Global Leadership Summit 2022

I had the opportunity to attend the Global Leadership Summit again after missing the last several, and this time I was able to get tickets to to the main Summit site at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. I've been to many conferences at Willow over the years, but never the Leadership Summit. And I've been to over a dozen or so of the Global Leadership Summits at satellite sites, but never on location at South Barrington, so this was a fun adventure. 

I was able to attend with my good friend Jason, and it was great to be able to process the Summit together throughout the two-day event. We both came back with a lot of great resources and inspiration, so it's exciting to see what fruit this event will bear. There is something about the dynamic of being in a crowd of thousands of people who are all learning together that cannot be reproduced by simply viewing the content alone live streaming or later on DVD.

I was reminded of the value of this event and look forward to attending again in the future. If you are in a position of leadership in a church or business, or feel like you would like to continue to develop your leadership skills and gifts, I would highly recommend this conference.

Rob's Recommendations: The Working Genius

I'm a big fan of Patrick Lencioni's writing and speaking. I first heard him speak years ago at a Global Leadership Summit at Willow Creek. After that I sought out his books which are very well-known in the business world. Some of his most popular are The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Death by Meeting, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job (which I believe was reissued with the title The Truth About Employee Engagement), and many more. They are all told as a business parable with the model presented detailed at the end. All easy reads and extremely helpful. 

Pat is the lead and founder of The Table Group which does consulting around organizational health and leadership. He has a wonderful podcast called "At The Table" that I listen to regularly.

In the last couple of years they have developed a tool called The Working Genius which helps people figure out the way they are wired to work. They have identified six "geniuses" and recognize that people are strong in two areas, competent in two, and the last two are "working frustrations". I'm not going to go into detail here, other than to say I have found it to be extremely helpful. I know they are working on a book about this, but in the meantime I'd recommend The Working Genius Podcast as a great place to start learning about this model.

Simple Church

Finally finished Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger and I would highly recommend it! The first four chapters flew by and were stuffed with great information and illustrations. The rest of the book was a bit less engaging - developing the concepts introduced in the first few chapters - but very well done, nonetheless.

The main idea is that a church’s strategy – their gospel-sharing, disciple-making method - should be a simple process. Programs should be used to move people along in this process. Complexity dilutes focus and should be avoided, even if it means having fewer programs. Simply put: Do a few things and do them well.

All church leaders should read this, and especially church planters. A church plant has a real advantage in that we are able to implement major structural principles without having to change established programs or traditions.

The concepts are not completely revolutionary – several are drawn from the excellent and even more highly recommended Seven Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, and Lane Jones. Nevertheless, this book distills these concepts and presents them in a clear, easily accessible (you could even say “simple”) manner.

Leadership Summit doesn't disappoint

The first day of Willow Creek's Leadership Summit was awesome! Not that I'm surprised. I've been to four or five previous Summits and all have been outstanding. I make it a practice to bring students who currently serve in youth group or have leadership potential as it is an awesome way to introduce them to leadership principles and help them begin to think in terms of leadership as it applies to the entire church. I'd also highly encourage any church staff to leverage this event for growth and discussion. It has become a "can't miss" event for me that is a permanent fixture on my calendar.

Bill Hybels started off Thursday with a great message about vision ownership. Carly Fiorina followed up strong in a wonderful interview with Bill and shared about her leadership principles via her time as CEO of HP. I hadn't heard of her before, but now will definitely get her book, Tough Choices, which sadly (for me, not for her) sold out at the resource tables at Eagle Brook Church (our satellite site).

Rev. Floyd Flake spoke in the difficult 'after lunch' session and did a solid job. Marcus Buckingham hit it out of the park with the last talk of the day on putting your strengths to work. I've read his first two books, First, Break All the Rules, and Now, Discover Your Strengths and look forward to his two most recent book. His talk was lively, packed with content, and hysterical at points. All four students I brought were sitting forward in their seats in rapt attention. I could listen to him all day! Great speaker.

I ran across a blog that has some great summaries of the summit at: Live Intentionally. Now I can supplement my own notes from the conference! (Thanks to Mark Bjorlo at the wonderfully named but unrelated The Journey North Community Church of Brainerd for the link.) Not a substitute for being there, but the blog may give you a bit of the flavor of the conference.