For the past three years, my church has hosted a video simulcast of "The Leadership Summit" from the Willow Creek Association. I've not attended in years past because I don't have an actual leadership title or position. However, I'm applying to move up into a role with a bit more leadership responsibility, so I thought it would be worthwhile.

I don't know how much the Leadership Summit would help me in the next role or the Interview process so far, but I think it may be life-changing on a number of levels. Let me go ahead and give a wrap of Day 1's speakers.

Session 1: Bill Hybels

Disclaimer: I'm not really into mega-church pastors. That said.I have to admit that I had a pretty positive first impression of Bill Hybels. As the economy went into downturn in October, 2008 and he called on his church "to be the church." and those members who were not hit by the economic recession to help out those who'd loss jobs and insurance inside the church and out.

Hybel's speech was pretty practical in his advice on how to deal with the current economic downturn and it could be applied to business or the church equally in discussing economic realities, principles, and relational things he discovered.

The one thing that hit home with me is that the economy had put a huge strain on Hybels that was consuming even more of his time. Hybels talked about how he had to develop a renewal strategy and really focus on it. He said that he nearly walked away from the ministry twenty years ago because he was wearing himself out. He said that one day he wrote in his journal, "The way I'm doing God's work is destroying God's work in me."

I've felt like that sometimes, and it really drove home the point that I need to do those things that renew and rejuvinate me not as a matter of "when I get to it" or do it haphazardly, but do it intentionally, and on the purpose.

Session 2:

Hiring, firing, and board member relations Panel:

On a political note. Carly Fiorina (yes Idaho HP employees might boo at this point) was talked about as a U.S. Senate candidate in California. I'm not certain she's healthy enough. She was unable to attend this year's leadership summit in person, so the panel she was on was taped beforehand.

Fiorina, Hybels, and Patrick Lencioni of the Table Group Inc., Pastor David Ireland, and Psychologist Henry Cloud provided a lot of wisdom, particularly when compared to a well-acted dramatization of what I'd like to pretend is an extreme example of a mismanaged church that doesn't exist on this planet. Unfortunately, I've known too many pastors to be that naive.

However, it's not only churches that have these type of issues. The firing video reminded me of the only job I was fired from. Of course, the reaction wasn't as emotional (being fired from a church staff after more than a decade and being fired off a fast food job after less than a month are different experiences) but the lack of talking about problems and concerns prior to the firing decision, or trying to remedy the problem was still the same.

The one thing that stood out to me is how that Ireland hadterm limits for his church board and Hybels had actually justput them in at Willow Creek. Irelandcited theneed for fresh blood on theboard. Hybels pointed to burn out from overdoing it that board members wouldn't notice. This goes along with some of my recent thinking that many organizations suffer from staleness and burnout on boards and in positions of leaders, whether these be political, religious, or business.

The second session was rounded out by Gary Hamel of the London Business School. Sadly, some power issues in the thunderstoorm kept me from being able to hear the entirety of Hamel's talk, but what I did hear sound interesting. He pointed out some general problems with the church, and suggested that while churches needed to stick to their creeds, they need to question their dogmas as to how they "do church."

I had a lot of different feelings on Hamel's talk. For one thing "doing Church" is one of those phrases I absolutely detest. The other problem I saw is that while Hamel raised some good points about the church's structure, I'm not certain that church structure is what hinders revival in America. God has been able to bring revival through churches that are hierarchal, that aren't perfect in structure. The church has to some extent gotten itself in trouble by being consumer driven and playing to consumerism in the culture by offering Christ as a product to be marketed.

That said, I think Hamel offered up many ideas that were worth thinking about. One point he made was related to the fact that many Churches have adopted many practices modeled off corporate practices. He pointed out that the Millennial generation,as a rule doesn't want to work for Fortune 500 companies, why would they go to a church that was structured like one? At the end of the talk, Hamelexplained he wasn'texpert on church. He really came off as someone who loved God and wanted to share what he'd learned from his other field to help the Church.

Session 3: Tim Keller

The highlight of the day was Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City who talked about the Prodigal Son in a way I'd never heard it spoken of before.

