Live Q & A Webcast with Bill Hybels

"When God speaks and you hear His voice, when He gives you short bursts of direction, encouragement, warning, challenge- and you heed it- you start that incomparable adventure of being in sync with the hand and the heart of a holy God." -Bill Hybels

One of the greatest thrills of the Christ-following life comes from hearing directly from God. Are you listening? On Friday, October 29th at noon (CDT) Jim Mellado will interview Bill Hybels for a LIVE Q & A webcast. Bill will be answering some of the questions you submitted as he unpacks what it really means to listen to God's whispers. (If you have a question during the webcast, join the live chat box during the webcast or tweet your question in advance using ‘#whisper’).

• Whispers: Hearing God and Responding Webcast Info

The Global Leadership Summit – week 4

The GLS internationally continues with thousands of leaders blessed each weekend throughout the fall months. We’re almost half-way through the GLS season and we're reminded of the amazing stories of leaders who are stepping up to lead in the Church.

Here are some reports from the Oct 22-23 GLS weekend:

From East London, South Africa:

• The GLS in East London saw some amazing ministry! 400 delegates came together from 30 different churches to share the GLS experience. Great for a first year site!


• More than 50% of our guests were from the nearby township Mdantsane and they were sponsored delegates under the leadership of Pastor John Amoah from Mdantsane Community Church. Mdantsane is the 2^nd largest township in South Africa with a population of about 1.5 million people. Unemployment rate is around 70%.


• It was by far the most diverse group of delegates we have had attending the GLS ever in SA and we give God thanks.


• Once again we witnessed the work of the Holy Spirit as God came in power and reached out to His people as they cried out before him. Again after the Land Between session by Jeff Manion many people responded and came forward out of their seats for prayer. They knelt and they lay down prostrate as they received God’s holy touch. They stood with arms lifted high towards the heavens showing God how much they needed him to touch them! They sat and allowed the worship to wash over them as God poured out His mercy and compassion!


• Some guests made a declaration during the event. Here are just two:
  

From the GLS in East London, South Africa:



From Perth, Australia:

As usual, there were audible “Amens” and visible responses to messages on the screen. Bill drew them all in from the start and people were highly engaged.

After Andy Stanley, many people were talking into the break about managing the tension in ministry and family situations. Facilitation time after this session was highly dynamic. Christine Caine was a favourite with the crowd clapping fervently at the end of her message.

Jeff Manion led us into a time of ministry where pastors and leaders went to the front who needed to walk out of criticism and into trust and receive healing. It was an amazing moment of worship.


Declarations came in constantly and were read out over the two days. Some of them include:

• I declare that I will go into the darkness with more confidence understanding the hope I have on the inside of me


• I declare that I will listen to the cry of the oppressed and the needy, I will not lose hope, I will do all I can on my watch!


• I will clean up my antenna to hear from God


• With God in the drivers seat I know I can put all my trust in Him and fear, doubt and anxiety have no place in my life.


• I declare that I will commit and lay everything on the line to be God’s hands and feet for those who are hurting, broken and need hope.


• I declare that our whole family will buy a pair of Tom’s shoes so that we can share the joy of giving.


• I will continue to allow Jesus to build His church while I connect with people outside the church.

This weekend, The GLS moves into countries and cities that are not well resourced. We’ve received word from our Taiwan and Indonesia sites that preparations are now underway and that things are going well!

A picture from preparations in Surabaya, Indonesia:


Below is the list of cities we’ll be in this coming weekend, October 29-30.

Haiti - Port-au-Prince
Kazakhstan - Almaty
Brazil - Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo
Ghana - Tema
Indonesia - Surabaya
Australia - Wollogong
Bulgaria - Sofia
Canada - Prince George, Pierrefonds, Terrace, Kamloops, Medicine Hat
Denmark - Copenhagen
Namibia - Windhoek
South Africa - Mpumalanga
Sweden - Gothenburg, Stockholm
Taiwan - Taipei

Thank you for taking this journey with us. We covet your prayers!

The Global Leadership Summit- Week 3

On October 15-16, The Global Leadership Summit took place in 19 sites, 8 countries with 8,892 people in attendance.

This weekend in Nigeria, there were an amazing 6,000 attendees at 6 sites. Below are some of the stories collected from some of those attendees.

