Willow Creek Global Leadership

• Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Dr Henry Cloud
• Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Michelle Rhee
• Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Mama Maggie Gorban, Wess Stafford and Bill Hybels
• Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Steven Furtick
• Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Seth Godin
• Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Dr Brenda Salter McNeil

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Dr Henry Cloud Posted: 12 Aug 2011 10:43 AM PDT One-size-fits-all doesn’t work when it comes to managing the human side of an organization. People come in different personality types, some requiring a specific leadership approach. Who deserves continued investment and who doesn’t? Can you turn someone’s performance around? Here’s the danger: if you don’t know how to deal differently with different kinds of people—especially the difficult ones—they can derail your entire vision. Drawing on the wisdom of 20 years of coaching top business and church leaders, Dr. Cloud presents concepts that can expand your capacity for accurately assessing and managing each person on your team. “These leadership concepts,” says Bill Hybels, “have forever changed the way I lead.” DrCloud.com Cloudtownsend.com Dr. Henry Cloud on Twitter Dr. Henry Cloud on Facebook Every leader has “this guy…” Wherever you are, God has called you to be a steward over a vision for the specific reason of changing something. Will you allow “this guy” to stop your vision from moving forward? What Does a Person Do When the TRUTH Comes To Them? What does a person do when reality comes to them? All systems of leadership will tell you one of the biggest first tasks of a leader is to discover what the reality is. Where your maturity isn’t strong enough to do something, add external structure. Feedback is not easy to hear sometimes. We make assumptions as leaders. We are kind and responsible, but when someone gives us feedback we listen. We take feedback and adjust, are thankful for it and get better. The problem is that we lead like that and think that other people are like us, too. Not everybody is the same, therefore you cannot deal with every person you lead the same. Diagnose who you’re talking to and deal with them appropriately. 3 Categories of People: Wise, Fools, and Evil 1 – Wise When the light comes to them, they adjust themselves to match the light. When the truth comes to them, they change. Correct a wise person and he will be wiser still. When you confront them, they smile. They thank you for correction/feedback. A righteous man will strike me and it will be a blessing. – David Talk to wise people. Talking helps because someone is listening. Coach them. Give feedback. Resource them. Leadership Challenge with the Wise: Make sure they are a match for what you need. Keep them challenged appropriately. 2 – Fools A fool may be the smartest and most gifted person around the table. They are where they are because of what they do and who they are. BUT, when the light comes they adjust the light. They are allergic to the light and try to dim it. They try to adjust the truth. They excuse it. They minimize it. Or, they shoot the messenger. “If you would just…” They deny that it’s reality. They externalize it. They aren’t happy when they get feedback… and get angry. They have meetings after meetings. One of the most important feelings you can have as a leader is hopelessness. A nice, responsible leader has hope that a fool will start listening. You’ve got to get hopeless. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting results. Do not confront or correct a fool, lest you incur insults upon yourself. [shoot the messenger] Stop talking… they’ve stopped the vision. You’re no longer in charge of the mission. Your job as the leader is to take stewardship over the vision and stop the insanity. Stop talking. Talk about the problem that talking about problems doesn’t work. Take the talk above the weeds and talk about the pattern. Express your hopelessness. When you’re hopeless, you’ve got to protect the vision. Stop talking about the issues and start talking about the issue. Set limits. Limit your exposure to problems. You cannot afford to lose much more. This is where you can get soft and loving. Maybe they are foolish because of reasons related to shame and insecurity. People want feedback in different ways. Find  a way that works. Define how you should give them feedback. Next, ask “What will we do if I do what you want and nothing changes?” That’s when you can get specific about the consequences. Fools change when the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing. There is great hope for fools. It takes guts to do what leadership requires when you’re dealing with a fool. Leadership Challenge: Limit your exposure. Be clear about the consequences. Give them a choice. Follow through. 3 – Evil Have destruction in their heart. They want to inflict pain. You’ve got to believe that there are truly bad people in the world. Reject a divisive person after a second warming. We have to go into protection mode with evil people. God has called you to lead people. It’s not always about the plan but getting the people to work the plan. Take the leadership challenge to not let someone’s character problem stop the mission God has called you to from moving forward.

