One of the reasons that I hear so many leaders love the Summit is the questions that it leaves you wrestling with. I was talking with a good friend of mine from Canada a few weeks ago debriefing this year's event and he called them nuggets. He said that the powerful impact of a few nuggets injected into his team is irreplaceable. Whatever you want to call them ... they stick with you. They are the one-liners that your team repeats back home or the one question that a speaker asked that you can't stop journaling about. Some of them are so simple but so profound. So, we spent a few minutes on Skype reflecting back on some our favorites. How they molded our team culture or pulled us up to a new level of leading. These are the moments the Summit leaves behind ...

What's your holy discontent?

Are you cheating your church or your family?

Who are your lightening rod friends?

Are you a hireling or an owner?

What is your shadow mission?

What is their inspirational language?

What makes me feel strong?

There have been so many over the years. What nugget or question won't leave you alone? Is there one that your team still quotes?

It's hard to believe that it has been a full month since the Summit.

We have been blown away by the stories of lives and leadership impacted by our time together in August. Our constant prayer is that you clearly hear God's call for you and that you are helped, encouraged, trained, and challenged to live it out fully and without fear.

We thank you for being a part of the Summit, and we are grateful as well for the sacrifice of countless Summit volunteers across the country and -- as the Global Leadership Summit season begins -- around the world. Most of all, we thank God, who has once again been faithful to do what only He can do: move deeply in the hearts of men and women to accomplish His purposes in increasing measure.

Enjoy this video of highlights from Summit 2007, and as you do, we invite you to ask yourself some tough questions. Have you taken the time to process what you heard during the Summit? Have you acted on the things that you felt stir in your heart? Do you have next steps that you know you need to take but are yet to be taken? If so, I encourage you not to hold back, but to move forward boldly in acting upon what God has stirred in you.

We'd love to hear what some of those stirrings in your soul have been. What have you been prompted to do or to think differently about since the Summit? Share your comments and thoughts here so others can be emboldened, uplifted, and helped!

 

During the Summit planning sessions, a couple of names that kept coming up as potential faculty members were Bill and Melinda Gates. We all thought that they would add huge value to the Summit experience. Bill Gates could speak about leadership issues learned from his amazing run as the CEO of Microsoft, and they as a couple could talk about how they are now leveraging their influence to make the world a better place for those who are suffering the most.
 
Unfortunately they were not able to accept our invitation, even though they wanted to support what we are trying to do. They believe that churches play a key role in bringing relief to those in need. While we were disappointed that they couldn’t join us, we were so glad that they were willing to send us a brief video, addressing some of the issues that we wanted them to cover at the Summit. They also offer encouragement to church leaders to continue making a difference in the fight against poverty and HIV/AIDS. Who knows, perhaps someday they will join us as faculty members!
 
Check out Bill and Melinda Gates' video. Then, let us know what you think!
 

I hope you had a fun and restful Labor Day weekend with family and friends and are geared up for the kickoff of another great ministry year.

Many of you have been asking for help in finding resources in the Online Experience of the Summit that will help you process what you heard and apply it in your context. We want to make sure that you get right to the resources you need, so here's a quick walk-through of the most requested online resources from the 2007 Summit.

Gary Schwammlein is an unbelievable leader and one of the most inspiring people at the Willow Creek Association. Gary worked for 28 years in the marketplace before leaving its financial benefits 11 years ago to work in ministry fulltime. Since then he has been opening doors and resourcing countries around the world as the executive vice president for WCA International. He lives what he believes with passion and with energy that never quits.

Here are a few words from Gary about the offering for the Global Leadership Summit:

When we first considered taking The Leadership Summit global, we wondered if the talks of speakers like Michael Porter, Jim Collins, or Bill Hybels were really relevant to people in countries that seem less developed than ours. To our amazement, we learned that they feel this kind of teaching is just as relevant and helpful to them as it is to us. We heard that from church leaders in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe, and thus we ventured out, now offering the Summit to audiences in 78 cities and 31 countries around the world. Everywhere we go, feedback from attenders tells us that the teaching of the Summit greatly helps meet their significant need for leadership development.

To make this possible requires a lot of financial support. Not only can many audiences not afford to pay much ($7 a person in some countries), the cost for renting the required equipment is often much higher than it is here in the U.S. A low fee, combined with the high cost of equipment, and often the need to support travel expenses makes this a challenge to bring the event to many cities. That's where the leaders’ offering comes in.

Most people who attend the Summit in North America are greatly blessed, equipped, and encouraged, and for a few dollars, we can enable leaders in parts of the world that are less well off to have the same opportunity. Although this was the first time that an offering was taken at the North American Summit sites, offerings have always been taken at all the global Summit sites. Originally we had not planned to collect an offering in economically challenged countries, but the attenders there strongly objected. A leader in one of those countries told me, "How can we not bless people who are even worse off than we are to have this experience after we have been blessed as much as we have through this event?" We collected $2,800 at that Summit site, where the average pastor salary is only about $100 per month. Through the offering that we took on the Saturday of the Summit, we hope to enable tens of thousands of people to experience this event and to become better leaders for the sake of the gospel.

Do you know anyone who has attended the Global Leadership Summit? Have you? We would love to hear about your experience.

