Tuesday, August 16th, 2005
Rick Bennett from Tampa, Florida, has posted a review of the Leadership Summit at Willow Creek in Chicago. He was part of a satellite simulcast of the event at a local church in Tampa. What Rick has to say is very interesting. It appears as though this year’s leadership summit has focused on social justice. Bill Hybels talking about Martin Luther King, AIDS, racisim and injustice. Rick Warren on Africa, the poor, AIDS and the voiceless.
We have the satellite simulcast coming to Australia in September. I had Gary Schwammlein in my office a couple of months telling me it will be worth checking out…
See Rick’s post at cheaper than therapy: August 13
Thanks to Jordon Cooper for the contextless link.
Tags: Leadership, Willow Creek
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Sunday, May 29th, 2005
This morning I posted the second resource at “Educating Christians” - Willow Creek’s “An Ordinary Day with Jesus”. In the spirit of Brother Lawrence’s “Practicing the Presence of God”, this resource by John Ortberg and Ruth Haley Barton provides eight sessions on spirituality for everyday life.
I haven’t yet used it so can’t comment on its usefulness. But it looks good. I’d be interested to hear from anyone on how they’ve found this resource.
Tags: Spirituality, Willow Creek
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Saturday, May 21st, 2005
After speaking at a church camp this morning, I popped over to the Willow Creek Association conference featuring Erwin Raphael McManus. Erwin’s lead pastor and cultural architect of Mosaic, a ‘uniquely creative and intergenerational congregation’ in Los Angeles. It’s known for its ethnic diversity, radical innovation and conviction that creativity is the natural result of spirituality.
First impression: This guy talks fast for an American. Later in the conference he talked about being asked if he had Attention Deficit Disorder. He didn’t deny it but pointed out that having a short attention span fitted well with an innovative approach to leadership.
One of the questions at the end of the day related to the high percentage (70%) of single young adults in Mosaic. Erwin explained that the radical nature of the church tended to suit people with flexible lifestyles. Once people had children they were likely to consider moving to the suburbs. Another factor was the pace of change at Mosaic - which would attract and hold catalytic innovators and early adopters. One fascinating observation related to what happens when people marry.
Here in Australia we’ve been considering the work of Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, expressed in their book, The Shaping of Things to Come. Michael and Alan challenge churches to move away from their addiction to attractional programming, and move towards incarnational relational approaches to mission.
Erwin pointed out that incarnational and attractional need not be in opposition to each other. In Los Angeles, he said, people live very isolated lives. It is difficult to reach a community when it does not really exist. People assembled in public places such as malls and clubs to alleviate something of the loneliness, even if they never had a meaningful conversation with anyone. The challenge for Christians is to create community, learning alongside pagans how to build friendships.
Tags: Australia, Emerging Church, Erwin McManus, Mission, Mosaic, Willow Creek
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