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Michelle Rhee Posted: 12 Aug 2011 09:56 AM PDT Leaders know that change isn’t easy—and it doesn’t come overnight. That’s why, for the past 18 years, Michelle Rhee has stayed the course with a single objective: to give children the needed skills to compete in a changing world. Rhee, who served with Teach for America, founded The New Teacher Project, equipping school districts to transform how they recruit and train qualified teachers. During her three years as Chancellor of the Washington, D.C. Public Schools, students’ scores and graduation rates rose dramatically. Today, Rhee is CEO of StudentsFirst, a movement to transform public education. She holds firm to her conviction that teachers are the most powerful driving force behind student achievement. Studentsfirst.org Michelle Rhee on Facebook Michelle Rhee on Twitter Experts blame failing schools on failing neighborhoods. However, research is showing failing schools are leading to failing neighborhoods. Michelle loved her job in D.C… getting yelled at was just a part of my job. If you wanna yell at me have at it.  But I can’t have this on my watch. What you have is because you were lucky enough to be born where you were. Being a public school teacher is really the hardest job you could possibly have. There’s no quick and easy way to do something. Instill a hard work ethic and hold extraordinarily high expectations. Missed opportunities and unintended consequences. There was a myth that there weren’t enough teachers to go into under-performing schools. When they ran an aggressive recruitment campaign they received thousands of resumes. The problem didn’t lie in people’s interest, it lied in the school district’s bureaucracy. Suburban schools have much less mobility; urban schools have a high turn over rate. She initially declined the offer for overseeing the Washington D.C. school district. It is hard to describe the situation she stepped into. Everything was broken. The core problems she felt she needed to address were the core issues related to staffing. Their theory of change and action was focused on human capital. They closed 23 of the schools, about 15%. Cut the administration in half. Removed 2/3 of principals and about 1,000 of the educators. I wanted to create a different culture in the school district where every child and family was treated like my own. If it wasn’t a policy I wouldn’t want my children subjected to I wouldn’t enforce it. You can walk into a classroom you can recognize a great teacher quickly. She wanted teachers who had valued-added. Valued-added means evaluating teachers on the basis of how students are growing. Performance evaluation of the adults vs the scores and development of students You have to put a system in place where educators are responsible for what sutdnets were learning. Value-added measures a group of children a teacher is assigned to at the beginning and end of the year and ensure there’s growth between the year. It makes the system fair for teachers. I would rather have a room full of people who disagree with me instead of dealing with people who are apathetic. I would rather deal with anger over change instead of apathy. Change is an essential part of leadership. Incremental change isn’t an option when drastic change is necessary. If you look at the education landscape in our country, the agenda has been driven by people who have outside interests. There were no advocates for children. Started StudentsFirst, a movement of everyday people who know our education system isn’t serving our children well. Your job is to represent all of your constituents. If all you do is give your attention to where the yelling is the loudest you’ll turn your back on what’s most important. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Mama Maggie Gorban, Wess Stafford and Bill Hybels Posted: 12 Aug 2011 08:02 AM PDT Mama Maggie Gobran led a comfortable life in Cairo. A Coptic Christian from a prominent Egyptian family, she taught computer science and lectured at Cairo University. But following a conviction from God, she started a ministry to serve the poor in her city. A Nobel Peace Prize nominee this year, Mama Maggie has spent 20 years serving the poorest of the poor. Bill Hybels It’s easy to romanticize leadership. We love to talk about the feel-good success stories: Apple, Microsoft, etc. We love rags to riches leadership stories. We need to be careful that we don’t get trapped into the idea that more success in leadership means more money, influence, etc. What if God was calling us to important work that was going to unlikely be a success? What if God was calling us to lead an organization that would