The Willow Creek Leadership Summit (satellite conference), hosted at our church this past August 2007, allowed for our church servant-leaders to experience first hand the powerful extent of the subject of leadership in Christ's message.  We hope that you enjoy the following— off the hook— expressions on how Willow Creek impacted on their leadership understanding.

Norma Moran-Living Letters

Homeless Karaoke, by Jacqueline Smith ~ Crossroads Tabernacle

Imagine…

Sleeping under a bridge

The cold winter

Eating at your flesh

No food to eat

Everyone passes you by

as though

you are invisible.

Imagine…

A hot meal, a warm smile

a loving embrace from a friend

a place you could gather

if just for a few hours

No longer overwhelmed

by the daily struggles

of life.

Imagine…

The sound of laughter

People smiling at one another enjoying each other's company

having a

 “Good Ole” time.

Imagine…

Homeless Karaoke

Rejoicing, enjoying the company of others

Finally you are noticed

the smile on your face warms your heart.

It’s contagious.

How many times over have we all failed or fallen short of God's glory!  There is hope in the resurrected Lord.  The action to this is to reach for God's transforming word.  It is the safe haven we all need to embrace when taking a daily inventory in the intimate embrace of a mighty wonderful Father.  I thank God, that His door is never closed.  He is always waiting for us to come in and commune with Him.

The "Open Door Policy," which was mentioned by Colin Powell during the Leadership summit, is the action of a true Leader.  Imagine, not taking advantage of an opportunity to speak to someone when you are in a powerful position and in control of so many! 

Again, I think of Jesus— My Everything— His door is always open.  There is no line to stand on.  There is no third party to question our motives for speaking to the Man in Charge.  He is always willing to speak to us.  He is always prepared to show us the pros and cons of our situation.  His kind and compassionate ways are so inviting, that we will speak without worry and concern, even to the point of not worrying about the sophisticated word that might impress Him.  He knows everything about us.  He knows all our thoughts (Psalm 139), and when He gives us his thoughts it is with unconditional love. 

When will we take advantage of such an opportunity?

Joan Kilcullen Lopez

Deacon, Crossroads Tabernacle

Vision to Die For: A Lesson from Bill Hybels

-Belinda Ramos

When Christ invited us to share new life with Him, He extended His hand of grace, but He also invited us to take part in His suffering.  That doesn’t seem like a good deal, does it?  So then, how did Christ get us all to sign up for the program?  Doesn’t the heavenly payoff seem too far for this?  It seems like our teacher knew how to get His followers to pay a high price for something He saw worthwhile, and we bought it.  In his talk about vision casting, Bill Hybels dropped the pearls of how to get people to own a vision. “They will sacrifice if you sacrifice, they will take a bullet if you will.”

Is that not what our leader, Jesus Christ, did for us?  Christ painted a picture of a people saved through Him, and we believed.  But, the buck doesn’t stop there.  We saw Him believe it first, and boy, is that contagious!  I’ve been challenged to own my status as a servant of Christ, not a hired hand who treats her labor as categorical work (worth it vs. not worth it). Instead, I accept this vision as core to my being, even to the point of death (John 10:11-14).  He wants me to be vested owner of His plan for fulfillment for the world.  The fork in the road is this: will I own it when the going gets tough?  Christ has fully included us in his venture.  He desires for us to be a full part of what is eternally significant.  How do we expect others to become a part of anything we do for Christ, if we don’t believe it with our very lives?

Would Martin Luther King have been as effective if he hadn’t been the first to demonstrate peace when the opposition brought out clubs, fire hoses, and ultimately a firearm?  Would a Rwandan hotel have been transformed into a sanctuary for victims of ethnic cleansing if a man had considered the cost to his own life?  Would the followers of “The Way” have endured persecution if Paul hadn’t written bloodstained letters from prison?   As Bill put it, "no one wants to follow a hireling."

"Vision is like a painting of a picture that brings passion to the people."  This is what Billy Hybels shared at the leadership summit.  It made me reflect on the motivational, inspirational, prayer request, praise report e-mail ministry that the Lord has entrusted me with.  This manner of prayer request has grown rapidly and this is the area where I see the passion of the people uniting to reach out, encourage, and lift one another up.  I walked away from this summit (my first) in awe at the beauty and work God is manifesting through His people; this is the heart and love in the Spirit of God that is operating through every person on the e-mail list to bring comfort, compassion, and hope to those that take the time to submit a prayer request. I thank God for being used as the bridge to connect them all to this compelling cause and for those that are being used as "ministers of first impressions."

Marlene Torres (Molly)

Crossroads Tabernacle

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