Many of you have been asking about Fast Forward - the video segment from Bill's opening session of the Summit. Fast Forward is a fusion of poetry and music and image to explore and celebrate the dream of the Church - Past, Present, & Future. Its infectious beat still resonates in my heart and I can't get two different phrases from it out of my head... A call to unity and inclusion amongst all Christians - "you're one of us, come kneel with us, come pray with us" and a call to the church to get beyond itself - "I want to believe in a Church with its doors flung open wide, running full tilt outside, down every alley, into the valleys."

For these words and for this experience we have Greg Ferguson and his team to thank. We're honored to have Greg tell us more about "Fast Forward" here and the heart behind it. Here now, are Greg's thoughts:

Hey friends-- It’s fascinating how a person can take an honest look at the history of the Church, with its flaws, dramas, heroes and tragedies, and end up loving it more, and wanting to invest more fully in getting its future right.

That was my experience as I wrote the 13 minute video called Fast Forward.

The idea was to paint a brief picture through spoken word/street poetry of how the Holy Spirit kept the Church alive and kicking through the best and worst of times.

As Randy Warren and our team assembled images from the past and present, and pored over ancient art and architecture that must have made even the angels sigh, and composer Pat Yacono figured out how to best underscore this sweeping story, we were struck by something else...

..how awfully human the Church has been since its beginning two millenia ago.

At the same time we saw unmistakable divine guidance and preserving activity. God has had such mercy on this beat-up, flawed institution!

And there was a side effect. The thing about the story of the Church is, it’s a mirror. As I was writing this piece, I came face to face once again with my own dark flaws, how unheroic my life is, and how much I need God’s mercy.

Speaking for the team that put Fast Forward together, I just want to tell you how moved we are by your response to the video.

And we hope that, God willing, it’s helped make you fall a little deeper in love with the Church...

Ray again here - We'd love to hear from you! What was your experience of Fast Forward? Does it's message resonate with you? Any questions for the folks who put it together?

Much of my life and ministry have been profoundly influenced and shaped by Bill Hybels and Brian McLaren. Bill Hybels inspired in me an Acts 2 vision for what the church is supposed to be that has haunted and blessed me since my very first day of ministry almost fifteen years ago. Brian McLaren's words and example have helped me understand the radical shifts our world is undergoing and have given me hope that a new kind of Christian can do a new kind of good in the world -- and somehow, none of that is new. 

I love that in the Kingdom, leaders as different as Bill Hybels and Brian McLaren are brothers and co-laborers. Don’t miss Brian’s upcoming Everything Must Change Tour next year, and don’t miss his thoughtful response to Bill’s unforgettable session here:

Bill Hybels’ closing session on inspiration was beautifully book-ended by an inspiring father-son team, Patrick John and Patrick Henry Hughes, and Kirk Franklin's unparalleled musical inspiration. Even by satellite or download, the energy and emotion in the room in South Barrington were palpable.

During Bill's talk, I kept thinking of Nehemiah's powerful words (8:10), "The joy of the Lord is your strength." Simple words, but amazingly powerful. What Bill called motivation and inspiration could, I think, also be rendered as joy. And the ten practices by which Bill has been able to sustain his own motivation for over thirty years (no small accomplishment!) could be seen as facets of practicing joy: the joy of knowing God, the joy of being called by God and gifted by God, the joy of being surrounded with a cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1-2) -- inspiring people past and present, the joy of creatureliness (acknowledging that we have a body which requires exercise, which responds to its environment, which benefits from recreation, and so on).

Last year was the one-hundredth anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival that launched the Pentecostal movement, which most would agree is the single most important spiritual phenomenon since the Reformation. Putting weaknesses of the movement aside (after all, the very best religious movements have plenty of weaknesses), I think we could agree that Pentecostals know what Nehemiah was talking about. There is the strength of Pentecostal joy that many of us have seen in slums and squatter areas, in storefront churches in disadvantaged urban areas, and in megachurches in the suburbs too: it is the strength of joy that enables us to prevail against the odds and rise above the obstacles and endure the suffering -- including the special suffering that often comes to those who lead.

Isn't it fascinating that joy is commanded again and again in Scripture (for example, Philippians 4:4)? This is a way, I think, of telling us that joy can in fact be practiced, and that realization was the heart of Bill's message. If you're a leader, like David you have to learn to "encourage yourself in the Lord." You have to learn to practice joy.

Let me offer several short reflections on four specific points in Bill's talk, relating them to this command to rejoice in the Lord always (and again, I say, rejoice!).

