorating and motivating! but then again, maybe he’s storing all that up for saturday morning… i can only hope!
It’s cool to see all the people who are blogging about the Summit. I’m blogging live from the satelite site in Tampa, FL. Thanks for posting your thoughts.
Awesome review, Montsy. Looks like you made some significant philosophical changes there — that’s growth, which we all could use.
I rarely find myself agreeing with Hybels, but I rarely find myself disagreeing. He can make me nod my head, and think deeper. From my doctrinal views on Christ, I think Christ was the great individualizer — He enabled us to be all God wants us to be, without Moses and the Law, without the Pharisees, without the Judgment He warned of. What an awesome, and scary, thought.
Ownership is such a key value that Christians today forget — self ownership. We are stewards of our Body, directly created by God to do something for others, notably to love them. This is why we/I have to ignore the warvangelicals immediately and withdraw funding of their madness. This is why we/I have to ignore the doctrinal divide within the Body and instead work to love all men equally. I saw we/I because “we” is a terrible, terrible word. It should be removed from language, because “we” are not significant versus “I.” You can not start a movement properly with a “we,” but you can with an “I.”
Accept personal responsibility, accept self-ownership, and move forward making a change in the part of the world you steward because of God’s gifts to you. Teach others to do the same — the Church is within us, not within a building or an organization. I am the Church, and so are you, so why aren’t you doing anything about it?
Good stuff on marcus… that fits with what I’ve been hearing from friends who have been reading his stuff. I should pick up some of his stuff. I think he has surveys and other tools to help with ‘building your strengths’
I’m thinking A.B. is having a really bad day. What’s with all the “I” crap? “we” are not significant versus “I”??? Good grief. If Christ is in me and Christ is in you then we have a ‘we’ that is so much greater than just an “I” I am a part of the church, a part of the body, a branch connected to a vine, etc… The church (defined as the body of those who belong to Christ) is not within me, but rather I am within the church.
Yes, “I” need to get off my butt and move forward, but the church is not about me.