The Leadership Summit at Willow Creek

I met up with the gang at Zionsville United Methodist Church. This church, which is very near my sister's house, is one that my classmate, Matt Scholl, served in a previous appointment. The building is beautiful and it was interesting to get an inside glimpse of how the United Methodist Church goes about things. Our guide was a retired Methodist minister who had also served as a District Superintendent (among other duties). I joined the caravan and we all arrived in Chicago. The trip was fine. You'll be happy to know that Northern Indiana remains quite flat!
On our first night some of our crew caught a train to downtown Chicago. I decided to go to Willow Creek's Wednesday night service instead. It is a service designed for members (as opposed to their weekend services that are designed for people who have not yet accepted Christ).

The following picture was taken from a moving vehicle, so it's even worse than usual, but it's a view of the Willow Creek building.

This is their front entrance.

Mike Breaux preached at the Wednesday night service. He did a good job. I was proud of him. Mike used to be a minister in the Christian Church in Las Vegas (where our own John Marr knew him) and in Lexington at Southland Christian Church.

The picture below is the foyer. It isn't as spacious as ours at Grandview, but it's big enough for the good folks at Willow Creek. It has a coffee shop that only serves Fair Trade coffees. When I floated the idea at Grandview it was shot down by the building committee (Craig Hardy!) because they were afraid I would never get to my office.

On Thursday the Summit began.

I received my name badge and discovered that the Willow Creek Association has re-christened me "Asron." They are way more powerful than I thought!During the breaks at leadership conferences cell phones come out like mosquitoes in a swamp.

The speakers were excellent. The Willow Creek Association really knows how to put on a first rate conference. The secular leadership speakers were Jim Collins (author of "Good to Great"), Peg Neuhauser, Patrick Lencioni (author), and a Harvard Business School professor named Ashish Nanda--he was my favorite.

The pastor leadership speakers were Bill Hybels (That's Mr. Willow Creek to you), James Meeks, Andy Stanley, and Wayne Cordeiro. Cordeiro was my favorite. He combined excellent information with top notch speaking skills.


The Summit was worth my time . . . and worth the Beeson Pastor money. . . Especially when you consider the entertainment. Nicole C. Mullens performed, as did some unknown artists with impressive gifts. When artists performed there were usually lots of lights, flash, and noise. My favorite was a harmonica player who moved the whole congregation with his rendition of Amazing Grace. Somehow he made that little harmonica sound like bag-pipes.
And then there was Bono. Hybels showed a taped interview with Bono. Having been a U2 fan since waaaay back in high school, it was a treat to hear Bono talk openly about his faith and his like/hate relationship with the church. I was pleased to hear that Hybels pressed him to take seriously the local church. Bono pressed the rest of us to do what we could for AIDS relief in Africa. If you've followed him in the media you know that he isn't the typical "celebrity jumping on a cause."

He said that celebrity is stupid, but that it was currency. "I'm going to spend mine doing what I can to motivate people to action in Africa." While he talked I appreciated our own Pam and Jerry Headen all the more. There work isn't in Africa, but it's precisely the kind of work Bono was advocating.

When it was all over . . . we debriefed and went to sleep.