1. Bill told a story about the torture of futility -- moving piles of dirt from here to there, and then back here again. He contrasted futility with the joy of knowing our calling. This joy, I think, is the original joy of creation: the joy of being co-laborers with God, colleagues in God's ongoing creative project. In a real sense, the joy that motivates God in creating the universe, in guiding its unfolding each new day, in showering it with possibilities and inviting the whole universe to move according to God's good pleasure … this is a joy into which we can enter, whether we're a stay-at-home-mom, a high school math teacher, a filmmaker, a business executive, or a pastor. We enter into God's creative joy through our unique calling. Hallelujah!
2. Bill spoke in several different ways about exposing ourselves to people with contagious joy. I thought of the Proverb (13:20) that talks about carefully choosing our companions because that choice helps form our identity. Whether it's the colleagues we hire, the historic heroes we learn about through biographies, the speakers and artists we encounter at special events (like the Summit), the EIP's (exceptionally inspiring people) we go out of our way to be with ... the choice to be around joyful people is a choice to become a joyful person. I am thinking now (I hope you'll do the same) of the people in my life who bring me joy, and I'm thanking God.
3. Three of Bill's practices for maintaining inspiration and motivation relate to our humanity: exercise, environment, and recreation (items 7, 8, and 9). It's so easy for us to forget that God made us with bodies that need exercise and sleep and nutritious food (and the ability to say no to still more tortilla chips, my personal dietary nemesis). It's so easy to forget that God also made water and mountains and songbirds and snow and coral reefs and beaches and forests -- as Paul says, "all things richly to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17) -- and that our joy will be less if we don't take time to experience these God-given joy enhancers. This, by the way, is something Bill has modeled so positively through the years -- his love of boating has given so many of us more permission to be human beings with hobbies and interests instead of human doings with nothing but duties and to-do lists.
4. Bill concluded his review of joy-practices by emphasizing the importance of personal spiritual disciplines, and I was struck by the reason he implied for these disciplines. They aren't a kind of "I'm holier than average" score card for Bill, but instead, they're a way for him to hear the voice of God, to stay sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He recounted a story of a recent touch by the Spirit (after picking up a stomach bug in India, and consequently being sick in an Australian hotel room). The disciplines, he implied, are valuable in large part because they help make space in our hearts for God to draw near to us and let us know we are "sought after," beloved, accepted, known. This is a joy that neither Bill nor any of us can completely describe because it "passes understanding." As the Psalm says (Psalm 16:11): "You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; In your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Many of us are tempted to rewrite Nehemiah's words:
In success and achievement is our strength.
In knowledge and superior understanding is our strength.
In correctness and argumentative ability is our strength.
In conflict avoidance and playing it safe is our strength.
In financial prosperity and security is our strength.

But none of these is an improvement on the original: The joy of the Lord is our strength. May we savor the God-given power of joy, inspiration, motivation. It is the motion that fuels e-motion and puts us into motion. Thank God for the infusion of joy that so many have experienced through The Leadership Summit 2007.

Dave Ferguson is back to share another session reaction, and once again, he displays his expertise at working through complexity and getting down to the simple and essential truths.

 

That's exactly the power that Dave shares in his latest book, The Big Idea. Dave knows that churches can bombard people with so many little ideas that they can miss the big idea. Many church leaders can't stop talking about how this book has changed their outlook and is beginning to make a difference in their churches. You can learn more about Dave, Community Christian Church (where he is the senior pastor), or New Thing (a network for church planting and multi-site churches) on his blog Velocity. Dave's reflections on Bill Hybels' fascinating interview with President Jimmy Carter clearly communicates his key takeaway: how every leader needs a place to go home to.  By this time, many of you are well on your way home, back to normal life after this mountain-top conference experience. With that in mind, I think you'll find this reflection especially applicable:

Leaders are change agents. Leaders live to challenge the status quo. Leaders' gifting calls them to bring transformation. We know this. Jimmy Carter's track record of failures and great successes as a leader is well documented. He was a change agent for peace in the Middle East. He challenged the status quo of prejudice and racial discrimination. He continues to bring transformation to homeless families through Habitat for Humanity and to entire countries through the Carter Center. Carter jokes, "You might say that I have gone too far ... I'm still here." But perhaps one of the big lessons that I took away from Jimmy Carter is that a leader also needs a place to "go home"to.

 

A Town to Come Home To

I have been to Plains, Ga., and I think Jimmy kind of oversold it in the interview. Why?  It's his hometown. It's the place where he grew up, and it's the place where he lives till this day. There is something compelling about a leader who is so comfortable with himself that he doesn’t have to "move up," but can still live among the same common people with whom he grew up. And you get the sense from former President Carter that Plains was not only the place he grew up, but also a place where he could come home to, and rather than being President Carter, he was "Hot" or "Jimmy."  Maybe we leaders all need a place to come home to.  

 

A Family to Come Home To
How many leaders finish a lifetime not only as a successful leader but also as a successful family man? Not many? I admire any leader who can find the rhythm of life and not only be a significant change agent, but also love the same woman for all his days. Jimmy and Rosalyn were married 61 years ago in 1946. That is something I admire and that I want to emulate. Even in his toughest hour, when the hostages were not going to be released during his Presidency, his concern was for his wife who seemed to be taking it emotionally even harder than he was. Could it be that having a family to come home to is what brought Carter the strength to be the greatest ex-President our country has known? Or could it be that serving the same family over a lifetime has made him the great leader that he not was but still is till this day?  

 

A Faith to Come Home To
When Jimmy stood before the world to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, he said much the same thing that he has been saying in the Sunday school class for over half a decade, "I worship Jesus Christ, who we Christians consider the Prince of Peace."  This faith informed his values as President, businessman, and citizen that insisted on peace and hated war; that insisted on reconciliation and rejected discrimination; that followed Jesus Christ and said that he is the way.  Shifting values to accommodate popularity always leaves me wondering where a leader will stand next, but Carter has a faith he always comes home to.  And that faith informs the direction of his life and leadership. 

