The Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit was superb. Every session was special, and there is much for the staff at St Silas' to work through over the next few months. Personally, the Lord reminded me (again), that 'my' ministry is my family. I need to hear that and act upon it. One of the speakers told his church he would give them 45 hours a week and that was it. Three people came up to me after that talk (none of whom were St Silasites) and said, "So what are you going to do to get your hours down to 45?". What did they mean? Don't they know that I only work on a Sunday? Mmmm, I'll need to think very seriously about that too. Don't you just love having your lifestyle challenged?
It was also good to catch up with a number of old friends, including someone I was at school with (Jon), who is now an associate pastor with his wife Fiona, at Liberty Church in Dunfermline. We came to faith in Jesus around the same time (1980), and went to the same youth group. Aaah, the good old days!
Bono's interview with Bill Hybels was a highlight, interspersed as it was with concert footage fron the Vertigo tour and the eighties movie, Rattle and Hum. What shone through was Bono's growing appreciation that the Church is the hope of the world and as such it can be an agent of change in the battles against debt and Aids. He was speaking to 70,000 pastors through the GLS, and he obviously felt that he was potentially influencing many millions of people around the world. Yet, I felt at various points that he might be holding back what he really thought about the Church, in order to leverage as much support as he could. That said, it was an uplifting and challenging presentation.
Next year its being held in Stirling again 12th-13th October. If you are involved in leading a church in any way, it's well worth attending, so put those dates in your diary.
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