require drastic self-sacrifice and no guarantee of success? Would you sign up for that? If we aren’t careful we can become addicted to the narcotic of success and growth. Beneath the veneer of all of us, most of want to step into leadership that brings success, influence, growth, etc. We love being leaders because we get to lead things that are successful and glamorous. We can get hooked on the narcotic of success and growth. Wes Stafford, Compassion International This world is not our home, it’s just a campsite. We follow a different drummer. We belong to a different Kingdom. Our world is upside-down. Leaders serve, the greatest are the least, etc. It’s possible for a follower of Christ and not pray all day long in the USA. Christians in Ethiopia risk their lives to meet together. It’s worth the risk because they need each other. During their oppression, the church had grown 5x. Churches are the channel into the Middle East today. Revelation 7: all nations, tribes, and tongues. May God grant that we are worthy to stand beside them. Mama Maggie Gorban Mama Maggie’s Ministry in Egypt is named Stephen’s Children after the first martyr of the church. Stephen’s Children employs 1,400 staff serving 7,000 families providing holistic care for children in Egypt’s garbage dumps. Mama Maggie is referred to as the “Mother Theresa” of Egypt and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times. Mama Maggie attributes all of her success to God. We don’t choose where to be born but we choose to be sinners or saints. We choose whether to be a nobody or a hero. If you want to be a hero do what God wants you to do. 25 years ago I heard my “tough call.” When God wanted to promote me, He sent me to the poorest of the poor. Everyone who carries the fragrance of eternity has to experience the dark valley of death. To be elegant comes from the inside. True love is to give and forgive. To give until it hurts. Forgiveness is not between you and another, forgiveness is between you and God. God holds our accounts. People laugh when they hurt. We are forgiven much but live so little. With God’s grace I left everything and found Him waiting for me with a crown of love. When you die to yourself you discover the beauty and power in yourself. Who are the poorest of the poor? The children. Children are hungry and starving… for love and affection. They are naked… lacking dignity When one has nothing God becomes everything When I touch a poor child, I touch Jesus Christ. When I listen to a poor child, I’m listening to God’s heart beating for all humanity. We build a church in the heart of every child we reach in a country where it’s not always possible to build a church. Silence is the secret To be in silence is to be fully inside your own self. It’s not easy, but there you discover the taste of eternity. The Kingdom is within you. The silence is the secret – the first step – to finding treasure. There are secrets in silence. Silence your body to listen. Silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts. Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart beating. Silence your heart to listen to your spirit. Silence your spirit to listen to His Spirit. In silence you leave many and be with the One. If God has chosen me, believe me when I say I’m the least of any of you here. Bill Hybels Jeremiah received a tough calling from God: to speak God’s word to God’s people. The words God wanted Jeremiah to speak were words of warning to shake them up and wake them up. Nothing goes well. No one likes what he has to say. God tells him to keep speaking so he does. He gets beaten and put on display for shame. In Jeremiah 20, he tells God how he feels. “You sweet talked me… and I bought it. This isn’t what I had in mind.” He was torn between being faithful to his calling and his ache for success. Give up the ache to be successful in the eyes of the world and go with what God is calling you to do. Jeremiah wrote his lament down… it’s in our Bible. At the end of his lament he had clarity: throughout all of it, God’s mercies were new to him every morning. “I have had very little hardship carrying out what God has called me to do.” If you watch one episode of the evening news, you know our world is broken and it’s getting worse. The fixes that are going to be required for the ills of our society are not going to be easy assignments. They won’t be short-term assignments. God is looking for some strong-shouldered leaders who are available to take on tough callings. “I stand in awe of leader who receive tough assignments.” Do you have the courage to listen? What is your tough calling? This world won’t get fixed unless leaders like us are available for tough assignments.