Former President Carter is one of those people who is comfortable in his own skin. You get the feeling that whether he is front of kings or picking peanuts this guy is the same. It shows up in his self-deprecating humor: "When I told my mom that I was going to run for President, my Mom said, 'President of what?'" It shows up in how comfortable he is with his failures, like being the catalyst for the best-selling Playboy of all time, and his successes, like bringing peace to Israel between Egypt. Jimmy Carter knows who he is, where he is from, who he belongs to, what he believes, and where home is. Leaders need a place to come home to. Jimmy Carter reminds me why. 

At Willow, we are honored to know and occasionally get to collaborate with guest blogger Chris Brooks. He is a redemptive force in a world where bridges fail. He is passionate about connecting, training, and developing emerging Christian leaders. He is the national coordinator of UrbNet for the National Network of Youth Ministries and has worked with youth and families in an inner-city context for more than 10 years. He is also an active blogger and contributed to Shift Now!, the online experience of Willow's 2007 Shift Conference.   Chicago recently lost a great leader in Chris when he moved back to Minneapolis after serving as the pastor of family life at River City Community Church, a multi-cultural community of hope, where Daniel Hill, former Axis staff member at Willow, is the senior pastor. Chris does a fantastic job capturing the essence of John Ortberg's session and asking questions each of us needs to wrestle with: 

In his opening comments, John Ortberg made the following statement: “Leaders aren't supposed to be victims of fear; they are supposed to be objects of fear.” Truly, we live in a day and in a culture where leadership is seen primarily as being hard-nosed and driving results. In the vast sea of expectations and metrics, leaders dare not show any hints of weakness nor signs of a failure to produce. Often, a poker face is deemed a competitive advantage as a leader. As John went down the list of fears that many leaders face: fear of failure, fear of mutiny, fear of criticism, fear of disappointing people, etc., I felt myself identifying with each of these fears at a very deep and personal level. Some of them I have been acutely aware of. One of them I had to own up to today during this session. Ouch. Leadership development can be painful. 

Yet the BIG ONE -- a leader's GREATEST fear -- was something foreign to me. It sounded strange, until I began to reflect on my own "shadow side" and to wonder what that "dark and self-centered" part of me has been up to. As John so eloquently suggested, it is not the external fears (how others perceive or treat us) that are the roots.  Dangerous, yes. But these are merely unhealthy outgrowths. The root is what happens INSIDE: our "shadow mission." Once this concept began to sink in, I retraced my steps through the past several years of organizational leadership and saw the fingerprints of my "Mr. Shadow" all over my life. I saw his work in my vocational pursuits. I saw his work in my relationships. I saw him causing problems in my marriage. He even had influence (I am sad to admit) in my parenting. Yes, we all have a shadow side. I am not exempt. Be honest: neither are you. 

What encouraged me was when John gave wise counsel on how to identify and fight against this unhealthy part of ourselves. Like Esther, we all need wise advisors. Who is my Mordecai? A powerful question, yet not an easy one for me to answer. It is not that I lack wise people who will shoot straight with me. On the contrary, I have a healthy cadre of men and women who take great liberty to share their thoughts and criticisms with me. My problem? I often lack courage. OK ... I said it. I lack courage. I have too often allowed myself to talk quickly and listen quickly. Courage, I learned today, means to talk when necessary and listen vigorously -- especially to my designated "wise ones." It is my hope that utilizing these human resources that have been placed in my life will allow me, like Esther, to act with courage and integrity. "And if I perish, I perish." 

What about you? Did you meet your Mr. or Ms. Shadow in reflection after this session?  Were you able to objectively assess your business/organization/church/ministry/division/team for its shadow mission? How will you address what you uncovered?

I had a chance to visit Craig Groeschel's church, LifeChurch.tv, last year before his talk at the A2 Conference. When I met Craig, I was struck by how passionate and focused he was. His willingness to take risks and try new things in sharing the gospel was unbelievable. It felt like he would literally do anything to help somebody know Jesus, even risking what other people thought of him.

Craig will be a speaker at next year’s Leadership Summit because of his strong entrepreneurial leadership at LifeChurch.tv, where he and his team has accomplished what no other church has, pulling together teams in 12 locations in six states and leading the way in online ministry. Just recently, Craig and his team launched You Version, a new Web site that promises to bring Scripture, collaboration, and community together in a whole new way.

I’m happy to post his reflections on Bill Hybels’ interview with President Jimmy Carter.

Some friends from Willow invited me to blog on my spiritual perspectives from Bill Hybels’ interview with President Jimmy Carter. I’ll focus on what I considered very positive points and summarize how the interview impacted me.
 
I was immediately moved by President Carter’s humility and willingness to admit to mistakes. He talked openly about his negative interview with Playboy magazine, his dismissal of cabinet members, and his challenges with the failed rescue attempt of American hostages. Some might quickly point to many more of his failures, but I appreciated his transparency.
 
I was moved by President Carter’s passion for racial reconciliation and for helping the poor. His famous quote was inspiring to watch on old video footage when he boldly declared, “I say to you, quite frankly, that the time for racial discrimination is over.”
 
