Leadership Summit-Session 1

Willow Creek's Annual Leadership Summit is something I look forward to every year. As my summer rest come to a close, it helps me get centered and ramped up for the fall kick-off of my next season of ministry. For those of you who are stuck in the office and can't attend the summit this year, I'll share short notes with you after each session. Here's session 1.

Bill Hybels: THE LEADER’S STATE OF MIND

What precedes vision? (Vision is a picture of the future that inspires people.)

Firestorm forces people into leadership. Something you can't stand anymore that gets you off your butt to do something about it. Hybels looked at Moses for an example. In Exodus 2, Moses saw his Egyptian relatives beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He killed the Egyptian in anger and fled. In Exodus 3, God told Moses it breaks His heart, too. The same thing that stirred in Moses' heart, stirred in God's heart. He could use Moses, and his discontented heart, to change other hearts and lives.

Moses couldn’t stand it anymore, he got to a point he said to God, USE ME! David couldn’t stand it anymore, he ran forward with nothing but a slingshot. Martin Luther King Jr. couldn’t stand segregation & prejudice. Too many churches inwardly focused & self-absorbed. That’s what Bill Hybels couldn't stand anymore. That was the firestorm that moved him from aspiring for a marketplace career to founding Willow Creek.

What can’t you stand anymore? What are you motivated to do something about? What do you care enough about you’ll move so God can use you? What wrecks you emotionally?

God wants to get you on the solution side of something. Don’t run away from what bugs you, don’t ignore it. Feed it. Stay close to it; fan the flames.

That's what precedes vision.

Comments

[sarge]

Thanks Kem. Linking to it.

[Nick Airdo]

That was quite a motivational, clarifying, heart stirring message pastor Bill gave this morning... and the conference had only just begun! Since many of your churches will receive the DVDs of the summit, I recommend everyone try to find the opportunity to hear his session -- especially if this powerful concept is not clear to you.