To sooth your anger for not providing notes, I’ll provide some photos of the venue we’re attending, Bradfordville Baptist Church.

Additionally, here’s the official Willow Flickr stream of photos.

Here’s the closing prayer Craig used, I believe it was a Fransiscan prayer. Thanks to Kem Meyer for getting it over to me in no time at all!

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitations of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

DEFENDING THE FAITH

• Chuck is old. Perhaps older than Bill Hybels. That’s OLD!
• We have transferred our allegiance from truth to therapy
• A great leader says, like Jesus, follow me…
• If you are a shepherd or leader, your job is not to pander to your people but to lead them into the truth, defend the truth, and proclaim the truth…
• Explaining the law of non-contradiction and taking a shot at the Supreme Court…
• We need to stop blaming culture for everything!
• Someone just cheered in Chicago for gay marriage in California. Did they mishear or get the wrong conference?
• God speaks judgement against the people of God in the OT, not against the culture. Perhaps that is what is happening to us, we’re in Babylonian captivity.
  
• We must continue to contend for the faith that was entrusted to the saints
• Questions in the book?
  • What is Christianity?
    • Conversation? Church? Religion? Relationship with Jesus?
    • It’s all of those things, but it’s so much more than that…
    • It is a way of seeing and living all things through the eyes of God
    • God says “MINE” over every square inch of creation- Kuyper
  • What does it rest on?- Certain truth claims:
    • God is
    • He’s spoken
    • The fall
    • Jesus was incarnate (Chuck just said point three, so I may be off)
      
    • We make an exchange of identities on the cross
    • We are unified in the community. That was Chuck, not Efram Smith.
    • We need to be holy so that our holiness will display the characteristics of the God we follow
    • We live on revealed truth, not the thoughts of men
• We don’t believe in forced conversions. We don’t impose, we propose…
• The first thing people should say about us is how we love and love others

Session over, a little quicker than I thought. Great principles.

IT: HOW LEADERS CAN GET IT AND KEEP IT

• Senior Pastor of LifeChurch.tv
• Craig’s rocking the blazer. He must think it’s Easter or something.
• He’s hyping Efram Smith from yesterday. He’s gonna be the story of the summit.
• Craig is white. We’re told to set our expectations appropriately…
• We’re having to say “IT” quite a bit. If I was less of a man, I would whispering “shhh”
• Some churches just have something different from the moment you walk in, the moment you pull into the parking lot.
• Telling the story of his first time coming to the summit, being overwhelmed with IT, and knowing he didn’t have IT in his life
• He began to pray to God for IT
• “The local church is the hope of the world!”- Hybels
  • When Craig heard that, he believed it, and it caused him to start LifeChurch.tv
• Items in hell- green felt-back chairs…
• They started with an overhead projector. You don’t have to start where they are in terms of technology to get where they are technologically
• They didn’t have all the bells and whistles, but they had IT. They knew Christ, they told their friends about Christ, their friends would meet Christ. They didn’t have what we think we need, that had what they actually needed: IT.
• They have the same elements of corporate worship in all of their locations, but not every campus has IT. They began to ask, what is that intangible?
• It’s too easy to say that it’s “The Holy Spirit,” because to say that other people don’t have it is arrogant and insulting. It was more about the Holy Spirit moving through specific people in specific ways.
• More of their satellites are growing, but the location where he’s preaching live is the only one that’s declining.
• WHAT IS IT??!?!- Don’t know!
  • Pretty sure is has to do with the Holy Spirit
  • For some reason some churches had it more than others
• God makes IT happen
  • We can’t create it, reproduce, manufacture, put it in a bottle
  • Rare that ONE person to bring it, common for the wrong person to kill it
  • Not taught, but caught
  • Not a system, a model
  • Where ever you see IT you see changed lives
  • IT attracts critics and shots at you
  • “You could say ‘IT HAPPENS.’”
• If you have IT, you might not keep it. If you don’t have IT, you can find it!
• The early church had IT: selling possessions to help their friends and family eat. To see that in our American churches!
  
• Acts 2:42-47- Extreme words
  
  • EVERYONE, MANY, ALL, EVERYTHING, ANYONE, EVERY, ALL, DAILY
    • What would it be like to see seven people a day saved
      
• I WANT IT! I WANT MORE OF IT! GIVE IT TO ME!
• Qualities that are there when IT is present:
  • A laser focus
    • Guy told him he had 287 ministries in his church. He didn’t know if he was telling him a joke or needed prayer
    • Less ministries = better ministries
    • To reach people no one is reaching, we have to do things no one is doing. But to do things that no one else is going, we can’t do what everyone is doing! (Author note: Woo!)
    • Six years into the church he woke up and realized he may not need EVERY ministry that he’d created. They were using resources, volunteers, and building on activities that weren’t producing any fruit.
    • They cut everything but five areas:
      • Weekend
      • Small Group
      • Kids’ Ministries
      • Student Ministries
      • Missions
    • Don’t Do: VBS, Concerts, Conference, singles, mens’, womens’, etc. so they have the resources to do to other things like an Internet campus, Second Life, YouVersion
    • What are you doing that you need to stop doing?
      
