I’m up dark and early-ready for day 2 of the WCAGLS. I wanted to get some of my thoughts written down so that, when I’m reading my own blog for egotistical purposes later, I’ll remember (and hopefully be continually motivated) to be challenged by the content of the summit.
The awesome (or “awesome sauce” as Steve Furtick would call it) thing so far: I’m betting that everyone is taking away entirely different, applicable, powerful visions for his/her church and/or business. Here are my personal takeaways from each speaker:
Bill Hybels (or Bill Freaking Hybels as Steven Furtick calls him):
He gave some fantastic chart/graph tools that could be used in any work force. You can probably find them somewhere. I’m not going to get into them here. Challenge: are you naming, facing, and resolving the problems that exist in your organization?
Also, here’s a Hybels’ quote that I’m going to take completely out of context: “Go big…or go to Canada.”
“Failure doesn’t mean “game over”. It means “try again with experience.”
Reverend Doctor Brenda Salter McNeil
To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what she was saying some of the time; but, I was excited! My main takeaway: when catastrophe comes, we Christians should see an opportunity for God to move. Also, we should be living our lives as such that when catastrophe comes, the world should look at our unity and stability and think, “I want what they have.”
Ok, I’m not entirely convinced that this guy is human. He’s 10 years older than me, has degrees from Stanford, The Queen’s College in Oxford, and Yale. He also has a handful of honorary degrees from various other colleges and universities that think he’s awesome. He’s had a movie made about him. He’s probably well on his way to eradicating global poverty, solving world hunger, and fighting crime with Chuck Norris during the night hours.
Anyhow, his message was fantastic: Act. Do sumpin’. Our forefathers bled and died so that we would live in a land of opportunity. We can either choose to use their sacrifice as an opportunity to improve the world; or, we can choose to sit idly-getting fat off of their sacrifice as we do nothing. Little actions change the world. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Prediction: if Cory Booker decides not to become a caped crusader, he’ll be a presidential candidate in a few years.
Oh, and for those of you crazy millenials to whom degrees and experience don’t mean as much, I’ll put his super-human powers in terms you can undersand: dude’s got over a million followers on Twitter.
Seth Godin
You would think that it might be difficult to pay attention to Seth and not be distracted by his awesome glasses. You’d be wrong; but, they are awesome. My favorite quotes from Seth: “If failure is not an option than neither is success.” “Just because the tide is out doesn’t mean that there’s less water in the ocean. It’s just moving around.” My takeaway: there are millions of people who would kill to have the platform that you (yes, you, my 8 or 9 blog readers) and I have. Don’t take it lightly.
Steven Furtick
Dear goodness this boy can preach. My favorite quote: “If the size of your vision isn’t intimidating to you, there’s a chance that it’s insulting to God.” Another very important takeaway from Steven’s message: I have a new hope for hipsters everywhere.
Thus ends day one. Obviously, this is just the tip of the iceberg. So much great content. The problem (a good problem) thus far is that, unlike many other conferences I’ve attended, there’s an enormous volume of practical, actionable ideas. This makes for tough implementation. Looking forward to day 2. I’d recommend this conference to anyone next year. http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/locations2012.asp
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