I spent the last few days in Chicago with three other guys from Oak Leaf Church, attending the Leadership Summit. I know the event is broadcast live to about 60,000 other people, but I wanted the live experience. Here are a few thoughts and quotes from the conference.

• Hybles kicked things off talking about leading in this new reality.  Great talk, and very timely.  I recommend that every church leader get it and listen to it.  One takeaway was to start before the beginning of the service and blur the ending.
• Session two was on hiring, firing and dealing with boards.  Big takeaway:  Your staff culture should be so strong that it actually repulses the people you don’t want to hire.
• Session three was by Gary Hamel. Never heard of this guy, but he’s brilliant.  He had so many great one liners, I was struggling to keep up.  He talked a lot about deconstructing current ideas, uncovering orthodoxies and change.
• I was irritated because that session wasn’t recorded.
• Tim Keller talked about the Prodigal God and it was great.  I think we need to do a series on this stuff sometime.  This was my first time hearing Keller in person.
• Dave Gibbons talked about creating a third culture – which is basically the mindset to learn in any culture, despite discomfort.  He talked about vision coming from the fringe.  I don’t agree with that.  I don’t think vision can come from the fringe…I think IDEAS come from the fringe.
• Andrew Rugasira is from Africa and started a coffee company.  This was one of my favorite talks.  He spoke about how aid to Africa is not working ($400 billion in aid since the 70’s while the GDP has declined).  He said what Africa needs is the ability to compete and trade, and that they will then be able to take care of their own people.  Trade not aid seemed to be his mantra. I think this guy should be invited to speak to Congress!
• David Gergen was interviewed by Bill Hybles.  Gergen was an advisor to four different Presidents and had a lot of wisdom and insight.
• Graig Groschel interviewed the Heath brothers.  Some good stuff there, but I’m not a big fan of interview sessions.  Big takeaway was to ignore the bottom performing ministries or programs, and study and clone the top performers.
• Hybles interviewed Bono, who said that the church had really stepped up the last few years, and though it pained him to say it, the church was winning the war.  Before that session, it seemed like Hybles did a little damage control on the trade not aid thing…maybe responding to some blog/twitter chatter from those that didn’t agree with Rugasira.
• I like the Willow Leadership Summit and it doesn’t get enough play among young church planters these days.  We’re usually all about Catalyst.  I like Catalyst too, but it was nice to be in a more seasoned environment with a little less hype.
• I’ll probably blog some more on some of these thoughts as I continue to process them.