  • See opportunities where others see obstacles
    
    • There’s every excuse to NOT do something
    • You have everything you need to do the things that God’s called us to do
    • If we don’t have, maybe it’s not what we need to be doing
    • God will guide where he doesn’t provide
    • The lack of space forced them to go mult-site
    • I can’t even describe what just happened. DVD will be the only explanation
    • What is God trying to show you through your greatest limitations?
      
  • They are willing to fail
    
    • Those without tend to play it safe.
    • Failure is not an option. It is a nessecity.
    • Peter failed over and over, but then saw 3K saved in his first message. He knew the power of forgiveness from failure.
    • You have to fail to figure out what God’s actually saying. He’s using that failure to grow you and prepare you for what you will do in the future.
    • Shake it off and STEP UP!
    • What has God called you to do that you are afraid to attempt? WHEN are you going to do IT!?!?
  • They are lead by people who have IT
    • You need to have IT for your ministry to get IT
    • He had IT after getting saved, but then ministry started to kill IT
    • He was doing more to build a church and get people into the building instead of asking what would bring glory to God and build His kingdom.
    • When you have IT in your heart, you get IT out to people, and then things start happening…
    • We have a tendency to look out for IT instead of inside of us for IT
    • He felt like he was a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Christ.
    • What is our primary focus? His kingdom or our ministry?
    • He stopped listening to other things and only went to the world. He went overseas. He began fasting again. He let his tears emerge. He let God break his heart again.He hurts more, he cares more.
• We must do WHATEVER it takes to get IT back into our life.

He ROCKED the house. He is one of the next great Christian leaders in the line of Hybels and Rick Warren.

LEADING IN NEW CULTURAL REALITIES, PART 2

STROOONG end to the day. Good job, Efram.

• Efrem Smith is on stage. The white-wash is over!
• We need leaders who will live, love, serve and understand the multi-ethnic realities of our world and our churches
• He’s got a little MLK in his voice. Very impressive.
• HA!
  
• 1 in 100 children were born of mixed race 1970. Now it’s 1 in 19. 1 in 10 in places like NYC
• At some level, we all must step out and lead in a multi-ethnic situation. We don’t have to be experts, but be willing to step into a situation and be changed.
• OK!
  
• Drawing from 1 John 4. How do we engage for kingdom purposes?
• This session is very good, but does not led itself to prolific note taking.
  
• When God comes back, it’s justice. Until then, it’s just us!
• MMM HMMM!
• I have no idea when he is breathing.
• “Tina Turner changed me life!”
• We need to be an abiding leader, the kind that abides in God and has God abide in us.
• WELL!
• Some have not stepped out into multi-ethnic leadership because we feel under-qualified.
• We can’t let the same disparity that exists in the world exist in our churches
• If we really wanted to go where the most pain was, we’d plant as much as we can in the inner city
  
• YESSIR!
• We must also be confessing leaders, confessing where we’ve been wrong, where we can take responsibility.
• Perhaps some of the storms in culture is the high pressure of what God wants to do bumping up against the low pressure of what we’d rather do.
• WOOOO!!
• The church might be the only place where an argument can be made to specifically reach out to people who look similar. No restaurant, business, etc. is going to build in that way.
• What if we addressed the mindset that lead to have the separate ethnic churches, giving us a preview of heaven?
• Crazy, deranged kids come in all colors!
• We need to raise our kids! Grown men need to stop having “Lil” in front of their name.
• Look intentionally to build with those around you. Sometimes it needs to be organic, sometimes it needs to be programmed.
• He’s both black and Irish. He eats Lucky Charms all the time. May have invented the McRib.
• OK, he just brought the house down with a classic black church preaching rant. Unreal. The whole place here was clapping, people in Chicago standing. Then he just walked off the stage. Would have just dropped the mic if he could have.

That’s it for me. See you tomorrow!