The Parable Jesus told from the Book of Luke 15. The Younger son demanded his half of the inheritance while his father was alive and went off and wasted it in riotous living. The younger son ends up destitute, taking care of pigs, comes to his senses, and decides to come home, offering to be a servant. The Father embraces his son and invites him back home, killing the fatted calf and placing a gold ring on his younger son's finger. The Elder Brother isn't pleased and sits outside. When his father comes out, the elder son complains that he didn't even kill a goat for the elder son and his friends. The Father reassures the older son of his love but tells him it was write to celebrate.

What Keller suggests is that neither son actually had a heart towards their father. The elder son's attitude showed that he did everything in order to earn something: His part of the inheritance. The father owed him for being a good son. Keller suggests that many of us are like the elder son in our lives. We do the right things, attend church, etc. but it's not out of a real relationship with God that springs from the regenerative work of the cross, but rather out of a sense of using God as a means to an end.

He suggests some of the signs of the elder brother syndrome include: A loathing of others to strengthen feelings of self-righteous moral superiority, huge negative reactions when life goes wrong ("Hey God, I've been serving you, how could you let this happen to me.") and an inability to handle criticism that leads either to lashing out at others or being totally destroyed. Keller points out this tendency is a denial of the gospel, because it puts the identity and worth not in Christ, but in your self-image and what others think of you.

Keller also makes the point that this whole thing causes a spiritual deadness in individuals and the church. Keller argues that many Christians need to repent not of bad works, but of their reason for their good works.

I actually skipped working on my fiction story after the third session and really was pretty contemplative about it. I know I'm recovering from elder brother syndrome. I know that the criticism thing is definitely me, and I can relate to other parts of the syndrome as well. I thank God that He works on us, and changes us over time. That part of me that reminds me of the elder brother is not pretty and it was an excellent reminder.

Session 4:

Before the start of Session 4, we heard about some more efforts of the Willow Creek Association, that has included expanding the Leadership Summit to a Worldwide audience. They told of one widow in Honduras who is teaching Leadership Summit principles to 1,000 High School students. They then talked about some of their efforts. They've done research to find out what people need spiritually and have even created a book for pastors on what they learned by surveying thousands of church members in their Reveal Survey. This has led to a book, plus electronic Bible software that creates a personalized Bible study plan based on a person's spiritual needs.

On one hand, I'm glad for Willow Creek taking effort to help people grow spiritually. On the other hand, I'm a skeptic of the idea that computer programs can help people grow in the Lord, but we'll have to see how this works out.

Anyway, after the Willow Creek Association had its say, up was an interview with Jessica Jackley, the co-founder of KIVA, a company that allows individuals to make small loans to people in the developing world. I actually had participated in a KIVAthon over at Talk Shoe. I made a $25 loan then and selected the option to automatically have the loan money relent when it was repaid, so that the money would continue to help new entrepreneurs. The KIVA website has changed quite a bit since then with it incorporating quite a bit of social networking into the process of micro-lending.

I think what KIVA does is critical. What people need in the third world is not just handouts, but they need the ability to create jobs and build businesses. By facilitating loans to the third world, it helps to establish businesses, create jobs, and truly give people a hand up rather than a hand out. Plus, with KIVA's repayment rate of 98.61%, you really are just leading the money interest free and can use the same money to help effect change. It was incredible that KIVA has underwritten 200,000 microloans to entrepreneurs around the world. I was really impressed with Jackley's story of how she took her passion to alleviate poverty and found a way to help in a way that still respected people's dignity.

Finally, the Summit wrapped up with Reverend Harvey Carey, who was led by God to start a church in the poorest zip code in America, in the heart of Detroit, Michigan. Carey has faced many obstacles but has been an unstoppable force in that city. His church has really lived out the New Testament commission, despite opposition from many church leaders. Carey, who is Black, has faced surprising opposition because his church is multicultural. He was confronted by nine Black Pastors who told him the last thing Detroit needed was for White people to move back, and therefore they would do everything they could to make his church fail.

It hasn't. It's running a little less than a thousand people. They've delivered Bibles for everyone in their zip code. They've had outreaches to Prostitutes, and through "Urban campouts", they've closed eight of the biggest crackhouses in their neighborhood.

Pastor Carey closed the day with a challenge for us to go out and do something. He compared to the church to a football team that stays in the huddle. He chastised those who had countless bounders from conferences on all sorts of topics, but had nothing. He said some people had nothing after attending the Leadership Summit other than register for next year's summit. Carey issued a powerful call to step out complacency and to do something about what we learned to make an impact.

With more than 130,000 people attending this year's summit, it would make such a difference if people would.