Global Leadership Summit

Each year leaders from our Corps, and hundreds of thousands of churches around the world, attend the Global Leadership Summit. This Summit is recorded each August in Chicago, USA, and then simulcast over subsequent weekends to hundreds of cities in 75 countries over September, October and November. There are 13 Australian sites.

Over the course of the two day summit we heard 10 speakers speak about a range of leadership and church related matters. Bill Hybels spoke to the group about the critical questions that leaders must ask, such as "When was the last time you examined the core of what your organisation is about", and "What is your plan for dealing with challenging people in your organisation".

John Dickson, from the Centre for Public Christianity in Sydney, spoke about humility, reminding us that humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but thinking less about ourselves. He added that true humility is embracing our powers but using them for the benefit of others. Patrick Lencioni, a catholic business consultant from California, spoke to us about being transparent with our constiuents. The Hon Corey Booker, mayor of Newark, USA, challenged us to stand up for what we believe in and make a difference in our communities.

Wess Stafford, the President of Compassion International, told us the story of Ethopian pastors that were persecuted under the communist regime (now fallen) and how their persistence and prayer grew the church five-fold during those hard years. Mama Maggie Gobran of Stephen's Children's Ministry in Egypt gave her testimony about how she was called to leave a prestigious teaching post at the Cairo Amercian University to serve the poorest in her city.

Leading Psychologist Dr Henry Cloud taught about working with wise people, foolish people and evil people. He not only described these groups but gave helpful tools for dealing with each should we encounter them. Michelle Rhee, the former Chancellor of Schools in Washington DC, most famous for closing 23 schools in a day and sacking a third of principals in the schools for underperformance, spoke about tough decisions - obviously something she was familiar with.

The final two sessions had Erwin McManus from LA speaking to the group about the church reclaiming its place as the epicentre of artistic creativity, and Stephen Furtick speaking about audacious faith. Stephen, at 26 yo, had got together with 3 of his friends, sold everything and moved to Charlotte, USA, to start a church. Five years later they had grown to a massive size - baptising 1500 people in one Sunday alone.

You can imagine that sitting at the summit is like a fire hydrant of information blasted at you. It will take us all a few weeks to sift and process what we have heard. Maybe you can help by approaching one of the Corps leaders and asking them to tell you what their highlights were (for me it was John Dickson and Wess Stafford).