LEADING IN NEW CULTURAL REALITIES, PART 1

• John Burke plants flowers every year. Funny, he looks like a dude…
• The soil in Austin is missing a key element of soil, so he has to put some work and smelly stuff to get his flowers to grow.
• Making and maintain good soil is everything if you want good flowers, and want them to continue to grow
• What kind of soil does it take for people to become the people God’s called them to be?
• The messy spiritual leadership that it takes to lead people.
• God causes the growth, but we have a responsibility to the soil. We have a responsibility to plant and water it.
• What about the people far from God? What kind of soil do they need to grow into who God wants them to be?
• A good deacon joke always goes over well with the Baptist crowd…
• Does the soil we’re creating allow for questioning and growth?
• If we’re ministering like Jesus our ministry should look messy. One of the biggest problem the Pharisees has with Jesus was that he was hanging out with messy people in messy situations.
• Am I leading like Jesus or like the Pharisees?
• We need to cultivate grace-giving environments
  • People need to experience this to believe us
  • The world does law first, but we need to do grace first. God will accept you AS IS.
  • We need to lead the dirty, broken people to the master craftsmen who can clean and restore them, not just view them as something to get us dirty.
• We need to remove any barrier to people experience the grace of God
  • Identity potentials barrier by getting your hands dirty and listen to the people around you!
  • Two questions he’s asked the most: How do you feel about gays, and what do you think about other religions?
  • Even if they didn’t directly apply to them, the questions still affect people’s mindsets about coming to church and experiencing grace.
• The source of all human problems is broken relationships, both with God and with other people
  • We must be creating environments were relationships are reconciled, to both God and other people.
• John 15- If there is anything we must do, and lead people to do, is to stay connected to him.
• Spiritual fruit is scandalously simple.
• Explaining the Soul Revolution- www.SoulRevolution.net
• We’ve got to keep grace as the foundation of everything we do.
• It will be messy, but it will be beautiful.

FINDING YOUR TRUE NORTH

• OK, let’s be honest. This is the first session after lunch, so the notes may not be at abundant or sharp as the first two sessions
• Bill wrote a book of the same title
• Are you using your leadership abilities to make the world a better place?
• We need to let our light shine before all men in all circumstances
• It’s a great sin to have a gift/talent and not maximize or use it for God
• 1 of 5 people trust business leaders
• 12% of people trust congressional leaders
• Mandela declared that he was there not to be a leader, but a servant
• We need a new generation of authentic leaders. We don’t need to be perfect, polished, and unapproachable. We need to be honest and real in our leadership.
• Drucker- “Leadership is responsibility.”
• 20th Century leader
  • Control, followers and leaders
• 21st Century leaders
  • More about empowering the people
  • We need to give the people an opportunity to lead
  • You learn by doing, not studying.
• Traits of a 21st Century leader:
  
  • Align- We need to bring people together and have them aligned with the vision of the organization
    
  • Empower- We need to help unleash the gifts inside of each person, not just to do what we tell them
    
  • Serve- We need to be servant leaders, not to lord things over them or have them serve us
    
  • Collaborate- The problems of the world are so much that no one government, organization can do it on their own. We need to learn to work together
• Telling a story about Howard Schultz and Starbucks
• If I went to Harvard, I would not sign up for his class right after lunch. Well, I wouldn’t sign up for any class after lunch…
• He’s had some tragedy. Losing mom and fiancee very close together.
• Thinking about working on some blog posts instead of staying engaged. No, I will stay engaged…for now…
• This is much more story-based than principle-based. In another audience that might be fine, but I’m too didactic for this to be my favorite session.
• The satellite just went in and out of audio. We probably just missed the two more important parts. Dang it!
• We need to fight to see us as others see us so that we can gain self awareness.
• Will you be true to your values?
• Will you be true to your intrinsic motivations?
• Are you in your sweet spot? Do what you love to do!
• Make sure you have a support team. Do you have someone you can be totally honest with? Prayer groups?
  
• Lead an integrated life- There is no perfect balance in life. What we can do is to be the same person in every environment

End of line.

JUST COURAGE: CHANGING THE DARKNESS

• He runs the International Justice Mission
  
• Hybels age is the running joke of the conference…
• “We want our leadership to matter, to make a difference.”
• What is the leadership that matters to God?
  • Leadership in endeavors that matter to God
  • So many of the things the Pharisees were involved in leading were of no interest to God
• Just because we are leading and people are following doesn’t mean that God is pleased with our leadership
• “Are Jesus and I interested in the same things? What is God truly passionate about?”- God’s passion for the world, and God’s passion for justice
• God’s passion for the world
  • Right there in John 3:16!
  • What is the hardest thing for people to believe about the Christians faith?- that God loves them, because they are in so much pain
  • What is God’s plan for making it believable that he is good?
  • The answer from the bible is that WE are his agent, we are his plan to display the power and love of God (as representatives of Jesus)
• God’s passion for justice
  
  • Some people are suffering because of the oppression of other people
  • These are the people who are victims of injustice
  • What does that mean? In our world, we are trained to view ourselves as victims all day, every day.
    • Is it the guy with 13 items in the express lane? No, that is NOT what the bible is talking about!
    • The bible talks about it as a particular sin, the abuse of power to take from them the good things that God intended for them- their live, their dignity, etc.
    • Ecc. 4:1- “Again I observed all the oppression that takes place in our world. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and the victims are helpless.”
      