This battle for unity and peace seems to be a sincere reflection of President Carter’s faith in Christ. He expressed concern that most churches are still incredibly segregated. This must break the heart of God. His passion on this subject should be a great motivator for Christian leaders everywhere.
 
When Bill asked President Carter what he saw as one of the world’s greatest challenges, he replied, “The growing gap between the rich and the poor.” While his opinion is debatable, we have to acknowledge it is a colossal challenge.
 
I was moved by his statement (and I’m paraphrasing), “It is inconvenient to break out of our cocoons every person builds.” He explained how we want to be around people who are like us. Those who think like us, dress like us, worship like us. The word “inconvenient” jumped out at me.
 
Jesus often calls us to do things that are inconvenient. Laying down our lives is inconvenient. Serving others is inconvenient. Selling everything to give to the poor … inconvenient.
 
President Carter’s zeal for helping the poor through Habitat for Humanity reflects his willingness to be inconvenienced to serve those who are in need.
 
I know some people who openly criticized Willow for interviewing President Carter. I don’t know any of them who have done even a fraction of what he’s done for the poor.
 
God, inconvenience us all for your glory.

Now back to you … share with us what “inconvenient” thing God is calling you to do.

Efrem Smith is an anointed leader and preacher. His thoughts and sermons drop like truth bombs. He has a prophet's passion and calling to be about reconciliation between people, between races, and the Church. Because of our friendship and partnership with Efrem, because we have sat under his teaching and have heard his heart, Willow is both one step closer to being the Blessed Community God calls us to be and more aware than ever of how far we have to go .

Pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Efrem serves his community in many ways. But, he also serves the Kingdom at large, as a member of Youth Specialties’s CORE seminar training team of and as a speaker with Kingdom Building Ministries. We were blessed to have him with us this spring sharing with the leaders at SHIFT, Willow’s Student Ministry Leadership Conference. Efrem also hosts the radio program, “A Time for Reconciliation” and is author of the book, “Raising-up Young Heroes.”

Here’s a truth bomb from Efrem and the Spirit.

The Ability to Take Flight
 
As I listened to the words of Richard Curtis, I saw this picture of the church in my mind…a large plane going down a runway preparing for take off. This picture must have been taking place at the O'Hare Airport in Chicago, because I could also see a line of planes waiting in line on the same runway to take off. Each plane, including the one moving at a fast pace on the runway, is full of people. A diversity of people: gifted, resourced, each with unique skills and abilities. The major issue, and I know that this sounds crazy, is that the plane moving down the runway at a very fast pace is not lifting up off the ground and taking off into the sky. It's a dangerous thought that a plane could be going down a runway and never take off. Though not as much a dangerous thought there are those planes just sitting there on the runway not moving at all. As I continued to listen to Richard Curtis and Bill Hybels, I felt in my spirit that this picture of these large airplanes where a picture of the church when it comes to addressing issues of poverty, disparities, and multi-ethnicity in the world.
 
Now, I want to say right now, is that in no way do I want to paint a picture that the church is doing nothing. I'm moved on a regular basis by hearing stories of how churches are making an impact in various places on the continent of Africa as well as other places around the globe. Yet, I still couldn't get away from this, at least for me, crazy image of the church being these airplanes on a runway either moving at a fast pace with the dangerous thought of never taking off or sitting on the runway stuck in line with no immediate timeline for moving down the runway and then no guarantee of taking off.
 
I believe like airplanes at an airport there are a number of churches of various sizes with people in them. People that God desires to use to impact lives and transform communities. Some churches are busy just running down a runway of programmatic ministry. Others are like planes that are stuck in line on the runway. There's someone up front giving out information, letting people know the reasons why there not moving yet. Then there are the planes that are still at the gate with mechanical problems, and then the ones that haven't arrived yet. When it comes to the church making an impact in an ever-increasing multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and urbanized world there are many Christ-centered communities that are not taking off, stuck on the runway, still at the gate with mechanical problems, or delayed for some reason.
 
Okay, I've been working this picture/metaphor for awhile now, what am I really trying to say is: For me, as an African-American Senior Pastor of an Urban and Multi-Ethnic Church, I struggle with why the church (especially in the United States of America) is not better prepared to engage a world which still struggles with issues of class, race, poverty, and sickness. Again, I would never want to come across as if the church is doing nothing, because this is not the case, but the division which exist in the North American church across race, denomination, urban/suburban, and class has to me a direct impact on our ability to address poverty and injustice.
 
When sociologists want to prove that there is still a race issue in our country that actually point to the Christian community. Can you believe that? They often say, "Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America." Wow!! We as the body of Christ are used to proclaim that there is still racial division in America. This issue is directly related to our ability to address poverty in the world. Why would I say this? Well, in Minneapolis, Minnesota where I pastor, there was a report that was recently released called, "Mind the Gap." This report told stories and gave statistics that showed that by percentage Minnesota just about leads the nation in class, place, and race disparities in areas such as employment, education, health-care, and housing. There is still a deep connection between poverty and race.

