Global Leadership Summit

I love conferences. I just do. Passionate speakers, powerful worship, inspired learning. Sign me up. When I was an intern at Wildwood in 2006, I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit with some of the staff and elders. I was with one of my best friends, Abby, and that made the experience oh-so-much better. We were both in the “What am I going to do with my life?” stage and I’m pretty sure we figured out as many times as there were speakers what the right answer was. At one point, Bono had me convinced that I was moving to Africa to get involved with the AIDS crisis. I’m not kidding.

While I was an intern, Chase asked me to marry him, so the question became “What are we going to do with our lives?” Fast forward 4 years, and here we are in Nicaragua (and celebrating one year of living here today!) Well, today and tomorrow we have the privilege of attending the same conference with the One by One/Camino de Vida staff and to no one’s surprise, I’m loving it (though I have to admit I’m missing Abby quite a bit.)

We heard 4 incredible speakers today.

• Bill Hybels spoke about how as leaders, we need to move people from the present reality “here” to the preferred future “there”, and how we cannot do that without hearing the voice of God.
• Jim Collins spoke on the Stockdale Paradox and how greatness is largely a matter of discipline.
• Adam Hamilton addressed the issue of when leaders fall, how none of us are exempt, and what to do to avoid falling. [Interestingly, he also spoke about grace which has been on my mind recently. He said that the final word of the church must always be grace, not judgment. That we serve the Lord who is friends with prostitutes, thieves and sinners. He said the gospel is for sinners and no one is beyond redemption. Well said.]
• Christine Cane spoke last and WOW. She spoke so fast that I couldn’t keep up, and her words were pure gold. She spoke about leading from a place of hope and how hope compels us to go into the darkness. Her story is heart-wrenching and powerful, but her faith in the Redeemer is remarkable. This one I’m going to purchase and listen to again. It’s that good.

    Here I am with one of our co-workers, Ileana. She’s pretty fantastic.

Paul, Jeremy, Yeril and Katie. We walked over to the mall for lunch. We had Papa Johns, and it was  delicious!

At the mall, there is a “tickle” wall. When you walk up to the wall, all the hands move towards you – perhaps attempting to tickle you? Or maybe it wants you to tickle the wall? I’m not really sure, but Paul and Dan, naturally, were enjoying this odd form of technology.