• As the event manager, I was apprehensive about how the attendees will take the video cast, but the effect was awesome as I saw smiles, resolve, determination on faces and some making inquiries about GLS 2011. I thank God for the success of the program. ~George Edwin, Nigerian Event Manager
• Christine Caine aroused my love and passion for the Lord again. Lord Jesus- Send me anywhere and I'll go for you. Messages from Blake Mycoskie, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels were used to strengthen my faith in service to humanity for God's sake. ~Pastor Augusta
• The Global Leadership Summit 2010 was a wonderful experience for me. In the last two weeks prior to the conference, I have been confused, in a cross road, and burdened with a lot of personal and ministry related issues. I have being praying concerning these issues, but little did I expect that God will use the GLS to provide solution and heal my heart. I walked into the conference while Pastor Jeff Manion was teaching on the topic ‘THE LAND BETWEEN”. By that singular/awesome teaching/ministration, not only was the burden lifted, but God opened my eyes to fresh revelations & insights, and a clear cut direction on how to run my ministry and my personal life. AM BACK ON TRACK, to God be the Glory. Thank you. ~Henshaw Elvin

For the first time this fall, we hosted a Spanish Global Summit within the borders of the US. In The Bronx, New York this past weekend, Spanish-speaking leaders gathered to be equipped and inspired. Below are some pictures of the ministry that took place:



Even in Western countries, the church fights against extreme secularism and apathy of the culture at large. Below is a video of The GLS leader in the UK and Ireland, Graeme Paris, explaining some of the situation where he works to bring this content to the churches they serve.



This weekend, October 22-23, The Global Leadership Summit will be in 8 countries and 14 sites. Below is the schedule:

• Brazil – Salvador, Rio de Janeiro
• Ghana – Koforidua
• Australia – Launceston, Perth, Sydney, Gold Coast
• Faroe Islands – Torshavn
• Guatemala – Guatemala City
• Romania – Craiova
• South Africa – Jeffery’s Bay, Welkom, East London
• United Kingdom – Stockton-on-Tees

If you feel led, would you pick a site and pray for it specifically as you go through your week, and especially on Friday and Saturday as the GLS is happening in that city? Our volunteer teams work so hard to bring this event to life and any bit of prayer support is so appreciated by them.

To find out up to the minute GLS updates, follow us on twitter, facebook or follow Gary Schwammlein, our EVP of international ministries on twitter as he travels to GLS sites all over the world.

We can’t wait to see what God will do!

By: WCA (@wcagls)

Emotionally Healthy Leadership: 8 Challenges

I spent most of my adult life reading great leadership books. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality led me on a journey, however, to recognize there were unique issues to church leadership that were rarely discussed. I have identified eight unique leadership challenges, each of which is powerful and far reaching in their implications. Each is worthy of a chapter or a book itself. I have crafted them in the form of tensions that we hold as leaders.

1. Dual Relationships- Supervision and Being Friends
We are a church family and we often hire our friends who then become our employees. The result is I become both your pastor/spiritual leader/supervisor and friend. Which is it? We hire people we mentor and then they become our employees with a contractual agreement and money is exchanged. We are naïve to admit that all things are equal. They are not when we have the power to fire or increase/decrease someone’s pay. The people we lead do not have the same power over us. Friends enjoy an equal power relationship.

Dual relationships create countless opportunities for misunderstandings. Am I saying, “Don’t ever do it?” No, just do it with your eyes open. The risk is enormous. Failures and broken friendships abound in church leaderships around the world.

2. Hiring/Firing and Being a Church Family
This is perhaps our most difficult challenge as church leaders. To terminate a person in the corporate world is painful. In a church setting, it is excruciating. We became pastors and leaders to serve and help people, not hurt them. Yet if we don’t steward God’s resources well by hiring and firing well, we betray our people who trust we are leading well and doing the right thing.

3. Strategic Planning and Waiting on God
Balancing the process of goal setting and the strategic planning process with prayerful discernment is no small task. What is God saying? What season are we in as a church/organization? What is God’s will for us? The fact that a door is open and we can do something does not mean it is His will for us now. Jesus struggled with the will of the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had to submit his will to the Father. How much more do we?