Now think back to the videos shown during the interview between Bill Hybels and Richard Curtis. I think in all of them, the poor people were black and brown, the people wearing red noses, going to visit the poor people, and the two men discussing all this were white. Now picture this: even though we've come a long, long way black, brown, and white people still don't get together like God would desire us to in corporate worship and mission. But as Richard Curtis said, I have a "passion about optimism." I also believe that as pastors we ought to be, "guiding the vision" of reconciliation, healing, justice, and transformation.

I hope you don't read within this blog cynicism and anger. I really believe with all of my heart that the church can be used by God to bring about the Beloved Community around the world. I just believe that more work should be done in becoming the Beloved Church as well. We cannot ignore the connection between poverty, race, class, and the need for a Christ-centered, multi-ethnic, and reconciling community. The Beloved Church will produce the Beloved Community around the world. We can't afford for the church to be stuck at the gate, on the runway, of just running at dangerous speeds unable to take off.

Ray back again with some questions for you. First, how do you respond to Efrem’s words and heart?

Second. Efrem concludes his post by saying “more work should be done,” and I couldn’t agree more. But here’s what I want to know, what is the “work” that you can or will do? What step or steps can you or your church take towards becoming the Beloved Community?

We've invited Shauna Niequist to be a guest blogger for John Ortberg's session on A Leader's Greatest Fear. It's no surprise that one of Shauna's favorite books is Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies. Shauna & Anne share a real-world love of life and of Jesus that is compelling and wonderfully artsy and free. She shares with her father (a senior pastor from Barrington, Illinois you may have heard of) an undeniable gift of leadership and belief that the church can be all that God first intended. Yet, Shauna's voice, as you will read, is all her own .

Shauna worked in Student Ministries at Willow Creek for five years and as the Creative Director at Mars Hill in Grand Rapids, MI for three years. In the last year, she has become a mother to Henry, turned 30, celebrated her fifth wedding anniversary to Aaron, and written her first book, Cold Tangerines, coming this fall. You can read several chapters from at her website at shaunaniequist.com.

Here are Shauna’s reflections on John’s session:

During some of my most formative years as a Christian, John Ortberg’s pastoral voice was one of the most important in my life. I have hundreds of memories of the stories and ideas and challenges he offered to me and to my friends. We hung on his words, talked about them, and digested them hungrily.

In the same way that hearing a certain song takes us very precisely back to place we were when we heard it last, John’s voice, literally and metaphorically, will always remind me of that season. We were fresh from college, in our first ministry jobs, idealistic and wound up, and ready to take the world and the church by storm. His words anchored us and traveled down to deep places in our hearts.

In addition to being our pastor, John is our friend. Six years ago this month, John officiated our wedding, on a very hot evening on Michigan Avenue, and the sound of his voice will always remind me as well of that day. My friendship with John’s wife, Nancy, has been one of the most influential of my life, and there have been many points in the story of my life where Nancy’s words and example have made a profound difference.

All that to say, it feels familiar and significant to be sitting under John’s teaching today…even the jokes about my dad’s...frugality. Since the time that I regularly sat under John’s teaching, life has surprised me over and over. We moved to a new town and a new church, with all the challenges and adventures that go along with new homes and new roles. I’ve become a mother, written a book, and weathered a ministry disappointment that shocked me in its intensity.

I listened, back then, to John’s words, but I am listening with an entirely new intensity today. I was all ideas and ideals then, all potential, all passion. Now, almost ten years later, I hope that I’m a realist without being a cynic, but I’m not always sure I know the line that divides them. I am cautious which might be a euphemism for fearful. I’m listening.

The term “Shadow Mission” feels heavy, like a lump in my throat, like a rock landing with a thunk. Before even the definition, I think each of our own Shadow Missions flash before our eyes, whether we’re willing to admit it to ourselves, let alone anyone else. I know in an instant what mine is. Do you?

The Shadow Mission is the authentic mission hijacked by my ego and my woundedness. If John’s is “talkative boy wins acclaim,” mine is something along the lines of “funny girl eats, drinks, and is merry.”

At my worst, I’m a bad stand-up comic/short order cook/tap dancing monkey who glosses over the realities of life in favor of keeping the party going and keeping the laughs coming. I want life to be a wide-open celebration, each day shimmering and glowing with life and beauty…but ten degrees off from that makes me frantic and shallow and disconnected from pain, my own and anyone else’s. Because I know this about myself, I work hard at, well, working hard. I practice silence and writing and pursue deep conversations, not because those things are natural to me, but because I need them like I need vitamins to keep me healthy.

One of God’s greatest gifts to me is that I have several Mordecai voices in my life. My husband and the men and women in our house church are on to me every time I tiptoe over to that lesser, shallower version of myself. They look me in the eye, and tell me to get back to work, to get back to depth, truth telling, and focus, to get back to life as I was meant to live it. Thank God for them. Who is Mordecai in your life?

What can you do today that will take power from that Shadow Mission? What ways of living will keep you close to God’s dream for your life and increasingly far from the seduction of the Shadow Mission? What conversations could you have even today that could make things right, even if they haven’t been right, inside of you or at your church or in your marriage, for a long time?

What person comes to mind as John talks about the pastor that isn’t here this year? Is there someone in your community whose life is littered with warning signs and red flags? Are you willing to be a voice of honesty in his or her life?