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Steven Furtick Posted: 11 Aug 2011 03:09 PM PDT At 31, Steven Furtick is living proof that youth is not a barrier for God. Five years ago, Furtick recruited a team of friends and planted Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Today, Elevation is one of the fastest-growing churches in America, with more than 8,000 in attendance. His new book, Sun Stand Still, inspires believers toward audacious faith, rooted in prayer and unbound by circumstances. “God revels in doing the impossible through those willing to dream big—and ask,” he says. What audacious dream has God planted in your soul? And what kind of leadership does it require? Take the plunge toward leadership marked by deeper faith and riskier audacity. Stevenfurtick.com Elevationchurch.org Sun Stand Still Blog Steven Furtick on Facebook Steven Furtick on Twitter “Who is Steven Furtick?” Paul said to not let anyone look down on you because you are on. I’m an expert on the idea of being dumb enough that God can do anything. Anything that is written in God’s Word is possible for anyone who believes. Audacious faith is the chorus of his life and ministry. “I despair at the thought that my life might slip by without God showing Himself mighty in my life.” – Jim Cymbala 2 Kings 3:9-20 – an incident in the life of the prophet Elisha. Elisha is an under-rated prophet. Elisha did miracles everywhere he went. There’s is nothing God can’t do. We can position ourselves, learn and get training, but only God can make it rain. After we’ve done all that we can do, we have to remember that only God can send favor, mercy, salvation, and healing. Only God can make it rain. Proverbs 3:5-6… in ALL your ways acknowledge Him. We can’t expect God to show up in our work unless we do our work God’s way. Events like this are awesome… when you are here. You can do it. You can make it. In at atmosphere like this it’s easy to get fired up, be inspired, motivated to act, etc. Praise God for inspiration, but how will you get from inspiration to implementation? Having good ideas doesn’t make you a visionary, it makes you a daydreamer. The difference is having the audacity and courage to act. God gives you the faith to get started. If the size of the vision you have isn’t intimidating to you there’s a good chance it’s insulting to God. If you want to see the land filled with water, dig some ditches. Dig ditches in preparation for how God wants to use your life. You may not see rain or even see clouds, but don’t wait to get to work until you see the evidence of God’s blessing. Faith believes it before it sees it. Pray for God to start a groundswell. Don’t let time talk you out of your dreams. Life can beat the audacity out of you. God is not done with you yet. Do it or die trying. True faith has a bit of ambiguity to it. No leader is ever 100% sure that they’ve heard from God. Keep digging ditches. One of the reasons we struggle with insecurity is because we are comparing our behind-the-scenes with others highlight reels. If you will dig the ditches God will send the rain. If you will do what you can do God will do what only He can do. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like anything is happening, but you don’t know what God is doing behind-the-scenes. Faith is the evidence of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen. Expect God to do great things through your life. Don’t dig one ditch… make the valley full. Noah looked stupid building a boat until it started to rain. When the vision you see around you doesn’t match what God has spoken to you, you’ve got to close your eyes and hold on to what you’ve heard. Be a ditch-digger. Believe for God to do great things.

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Seth Godin Posted: 11 Aug 2011 01:40 PM PDT With a #1 marketing blog, top 100 website Squidoo and twelve bestselling books (including The Purple Cow, Tribes, and latest release, Linchpin), marketing guru Seth Godin is one of the most imaginative free-thinkers in the world today. He makes a career out of perpetually re-inventing himself and his businesses—spreading powerful ideas and delivering something remarkable every day. Godin believes you can be remarkable too. He creates disequilibrium that pushes you to get grounded in what you believe, while firing up your creative prowess to face head-on the roadblocks in your ministry, work and life. Godin is contagious. Spend time with him and shake your brain. Sethgodin.com Squidoo Seth Godin Blog Seth Godin on Facebook Mashable Insight, Interview with Seth Godin on What it Takes to be a Linch Someone here today is going to change everything. Someone here is going to do something that matters. They are going to do it, not because someone told them to or asked them to, but because they chose to do it. Seth shared the story of Nathan Winograd. 1 guy decided to want to do work that matters. This is the opposite of the legend of Betty Crocker… created average products for average people. The legend of Betty Crocker is fading. There is something that is not working the way that it used to. There is a notion that we can promote an idea from a position of power is something we grew up with. Our society is built on the notion of more. The TV-Industrial Complex: Buy Ads > Get More Distribution > Sell More Products > Make a Profit > REPEAT Leads to average products for average people. If you are going to make something for everyone you have to make something everyone wants to buy. Mass is built into our culture. On our watch a revolution is happening. Revolutions do things that are perfect and impossible. Mass is fading away. We’ve branded ourselves to death. Revolutions destroy the perfect and enable the impossible. It’s the death of the industrial age. It’s being replaces by a new age of weird, edges, and