Here are some pictures I snapped in the last two days as we hosted the Willow Creek Leadership Summit at Resurrection. The first pictures are from our narthex (lobby) during breaks.

l to r: Brian Slezak, Chuck Russell, yours truly

Personal highlights from today …

Craig Groeschel:

• “What is ‘it’? Don’t know.”
• “‘It’ happens. But often ‘it’ doesn’t.”
• “The early church – those dudes had ‘it’.”
• “To reach people no one else is reaching, we will have to do things no one else is doing.” And the corollary: “To do things that no one else is doing, we can’t do the things that everyone else is doing.”
• After a few years, they cut everything except five core areas: weekend worship, small groups, kids, students, missions. This freed up resources. They stopped doing things everyone else was doing in order to do things no one else was doing such as Internet Campus, YouVersion, etc.
• “You have everything you need to do what God has called you to do.”
• “What is God trying to show you through your limitations?”
• “Organizations that have ‘it’ are willing to fail.”
• “You try, it doesn’t work out, then shake it off and step up.”
• “You need to have ‘it’ in order for your church to get ‘it’.”
• Craig had “it”, then he started doing ministry and ministry started killing “it”. “I had become a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Christ. I lost ‘it’.”

Catherine Rohr:

• “I hope I’m a 75 year-old lady going around prison beating up gangsters with a cane.”
• “46% of all closing situations end without [the salesperson] asking for anything.”
• Jim Mellado: “The process you (Rohr) are using for character development is like a Wesleyan small group.”

Pastor Howitzer: “When I think, I have thoughts.”

Brad Anderson: “People are drawn to leadership because they’re looking for an affirmation of themselves.”

Bill Hybels quoting Mother Theresa’s vows to God:

• “I will refuse you nothing. I will do your bidding without delay.”
• “Even if I don’t feel Your presence, I will seek to love You as You’ve ever been loved before.”
• Video: “Here am I, send me.”

Personal highlights from today …

Gary Haugen:

• “If God is passionate about it, He is responsible for it.”

Bill George:

• “Understand the purpose of your leadership.”
• “Follow your compass, not your clock.”
• “Leadership isn’t about having power over others, but about empowering others.”

Bill Hybels: “I never advocate insane living. I’ve done it, but I would never advocate it!”

Wendy Kopp:

• “It’s easy to lead when you are pursuing something you deeply, deeply believe in.”
• “People want to live a life of meaning. We give them that opportunity.”

Yesterday was one of those days when I pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming that I’m on staff at Church of the Resurrection.

We had 300+ church leaders from 70 area churches in to hear Bill Hybels and to promote the upcoming Leadership Summit.  After a delicious hot breakfast, our senior pastor, Adam Hamilton, introduced Bill who gave a great talk on the Reveal study and the implications for every church.  Can’t wait for Leadership Summit 2008!

My friend, Mark Baltzley, who earns his living taking pictures, brought his camera along and took more than 160 shots.  Here are a few of my favorites.  (All are copyright 2008, Mark Baltzley Photography and Design.)

Calling all my KC-area church IT homies. 

Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, will be here at Resurrection next Thursday morning, May 15, for a breakfast meeting to talk about leadership and promote the Willow Creek Leadership Summit coming up in August. 

All church IT leaders are invited to come to the breakfast as my guest.  Please drop me a comment, an e-mail to clif dot guy at cor dot org, or a tweet.  I have to turn in a count for the breakfast by Tuesday morning, May 13.  Help a brotha out – I am required to have at least one guest or I can’t go myself!