Leadership Summit

I was going to post some of my notes and thoughts from Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit, but What If.. has posted great notes over on his site, so I will just link you over to him…

Session 1: Life Cycle of a Leader (Bill Hybels)
Session 2: Enemies of a Growing Church (James Meeks)
Session 3: Focused Leadership (Andy Stanley)
Session 4: Tribal Warfare (Peg Neuhauser) (Session 3 & 4 are from Tony Morgan’s blog, thanks!)
Session 5: The Risky Business of Hiring Stars (Ashish Nanda) & When Business Thinking Fails The Church (Jim Collins)
Session 6: Bono: An Excluive Personal Interview
Session 7: Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars (Patrick Lencioni)
Session 8: Dead Leader Running (Wayne Cordeiro)
Session 9: The Power of Clarity (Bill Hybels)

The Orchard

So time for some pictures and feedback…

learning

At Orchard, the church mission is that they exist to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, but they have recognised that you need to define what it actually looks like.

At Orchard, a growing relationship is characterised by:

  1. Intimacy with God
  2. Community with insiders, and
  3. Influence with outsiders

They are a ‘Glocal‘ chuch… mission is not a department. Small groups are encouraged to adopt a missionary to support, and do local outreaches together. It is about thinking globally AND being involved locally.

“My job as a pastor is to consistently make people uncomfortable.” Scott Hodge.

common grounds

Common Grounds coffee bar area.

Wahabu Land interior

Wahabu Land kids ministry area. (Wahabu means God’s love in some African language, I’ve forgot which one, Scott help me out here??)

Kids ministry rooms

More kids ministry stuff

Scott and I

Scott and I.

Stir it up

Something is happening in me here.

Back at Sycamore now after the conference at Willow, not even going to touch on that until I’m home, so much to process. My passion for Africa has not diminished. God is doing something with it. I don’t know what, and I don’t know how it will play out, but God is so stirring up my heart it’s undeniable.

We leave to fly home today… kinda nervous because of the terror alerts, but we should be fine. Spent last night hanging out with the guys here at Sycamore, gonna miss them so much!

Off for breakfast… see ya when I’m back on Irish soil…

Downtown

Heehee.

Climbed Sears Tower this morning… incredible views from up that high!

Spent yesterday and this morning with some people at JPUSA… Scott and Dave, great guys.

Currently on Michigan Avenue… blogging from the Apple Store!! My first time in an Apple store… I love it!!

Another Little Update

Yesterday we went out for pizza with a couple of guys from Harvest Bible Chapel, Brian and Kirk… awesome guys. Went to a place called Ginos East, had proper deep dish Chicago pizza! Think, Northern Ireland deep dish pizza, well, Chicago deep dish is twice that depth, it’s like pie. Soo good.

Today we spent the day at churches… traditional service at Sycamore, a service at Orchard, an AMAZING BBQ (and swimming in the pool!) at Bill’s house, and the youth service (extreme connecctions) at Sycamore this evening. Meeting some incredible people. Meet a new friend at Orchard this morning who has just started reading my blog… Becky (Becca? I’m not sure, sorry!) it is great to have you reading!

My new friend Marty introduced me to this amazing story today… check it out here.

I am tired… 4 church services in 27 hours… woohoo!

People

This place is amazing. Do I have to go home??

We spent yesterday at Willow Creek Community Church… the place is huge. Like, I joked that you could fit all of my local village (Ahoghill) into their buildings! The people so far have been to most incredible thing. Such hospitality, such generosity. Dave, Joe, Pete… everyone has their own individual stories, each one amazing. It’s infectious! I reckon I will post more when I get home, along with some pics… haven’t really processed much yet!

Today however… man today has been SOOO special to me… actually meeting Scott (check the links!). The man is an inspiration… we spent all afternoon and into the evening talking with him, headed over to Starbucks part way through… I think we spent maybe 7 hours with him, and it felt like we’d only had an hour, but equally like we were all old friends. His passion is so incredible, and the story of their church… unbelievable. I just feel so very privillaged to have spent time with him. I do have a pic of us together, but again I’ll post that laters!

Riteyo I should head towards bed… sleep well my friends.