The takeaways from today included an interesting insight into the make-up of a congregation. Bill Hybels spoke about explorers, beginners, those growing in Christ, and Christ-centred believers. He spoke about the gulf that exists between the growing Christians and the Christ-centred ones. Could it be that one of the things that holds back growth in the church is the lack of Christ-centred followers?
Next came a moving and challenging session on justice. A key thought from this session was simply this: If you want your leadership to matter, lead in those things that matter to God.
After lunch we were treated to an interview with one of the most single-minded people I have ever listened to. The interview made me realise that there are lessons to learn about focus and vision and courage to go after the goal.
The final session was in two parts with two speakers. Without looking at my notes, the thing I remember is that when grace is the key motivation behind how we treat people, church gets messy. People's lives are not neat and tidy. Too often the church has demanded a level of tidiness before they are welcome. This has to change.
As I process today and tomorrow I hope I'll be able to blog more coherently. But what I learn is not all that the summit is about for me. Every year I go it would not be overstating it to say that God get my attention within the first few minutes. There's something about being at the summit that I can't explain in any other way than to say that God gets my attention and I feel the overwhelming sense of his gracious love for me. It happens every time.
Today one of those moments came when I wrote a question in my notes: Do I need God, really need him, in order to keep doing what I do?
The scary thing is sometimes the answer is undoubtedly no. I'd be lying if I said otherwise.
Getting wrecked by God on an annual basis is truly good for me.
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