Or are there things that people have been trying to tell you for years that you’ve chosen not to accept? As you scroll through hard conversations you may have dismissed in the moment, are there patterns you’d rather not see, but in the quiet moments, recognize as true? Is there a shadow you’ve been unwilling to face?

 

 

 

Coming out of the Richard Curtis interview, my mind is racing. Bill's comments, Brian McLaren's thoughts...not to mention what I feel God is saying to me. There are so many things we can do, so many things our churches can do and/or re-think. And some of that takes time, time to think through your strategy and plan on how to make a true long-term difference. If you are looking for just one step you could take now, then I encourage you, if you are a U.S. citizen, to check out the ONE campaign. It is something each person can do from their own computer. It takes no money, just a few minutes on your computer to explain to the people that represent you in our government where you would like your money spent. 

Please take a moment or two and read this post from our friends at the ONE campaign:

Hi, this is Aaron Banks from the ONE Campaign sending out a big hello to everyone at Willow Creek Leadership Summit 2007 from all of us at the ONE Campaign. ONE is a nationwide movement of 2.4 million Americans working as ONE to take on the great moral challenge of our time, the fight against extreme global poverty and disease. 

Your motto, Lead Where You Are, gets right at what the ONE Campaign does. We’re asking Americans from all walks of life and in all places to be leaders on these issues. To challenge their friends and neighbors to see the plight of the billion people living in poverty around the globe not as a burden, but as a chance to act out our belief that we are all our brother’s keeper. 

In just a few years, ONE members have had tremendous success and shown what committed people working together can accomplish. Together we’ve sent thousands of e-mails to Congress, asking for full funding for the fight against global disease and extreme poverty. In June and July 2007, the House and Senate appropriated over $2 billion in poverty-fighting development assistance over last year -- a historic increase. Last fall ONE members delivered over 250,000 letters to Capitol Hill, requesting that Congress help up to 300,000 Africans make a living through renewal of a special trade provision within the African Growth and Opportunity Act called the “third country fabric provision.” Congress responded and extended the trade provision until 2012, securing jobs for tens of thousands of hard-working men and women in some of the poorest countries of Africa. And in 2005, ONE generated over 500,000 e-letters to President Bush asking for a historic deal for Africa. In response, President Bush and other world leaders promised $25 billion more for Africa and $50 billion more globally by 2010.

I hope you’ll visit www.one.org and join the ONE campaign. 

I’ll leave you with a few words from the sermon our founder Bono gave at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2006:

“God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. ‘If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places.”’

We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than 2 million Americans, left and right together, united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live or whether you die.

If any of you are already part of ONE, let us all know what your experience is!

Brian McLaren is out to change the world. In 2008, he is launching the "Everything Must Change" tour based on his newest book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope. In it, he calls people to a deep shift in their thinking about faith, church life, mission, ministry, art, justice, leadership, community, and worship. As an author, speaker, pastor, and networker, Brian McLaren's leadership and influence are evident .

On a more personal note, I met Brian McLaren at Willow Creek a few years ago. At that point, I had read Brian’s books, knew of his work with Emergent, and was just looking forward to hearing him in person. He has a way of making you re-think things and isn’t that what great leaders do ... always push for change. 

Surprisingly, I got the chance to talk with him myself and was disarmed by how present he was in the conversation. What I took away from that moment wasn’t so much the content of the conversation but how he paid attention to being in the now. I’m so glad that you’ll get to hear his thoughts.

So, here are Brian’s reflections:

This session of the Leadership Summit may have been historic. 

Bill Hybels called his interview with Richard Curtis "very disturbing," and it takes disturbing messages to change history.

We'd all agree the interview was fascinating and powerful. But the conclusions Bill drew pushed "fascinating and powerful" up to the edge of disturbing, and then over it. Bill articulated the irony that all of us felt: Here is a comic film-maker who hasn't "put the pieces of faith together" yet, who is caring for people in poverty (for whom God cares greatly!) more than any of us who may claim to have the pieces of put together.

Bill said it well: An unmistakable mark of followers of Christ is that they care for the poor, yet often it is people who don't call themselves Christians who bear this mark, and people who call themselves Christians -- even Christian leaders -- don't.

[Side questions: Have any of us really put the pieces of our faith together so well? Are we really as different from Richard Curtis as we might think? Might we have some pieces of the puzzle put together better than he, but he has some pieces put together way better than we do?]

Bill said, "The older I get, the more this bothers me," and I feel the same way. In my thirties, I think, I was trying to "make it" as a pastor. I needed a big church -- or at least one that was bigger than it was last year -- yes, because I wanted to serve God and fulfill the Great Commission, but also (recalling John Ortberg's powerful words earlier about our "shadow mission") because I needed to be significant, a winner in the pastor game, the leadership game, whatever.

Something happens in the forties and fifties, though. If we achieve the goals we set in our younger years, we wonder if that's all there is. And if we don't reach our goals, if we resign ourselves to the fact that we'll never be a star, we wonder what we'll be and do instead.
Either way, we reach a point of possibility, of choosing a higher road.

