Life is busy, as usual. I’m not mad about the busyness, I don’t think it’s out of control, I am just in a busy portion of my annual schedule where my comfortable routine is not possible and we’re mostly planning for the upcoming Light Force year. (It’s gonna rock… that’s all I can say)
Today I’ll be spending most of my time over at Kensington as we attend the second day of Willow’s Leadership Conference. The first day was pretty good. We listened to Bill Hybels, James Meeks, and Andy Stanley. All were excellent presenters and had good, inspiring, things to say. Here are some highlights.
Hybels: He told a great story about leading while young. While sailing in Lake Michigan, the other guys were skinny dipping and he was swimming… well, he left the sails up and while swimming the wind picked up and he was horrified to see the boat floating away. As he swam after it he thought "What will my dad say when I lose his boat, and what will people think of me when 3 naked guys swim to shore?"
His talk was great, his main point was leading for the long haul and he gave some strategies for continually getting more effective for more impact. Another memorable quote, "If I fail, people stop giving to our projects, and people will die."
Meeks: James was very, very good. I don’t agree with him theologically 100% yet I liked what he had to say. He encouraged us against the "white church mentality" to not care about numbers. He said that since all people matter to God, we should eliminate things that are growth inhibitors to our churches. I loved his communication style. While he was speaking, God was speaking to me. Light Force will see some of the ramifications of that over the next few months!
Stanley: If you’ve never listened to this man speak, you need to. He is an extremely good communicator of biblical truth. He told us… "Christ jobs is to build the church, the pastors command is to love your wife." He told us that we should cheat the church and not our families. He talked a little about how this effects things at his church, and really encouraged Bob and I with the environment we need to create at Romeo. (Already underway.) Stanley’s principle about "Doing less is more effective" is trickling down into all sorts of things at church.
Today is interview day. More on that later. The world wants to know what Bill Hybels and Bono will talk about.
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