• What does it look like in our world today?
  • 60-85% of the prisoners in developing countries have never actually been convicted of a crime.
  • 27 million people today live in slavery
  • How are they supposed to believe that God is good?
  • He’s telling some horrific stories. How does he handle dealing with this all the time? Praise God that he’s given him the grace.
  • 2 million kids are in prostitution around the world
  • Psalm 11- The Lord is righteous and loves justice!
  • If God is so passionate about it, why isn’t he doing anything about it?
    • We’re the plan to see God move on the earth today!
    • Micah 6:8- What does the Lord require of you? To love justice
• If you want your leadership to matter, lead in the things that matter to God!
  • If you say that justice is not your thing, God might say that HE is not your thing!
  • Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for neglecting justice, mercy and faith
  • Leadership matters precisely when the calling is hard
• How do we lead when the call of God is discouraging, hard, and frightening?
• What have we learned when the take seems hopeless?
  • We lead by re-centering the basis of our hope
  • We move off of what we can do to what God can do and what he WANTS to do
  • If he is passionate about seeing something done, he is also responsible for seeing something done.
  • The disciples try to explain to Jesus how all the people can’t be fed
    
    • There was nothing unclear of what he asked them to do, but when they looked at their circumstances and resources they became overwhelmed.
    • Instead, Jesus asks them what they DO have, and will they give it to him
      
    • Jesus then performs a miracle and feeds 5K people to overflowing.
    • He didn’t ask them what they needed, he asked them what they had and accomplished the task from their resources.
    • With IJM sometimes the people doing the bad things are the ones supposed to bring justice, so they are left with nothing but to cry out to God.
      
    • One of the kids they rescued overseas is now studying law and working to see others freed from injustice.
      
• What have we learned when the task seems scary?
  • How many death threats have him and his staff received? God be with them!
  • There is no boredom when it comes to serving God. You wanna go overseas or do something crazy? Call IJM!!
  • They’ve been mugged, kidnapped, attacked, punched, etc.
  • But in that, they’ve also experienced God, and they wouldn’t trade that
  • Jesus didn’t come to make us safe, he came to make us brave
  • If we are following him and don’t feel scary, we might need to check to make sure we’re on the right field
  • Told a story of the time he stayed behind but his brothers and father went on a climbing adventure. They came back with cut and bruises, but they also came back with stories and time with their dad. He did it to be safe, but eventually he was bored and missed his dad
    
  • Jesus calls to us- “Follow me BEYOND what you can control!”
    
• What have we learned when the task seems hard?
  • Choosing not to be safe
    • We need to go to the places that we NEED God.
    • This will come from our prayer life with God
    • Do we have a work, like Mother Teresa, that we could not imagine doing for more than 30 min without the power of God? Perhaps we need to examine what kind of work we’re doing, and the way we’re doing it.
      
  • Choosing deep spiritual health
    • The harder climb required a deeper health
    • Religious people do easy things all the time without deep spiritual help, but we don’t see the hard and scary things without that deep spiritual help
    • When you are on the more difficult climb, devotional exercises have a desperation to them we need to survive.
    • If we want people to get closer to God, we need to lead them down the path where they have to depend on him in desperation
  • Choosing to pursue excellence
    • Christianity is not associated with this in the broader culture
    • Society used to turn to the church with the hardest problem, the biggest needs, but not anymore.
      
    • We moved into more climate-controlled cul-de-sac and lost rigor of though and execution
    • Somehow these traits were considered less godly, and we considered ourselves to be more loving and merciful because of it.
    • Loving is about doing as well as execution, as the golden rule tells us.
    • Most of IJM’s stuff is a matter of life and death in their investigations, so they need to be EXCELLENT in doing it!
    • We need to be the generation that resets the bar, not in church but in society at large, of excellence
      
  • Choosing to seize the joy
    • Dallas Willard- “The first thing to disappear in spiritual health is laughter.”
    • The struggle for justice is hard, and we don’t need to pile on our aggravation.
    • There is something wrong if Jesus’ yoke is easy and light, yet the one people get from us is hard and heavy
    • Gave an example of a leader who was so joyful he was accused of being a wino
    • Dallas Willard- “Holy delight and joy is the great antidotes of despair, and the wellspring of genuine gratitude.”
    • We need to be leading in fun, leading in joy, laughter, etc.
    • The climb may be harder, but the victory of completion brings an even greater joy!!
    • Imagine freeing women from a dungeon, a place of repeated daily rapes? What JOY!
• Gary’s closing prayer: That God would lead us out of all things petty, all things of fear, and into a world that is yearning to know the goodness of God through us. AMEN!!!
• Song with slideshow to close. If you’re not impacted by IJM, you’re a freaking robot.

Lunch break! Catch you on the flip side!