Be The Fruit

Leadership Summit Wrap-Up

by Bill Blair on 12/08/07 at 7:14 pm

The Leadership Summit finished up yesterday.  My pastor, Rick White, has been promoting it, saying how great it is for quite some time.  It lived up to his billing.  The unique combination of all the speakers amazed me.  They had widely different areas or expertise and personalities but all of their talks seemed to fit together into one package.  It was a whole package and not just individual sessions.  Great job Willow Creek!

The last 2 sessions featured an interview with Jimmy Carter and a final speech by Bill Hybels.  I was not sure what to expect out of the Jimmy Carter interview, but I was left with a new respect for the man.  Although I tend to disagree with him politically I do believe that he has his heart in the right place.  He certainly has been the fruit to the needy in the world with his work with Habitat for Humanity and other causes.  Here is a good synopsis of the interview by Shelia who is part of my church family.  She obviously takes better notes than I do.

Bill Hybels finished off the conference with a speech titled, Whatever You Do, Inspire Me!.  See Shelia’s detailed notes here.  His main focus was that it is the leader’s job to keep himself inspired.  He ran through a list of things from physical fitness, spiritual disciplines, books you read, to the people you hang out with. 

He finished off the talk by answering the question:  What would a church look like if everyone was inspired?  He pointed to Acts 2:42-47 as an example.  I have read and studied that passage several times, but for some reason his presentation of the passage affected me on an emotional level like I have not experienced before. 

I think part of my emotional response has to do with it coming at the end of the Summit after I had been built up with inspiration and thoughts after listening to all the speakers.  Although, I think most of it has to do with the fact that I have not thought about that passage since I have discovered my passion to help people “Be the Fruit.”  You see I have a vision to see the people in the Church getting over their baggage and working for one common purpose which is to serve God.  That group of people described in the passage were doing that.  I think the Church can be that way again.  I left that session praying that God would give me boldness, that God would help me live my life on the line of radical, and that I could be a part of something where people could not help but notice that there was something different about us.  Inspire me indeed.