The punches keep coming at Willow Creek Association’s Global Leadership Summit in South Barrington today. This morning’s speakers have included financial leaders, International Justice Mission leaders, and pastors speaking on topics ranging from organizational management to freedom, and Gungor keeps rocking the stage with, what they call, “liturgical post-rock” – here are some highlights from the first half of day 1, and check out some professional photos here:
Patrick Lencioni: “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else
Founder and President, The Table Group; Best-Selling Author & Consultant
Four Disciplines of a Healthy Organization
- Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
- Create Clarity
- Reinforce Clarity
- Over-communicate clarity
William L. Ury: “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Conflict“
Co-Founder and Senior Fellow, Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation
- “Negotiation is the core process of making decisions, and is the core competence for leadership.”
- “Conflict isn’t necessarily something bad – it isn’t about eliminating conflict, but rather dealing with it in constructive ways.”
- “When angry, you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”
- “Listen at least twice as much as you talk – put yourselves in the shoes of people on the other side .”
- “The key in negotiations is to pry for the underlying interests.”
- “Less talk, more walk – destroy your enemies by making them your friends.”
Pranitha Timothy: “Courage to Act”
Director of Aftercare, International Justice Mission, Chennai, India
- Has led over 50 slave rescue operations; developed IJM’s pioneering aftercare strategy for restoration and reintegration, successfully serving thousands of freed slaves
- Grew up as daughter of missionary doctors, resenting Jesus for taking her parents away from her and placing her in boarding school
- At the end of her masters in social work, while sitting in a chapel, she cried out to God for direction and guidance, and was met with a reading from Isaiah 42, that called her to free the oppressed
- After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, she had surgery to remove it, but was left with no voice. She went back to Isaiah 42 for encouragement, and decided to dedicate her life to being a “voice for the voiceless”
- “God took my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh – He restored my ability to feel emotion and he gave me the capability to rescue people from slavery.”
- The cry for help, freedom & rescue is: that God goes before us in places of darkness and makes our paths straight to bring rescue.
Senior Pastor, Misión Cristiana Elim, El Salvador
- 1 Samuel 15:34-on: will you show loyalty to God, or to man?
- “The moral failure of a leader will challenge integrity of many others as well. As leaders we are not only responsible for our own actions, but also our influence over those we lead.”
- “When someone’s values and life principles are different, life’s road begins to pull people apart and only by accident do their paths cross again.”
- “Give yourself permission to grieve and to hurt; give yourself permission to cry and walk through depression. All this is normal-you’re a human being-but, never give yourself permission to avoid doing what is right, and don’t give yourself permission to remain in the valley of depression.”
- “Every right decision a leader makes will strengthen his integrity. You’ll never question what’s right in walking in integrity. In light of these thoughts, be courageous, be strong, live with integrity: the Lord is with you.”
John Ortberg: “A Leader of Unimaginable Influence”
Senior Pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and Author
- Senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in _____, California
- Author of most recent book on the authority and person of Jesus: Who is this Man?
- “Jesus gave the world its most influential movement.”
- “Jesus gave the world its most influential movement.”
Geoffrey Canada: “Changing the Odds”
President and CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone
- “Hope is infectious but so is despair-instead of contaminating our youth with negative principles, we have to do it with positive principles.”
- “You have to actually change the neighborhood by re-engaging the inhabitants with a sense of purpose and hope.”
- “I think we’ve lost our way – we don’t have another generation we can allow being on a pipeline from cradle to prison.”
- The best advice I ever got from my grandma, when she was dying of cancer – she saved my soul: “It’s easy to have faith when things are going great – the real test of faith is when you’re faced with something when only your faith will keep you believing in God.”
Founder and Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church – South Barrington, Ill.
- “The message of Jesus Christ is the only power on Earth that can change the character of a human heart.”
- “The local church is the hope of the world.”