For the first time I attended, via satellite, The Global Leadership Summit presented by the Willow Creek Association the past two days. This was Willow’s 20th annual GLS conference and all that I have got to say is, “Hello, what in the world was I thinking the past 19 years by not attending?” This event was so very outstanding and inspiring to say the least.
As the name implies, the conference is for those in leadership. But if you think that you’re not a leader because you don’t run a company or not-for-profit or a ministry – guess what? If God has placed you over a small group, some event, or as head of a family, you need to hone you leadership gift. Now I won’t try to summarize the entire conference here, there’s plenty of resources that are or will soon be available on-line for that, but I would like to mention a couple of my favorite speakers.
Louie Giglio, Patrick Lencioni, Joseph Grenny and Wilfredo de Jesus presented masterfully and earned my top spots. But frankly all the speakers were great and their insight, passion and heart were captivating. Willow Creek’s Chairman, Pastor Bill Hybels, did a phenomenal job as master of ceremonies over all the proceedings and at the end received well-earned credit for his vision and leadership over The Summit these past years.
If you haven’t attended The Summit before, I would highly recommend that you do so in 2015. At the very least, purchase a few of the audio or videos of the presentations when they become available. I would also like to give out a few props to the host site where I attended, River City Community Church. They did an awesome job of making the attendees feel welcome and the experience so valuable. Well OK, that wasn’t totally un-biased, RCCC is my home church too.