Leadership Summit

It seems like a long time ago that I went to Willow Creek’s Leadership Summit (I attended a satellite site in early August). I promised to blog about it. Here’s what pops into mind:

Erwin McManus kicks butt. At least he kicked Bill Hybels’s (he of the pleated pants and permanent suntan). That was funny. As much as Jim Collins talks about the perils of charisma, we still love (and worship) those who have it. It’s funny that so few of us get the irony. I’m really getting tired of Bill Hybels clones. Robin Mark is a great worship leader. Willow Creek is a machine. Not sure that’s a good thing.

Every time I go to something like this, I have to remind myself that the goal isn’t to build the church, at least not in the sense that we usually think. I wish that we could stop worshiping the flashy new buildings, the staggering numbers. The goal continues to be building churches that are dying to themselves, that really don’t care if they survive their walk with God. I wonder if the church should really occupy our thinking as much as it does. Maybe the church (in the true sense of the word) is a byproduct rather than the goal.