A friend of mine provides a wonderful example. His promising start as a pastor had a tragic end. He planted a church that grew, but then his child was molested by a church member and the church supported the member more than their pastor and his family. My friend left to work for another church where he soon ended up on the wrong side of a turf battle and was squeezed out. All his dreams of pastoral glory had turned to dirt. But I saw my friend a few months ago, and something has happened to him. From his terrible pain and disappointment in the pastorate, a resurrection has happened.

A few years ago, he somehow ended up visiting a desperately poor place in another country. He was touched there by God, and he began doing what he could to help the people there. He has a day job now back in the U.S., but he is constantly raising funds and recruiting people to go there on mission trips several times a year with him, building houses, attending to health care needs, simply doing what they can to show God's love to people in need. He told me, "Before I die, I want to touch every person in this poor community with the love of God."  When he said this, there was a light in his eyes, that spark that identifies someone who is on a mission from God. You'll probably never know this guy's name. He won't write books or be asked to speak at conferences, but I can't help but think what a waste it would have been for him to succeed at being a "big name pastor" and miss the chance to join God serving among the poor.

Scripture makes it so clear that the injustice of poverty is a key concern to God. Micah's summary of what really matters to God implies it: doing justice and loving compassion are put on par with walking humbly with God. And Jesus' example and teaching overflow with it, even though we are often amazingly "good" at minimizing or avoiding this dimension of Jesus' good news -- which, according to Luke 4, was especially directed to the poor. We miss how, for example, when Jesus called the rich young ruler, he was calling him to join Jesus in his mission to the poor. We miss what it is that lands another rich man in hell, according to Luke 16:19 ff. That may mess up our normal theological categories, but there it is.

Since my life and plans were disrupted by a new understanding of "good news to the poor," I often speak about this inescapable dimension of Scripture. Almost without fail when I do, someone will respond by quoting Jesus against Jesus, so to speak. By quoting Matthew 26:11, "The poor you will have with you always," they seem to feel they've raised a Scriptural shield against the brute power of the message Bill Hybels and Richard Curtis brought today.

Although Matthew 26:11 may be used to dodge the call to get seriously involved in justice for the poor, it proves a flimsy shield when we realize that Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 15. The rest of the sentence Jesus quotes -- I'm sure he wasn't ignorant of it! -- goes like this (15:11): "Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land." If that weren't bad enough, we also can notice that the first half of this sentence -- that there will always be poor among us -- is in dynamic tension with a sentence earlier in the chapter (15:4), which says, "However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land your God is giving you he will richly bless you." In other words, if there are poor, it's not because God didn't provide enough for everyone; it's because we didn't distribute what God provided. (That could be a good sermon.)

We so often miss this theme again and again as it surfaces throughout the New Testament. For example, in Galatians, an epistle that celebrates the precious truth that we're saved by grace, not works, it's so easy to gloss over Paul's words (2:10): "They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do."

I loved Bill's question: "Can you leverage what you do well to rectify this injustice of poverty?" For the many pastors and other church leaders at the event, this is a powerful question. How can our preaching, teaching, counseling, budgeting, planning, and goal-setting be used to address the injustice of poverty the way Richard Curtis has used film and television work?

I wasn't surprised to hear Richard say that what motivated him to care for the poor was the Sermon on the Mount. I couldn't help but think that the "red nose day" that he has helped create in England may be more in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount than our normal Christmas celebrations! He said the Sermon on the Mount was the "truest thing" he had ever read, and I wondered, maybe simply preaching or teaching the Sermon on the Mount would be one thing pastors and other Christian leaders could do to help their congregations move in the direction of the call we heard today. The challenge would be not to tame the Sermon on the Mount down, not to tame it to fit into our normal boxes. The challenge would be to let it be free to disturb us.

Bill said, "I'm calling every single one of you to a life like that. I dream of the day when it's normal for every church to take justice matters seriously" I can only say amen.

If we respond to what we've heard today, if we let this “very disturbing” message disturb us right out of our comfort zones, shadow missions, and status quo, then Richard's dream and Bill's dream could come true, and we could make history by making poverty have a smaller place in the history of our future. And I think Jesus would say, “That's my dream too. Thanks for being part of it.”

So, now it is your turn. What would you say disturbed you most? What are you rethinking? Let us in on your process.

 

 

We're back with Kirk Franklin to kick off the last session of the 2007 Leadership Summit. What an amazing experience the last two days have been! I can't wait to hear how Bill wraps it all up. We've loved your comments and engagement with the Online Experience so far...Let us know your thoughts as we experience this closing session together .

Check back here for related links that we'll be adding during the session, and don't forget to explore the multitude of links, resources, and next steps available on the sessions-in-depth pages.

Patrick Henry Hughes

1 Samuel 30:6

1 Corinthians 12

Network Leaders Guide

Ken Blanchard

John Maxwell Injoy

The Orchard Church, Tupelo Mississippi

Special Friends Fishing Derby

Isaiah 62:12

Romans 8:1

Romans 8:31

Ritz Carlton Hotels

Willow Creek Community Church Grounds Team

Wikipedia entry for Frederick Herzberg

Herzberg's 2 Factor Hygeine and Motivation Theory

Acts 2:42-47

Gilbert Bilezikian Christianity Today Article November 13, 2000

Service Builder Willow Creek Easter Service 2007