different people needing different things. A tribe is a group of people who share a culture and a goal who want to be together. There is an explosion of tribes. As these tribes spring up and people meet-up, connect up and group up, things are changing. People still want what everyone wants… to be in synch. We do what we do because we are organized to do it. We want to do what OUR people are doing. Tribes need leaders. Who communicate, lead, connect and build a culture… that are clear about where they are going and why they are going. Show up, get us in synch and help us get there. There is an opportunity in front of us… is it YOUR opportunity? The people who owns the means of production get to own the factory… whoever owns the factory runs the town. The means of production aren’t factories anymore, they are laptops. Workers own the factory today… it’s our choice of what to do with it. The Industrial Revolution changed everything. The farmers stopped farming and got jobs. The crisis in front of ourselves asks the question, “is this the end of the job?” There is something beyond jobs… art. Art makes a line in the sand. Art brings humanity. There’s a different between art and painting. Art is the risky, human act of doing something you haven’t done before for someone else with someone else. There is natural tension between the boss and the workers. If you’re your own boss, why are you holding back? Henry Ford changed the world and made a lot of money through mass production. The factory mindset teaches compliance. There’s a difference between managing and leading. The system of following the rules have impacted all of us. The factory mindset leads to interchangeable parts and interchangeable people. We created a culture where we taught people to fit in… that makes the factory work. We have a chance to do things differently. There is no map for being an artist. If someone else can do it, it’s not worth doing. Competence isn’t important. Competence is no longer scarce. If I can write it down I can find it cheaper. The only option you have is to figure out how to race to the top. If all you can offer is the fact that you are the “local” church it isn’t much. Local is cheap. It’s not going to get you where you want to go. Quit bowling. Bowling is not a popular spectator sport. What people talk about is something they don’t expect. We don’t need people to memorize facts… information is easy to find today. We need to solve interesting problems. Don’t wait to get picked. Pick yourself. You don’t need permission. The internet has given you a microphone. Every project has 2 sides: success and failure. If what you do is so urgent that failure is not an option neither is success. It is impossible to do art without failure… that’s what makes it art. No one has done creative work with a Blackberry. In the back of our brain we have a lizard brain… the resistance. The lizard brain can be helpful, but most of the time it forces us to act like sheep. Just because the tide is out, doesn’t mean there’s less water in the ocean. If you want to stand out… stand out! Do something worth talking about. Meaningful art is a gift. Meaningful art changes people. Too many people walk around holding on to something that’s meant to be given away while it rots. We are constantly looking for a reason to not do our art. Is this seat taken? How many people want your seat? How many people want your platform? You can make excuses or see the opportunity of a lifetime in front of you. What are you going to do abou it? Make art. Give gifts. Do work that matters. Connect. If it’s worth doing, what are you waiting for? On the edges of the box, you’ve got a chance to dance, connect, and to lead. Put yourself on the line. The word is begging you to lead them.

Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit :: Dr Brenda Salter McNeil Posted: 11 Aug 2011 12:57 PM PDT “The Church of today is a place of collaboration, a countercultural community of reconciliation and justice,” says Rev. Brenda Salter McNeil, a much-sought-after speaker worldwide—and one frequently requested by attendees of The Global Leadership Summit. President of a leadership development organization and a 2010 presenter at the Lausanne World Congress in South Africa, Rev. Salter McNeil is zealous about preparing the Church for the impact of globalization by changing the way the next generation of Christian leaders think and act toward people who are different. Rev. Salter McNeil is a lightning rod for transformation, bringing people together from all nationalities to complete our shared Kingdom assignment in the Church and beyond. Salter McNeil & Associates Salter McNeil & Associates Blog Brenda Salter McNeil Twitter Facebook Page Outreach Magazine Where’s the Other Half of the Gospel? Leadership Journal Get Out of Jerusalem In 1986, Brenda and her husband were invited to England to talk about the African-American Church in America. Redundancy in the church has happened as a result of industrialization. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you come sooner? Didn’t you know what we were going through?” A catalytic event is a game-changer. It’s a moment that changes everything. It will broaden your experience, humble you, and expand your worldview Catalytic events are never nice, easy, or comfortable. Catalytic events cause you to hang on for dear life. Words can fail to communicate feelings in catalytic events. In 1947, Captain Chuck Yaeger broke through the sound barrier. Many other people tried what Chuck did and failed. When the severeness of the shaking was at its most intense, Chuck resisted the temptation to pull back and he moved forward. Most of us have been impacted by huge demographic, economic and cultural shifts that have changed our world over the past decade. It’s shaken us at our core at the speed of light. These catalytic events are unprecedented. Young leaders have grown up with the shaking around us beneath their feet. The new generation is global by default. Technology has made it possible for the world to be connected. We know what’s going on? How have you responded to that as a leader? Are you suffering from information over-load? Has it immobilized you? Or, has it challenged and spurred you forward? Acts 1:8  was the catalytic moment that birthed the Church. This text defines our mission until Jesus returns. Everyone who receives the apostles’ teaching become witnesses of the Kingdom of God. We are to take it across geographical, economical, and racial boundaries. We need to lead the church forward into a global future. God has created us for globalness. There is a movement outward. We have to break through one cultural barrier after another. 