Life is happening, and God is moving

I have so much to blog about!  I have been learning and growing so much, especially after attending part one of Willow Creek Community Church's Global Leadership Summit today.  I took notes like a madwoman (I thought my paper was going to catch fire when Dr. Len Schlesinger was speaking!).  I heard about how society is changing, for the good and the bad, and what we can do to get on board with the good in order to start tackling the bad.  The biggest lesson I am learning right now is that there is no way to escape change.  I want life to be steady and constant, even though a lot of folks would say that means I prefer life to be boring.  But recently I am being stretched to understand and accept that life IS change.

An amazing lineup of Summit speakers talked about, in one way or another, this idea that to be successful in life and leadership we must not only accept the inevitability of change but actually use it to our advantage.

This is difficult for me.

Bill Hybels, founder and Senior Pastor of the Willow Creek church, was the first speaker.  He reminded us of a central point of last year's summit: Ministry is about working with God to get us and our organization from here to there.  Okay, that wears me out.  The thing is... that means we never get there!  If we are always trying to get from here to there, there really is no there because once we get there it becomes here and we have to start working on getting to the next there.  Phew!  Does that overwhelm and completely exhaust anyone else just thinking about that?

But it's true.  God doesn't want stagnant people, and the world doesn't need stagnant leaders.  

There is so much more to say about the wisdom this year's speakers at the Summit have already shared, but I am very encouraged so far by messages being proclaimed.  This is a different kind of hope and change that was promised to America in 2008.  This is the everlasting hope of the Gospel and the restorative change offered only by Christ.  My God is not dead; He's surely alive.  He does not stand for the injustices of this world, and neither will I.  In fact, I will take responsibility for my role in the church to stand up against them.  Our world is suffering, but the darkness will not prevail, for light always comes in the morning.