4. Preaching/Teaching and Our Integrity
It is easy to preach what we are not living. I know. People trust we have spent the time with God in prayer and stillness to speak for Him publicly. People trust we are living what we are preaching. If we can’t say “Imitate me as I imitate Christ,” then we need to press the pause button. Investing time in our development and growth is perhaps the greatest contribution we make to our teaching and to our people.

5. Leading the Church and the Marriage Vow
Ephesians 5:32 says that our earthly marriage is a pointer of something beyond itself – of the profound mystery of Christ’s marriage to His bride, the church. Our marriage, if we are married, is our most powerful message to our churches. It is a sacrament, imaging something invisible! The marriage vow is both a limit and a gift. Like a monastic vow it informs all we do and every decision we make every day. To expand our churches as if we were single is a violation of Scripture and our vows.

6. Social Media/Technology and the Ancient Church
God has called us, like the apostle Paul, to contextualize the gospel and bring Christ to our culture. That culture today is Twitter, blogging, Facebook and the worldwide web. At the same time we learn from the great cloud of witnesses who have preceded us. We learn from church history and the early church fathers (e.g. Ignatius of Antioch, Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, Basil, Gregory the Great, Augustine) who were leaders of local churches, theologians, and monks who prayed their theology. We are called to be an “Ancient/Future Church.”

7. The Gift of Limits and Casting Vision
The issue of limits touches the core of our tendency to do our will not God’s, to rebel rather than submit, to grasp rather than surrender. Adam and Eve violated God’s limits. Jesus submitted to the Father’s in the wilderness. We are called to lead our people into the God’s future. We carry the tension, however, that we easily can take over Gods’ work for Him, violate His protective gift of limits, and unleash chaos into our churches. Remember: “a man can receive only what is given him from heaven” John 3:27.

8. Listening to God in Our Losses and Leading by Faith
In every church relationships end, ministries die, dreams dissipate and leaders move on. Jeremiah, Jesus, Job, and David had a full-orbed theology for the disorientation that comes with loss and grieving. Integrating this into our Western church culture of leadership that is always growing and expanding to take the next hill is problematic. We are called to lead our people forward. The discernment question is whether that means leading them to listen to God internally first before moving into the next new initiative.

What are other tensions that you would add to this list?

By: Pete Scazzero (@petescazzero)
Senior Pastor of New Life Fellowship Church in New York and author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

This post was printed with permission from Pete's Blog, PeteScazzero.com (Thanks Pete!)

Finding Your Leadership Voice

Our WCA team in Canada asked Nancy Beach, "What are some of the things that you have done to find your voice in leadership?" Nancy answers the question in the below 2 min video.



"Many women leaders need to develop the right kind of talking back- the ability to present an alternative view, challenge the status quo, and exert one's own unique voice. Talking back effectively does not require a leader to be strident, offensive, controlling, or hostile. Rather, a woman leader must develop the muscle of talking back from an inner core of strongly held values and beliefs, and a willingness to face her fears and even harness her anger to communicate with clarity, logic, and passion." -Nancy Beach


By: WCA (@wcagls)
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Nancy Beach and Nancy Ortberg will be LIVE in Maryland on October 27th and in Kansas on November 10th for Gifted to Lead, an interactive forum for women with the gift of leadership.

Prayers for Romania

The first of 7 Romanian GLS sites will be taking place this weekend, and we wanted to take a minute here to help you understand the context they serve in and highlight some prayer requests.

In 1989, Romania began its transition to democracy but the effects of communism are still evident today. In this soil, The Global Leadership Summit exists to serve pastors and cast a vision for what the church can be. (Hope for Romania)

The church in Romania is up against many leadership challenges, most of which are rooted in the vestiges of the communist era. Just a few symptoms of this problem include authoritarian leadership styles. The fragmentation of the Romanian spirit during the years of religious and ethnic persecution in the communist era. The absence of models in servant leadership.

Vasile Eugen Paul-Faina is the leader of The GLS in Romania. He and his team has requested prayer for the below items.

Pray for The GLS in Romania. More than 1,650 leaders from all across Romania are expected to attend 7 sites, the first of which is October 15-16, this weekend.