1  - We must begin in Jerusalem Jerusalem represents our home turf, our comfort zone. It’s a place where we are known and people understand us. It’s where we feel most comfortable and connected. It’s a place where people are most culturally like us. It’s a place where even if they don’t like you they have to let you in. At first glance, any leader could make a church work in a setting like Jerusalem. It takes courage to be a catalytic leader. If you really think about it, it takes courage to be a catalytic leader in Jerusalem. It’s not… it forces us to look at our own bigotry. We have to take on the risk to talk to our own family, our own people, our own kind. We have to have the courage to address the systems that aren’t inclusive. 2 – Judea Judea is the place in your world that is close to home but is not quite home. There are subcultures that require acceptance and flexibility. There are cultural differences expresses there are tough to navigate. They are subcultures that divide us. We are all from the same place but we are speaking a different language. It’s like one generation talking to another… we need translators. Ministry in Judea requires catalytic change and prophetic leadership. 3 – Samaria A place nearby that we avoid. Represents people who are hostile to us. We don’t relate to them at all. They are the “other.” Samaria’s worldview is different than ours. Like the neighborhoods we drive through and lock our doors. It’s a place of sex trafficking. It’s a place of child soldiers. It’s a place of corporate greed. It’s a place of environmental injustice. We are called to be witnesses in Samaria. It means moving outward and experiencing the otherness of those around us. It’s not easy. It takes an extraordinary leader to go to Samaria. Requires leaders who have extraordinary thinking. It moves you beyond your natural affinities. Jesus said, “you shall receive POWER…” to push us out of our comfort zones. Samaria forces us to contend with the complexities of our differences. You can’t escape it. Requires unorthodox methods. How Do We Move From Where We Are to Where Jesus Calls Us To Be? We have to have a catalyst. Without a catalyst we stay stuck in our safe space. We have to have something that pushes us from where we are to where we are supposed to be. Acts 2 is the Catalytic Event. People were bewildered by what they heard and were amazed. The accuracy, authenticity and credibility of what people heard was undeniably clear. A mutli-national, multi-lingual, multi-racial church was born in Acts 2. It was a global movement. It’s amazing and confusing The Church is called to be counter-cultural. It’s meant to confuse and bewilder the world. Like Peter, we need to be ready to answer the question of what the catalytic events in our day mean. As catalytic leaders we have to be willing and ready to interpret the events of our time through the eyes of faith, not fear. Maybe globalization  God’s way of getting people who have been isolated have to learn how to partner together and collaborate. How To Be a Catalytic Leader 1 – Pray for Divine Mandate Catalytic events are not things we can conjure up. They happen when God breaks through with something new We can’t do something about everything, but we can do something about a few things. Ask, “what things need my name on it?” The most dangerous prayer you can ever pray is, “God, break our heart for what breaks yours.” It’s not what we can do but what God can do. 2 – Name Your Catalytic Event Stop and ask God, “What are you doing?” We need Christian leaders that view catastrophic events as catalytic moments for the spirit of God to break in. God is not dead. He is still able. The Father has always worked. God is at work in our world. Our job is to find where God is at work. Look for the catalytic events that will set you up for success. 3 – Mobilize people to go! Faith without works is dead. The creative tension in collaboration is what God had in mind for the Church. It takes courage to have conversations across the aisle. Don’t stop there. Push forward to Samaria… the area where we are culturally, politically, and ethnically different. Don’t go to help. Go to learn. Learn the language of the people different than you. Learn to speak with authenticity. Immerse yourself in the culture even when you want to run. Don’t practice voyeurism… get engaged and become a part of what is going on. A PhD and Doctorate mean nothing if they aren’t relevant to people. Where is Your Samaria? That is where God is calling you to go. That’s where you are supposed to be. We need to experience our own Pentecost. What you decide right here and right now may be the spark that lights a fire to transform your church. God wants to interrupt our previously scheduled program. We need to lead past every boundary that has ever held us back. We need new languages to speak with authenticity and credibility. We need to become the global church God has called us to be.

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