Pray for the tremendous effort involved, as hundreds of volunteers are going to step into their roles in the coming weeks. One of the long term goals is decentralizing and empowering the local teams to manage and run the events.

Pray for the national team, as a small crew will travel around about 4,000 miles by car, taking equipment, and overseeing the production and management in each one of the 7 venues.

Would you join us in praying for him and for the work his team is doing?

As you can see, it is a tremendous undertaking bringing the Summit to Romania. But we know that the investment we make in the leaders will yield huge Kingdom returns for the contexts these leaders serve in.

By: WCA (@wcagls)

Amazing Ministry in Week 2

5 countries, 13 sites, 4100 leaders. The second weekend of the GLS in 2010 has seen more amazing ministry as international leaders serving in extremely difficult contexts were equipped and inspired.

Photo of the Declaration Wall in Durban, South Africa



Close up of the Declaration Wall:



The opening moments of the Summit in Auckland, New Zealand.






The sites in Australia and New Zealand did a great job of celebrating their hardworking volunteers. WCA Australia & New Zealand recently wrote a blog post about the value of celebrating volunteers. The Summit internationally is run almost completely by volunteers. We literally would not be able to train thousands of leaders each year without committed volunteers. They serve with excellence and dedication!

This week, The Global Leadership Summit will be in 8 countries and 19 sites with 3500+ in attendance:

• Australia: Canberra, Melbourne, Toowoomba
• Lithuania: Klaipeda
• New Zealand: Christchurch, Palmerston
• Nigeria: Abuja (2 sites), Ado-Ekiti, Lagos (3 sites)
• Romania: Cluj-Napoca
• South Africa: Cape Town
• United Kingdom: Coventry, Gerrards Cross, New Castle, Poole
• USA (Spanish speaking): Bronx, NY

By: WCA (@wcagls) (Stay connected with GLS updates: follow Gary Schwammlein)

The Way God Makes a Lasting Impression

In 1 Kings 19, God sends word to Elijah to go stand on the side of the mountain where God will reveal Himself. What if God said to you today, “Go outside and wait because I’m going to show up.” Let me just say, I know I’d be going (and probably bring my camera!).

1 Kings 19:11-12: The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

The Bible says that a powerful wind started to blow, and it blew part of the mountain away. But God was not in the wind, and it died away. Then there was a powerful earthquake that shook the mountain. Elijah thought, ‘This must be God.’ But the text says, God was not in the earthquake. Then a consuming fire ignited, but God wasn’t in fire. After all of the displays of power, God shows up in a gentle whisper.

Is this the way to making a lasting impression on a prophet with a faltering faith?

No earthquake, no wind, no fire. God just wants to talk—heart to heart. What God is trying to do is establish relationship through conversation, rather than an explosion of some kind. It’s the same thing that God is trying to do today: establish and strengthen His relationship with you.

Scripture tells us, cover-to-cover, that God speaks to us through His whispers, His prompts, and His words. I’m a Christian today because of a whisper. And I’m a fired-up Christian today because of the still small voice of God that keeps speaking to me day in and day out.

If you’re waiting for some cosmic act of transcendent power, lower the ambient noise of your life and start listening for His still small voice. Listen. God still offers gentle invitations into relationships, gentle words of wisdom, gentle warnings; but the question is, will we listen? Will we respond?

When you’re in the kind of relationship with God where you hear God’s voice and you obey, He will do absolutely incredible things in and through your life. Are you up for that?

By: Bill Hybels (@BillHybels)
Senior Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church

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If you're looking for a next step, sign up for the webcast on October 29th with Bill Hybels and Jim Mellado: Whispers: Hearing God and Responding. (We'd love to hear your questions for Bill Hybels about discerning God's voice. If you have a question, you can post it here.)

What Will You Ask Bill Hybels?

One of the greatest thrills of the Christ-following life comes from hearing directly from God. Time and again the Scriptures tell us to be still. “Be silent, and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10). Reduce your speed. Stop multitasking.

Lower the ambient noise of your life—and then

listen for God to speak.

On October 29th, I’m taking an hour to interview Bill Hybels (which will be streamed LIVE via webcast) about what listening to and obeying God can do for a leader’s soul, a church, and even a community. As I prepare for the interview, I’d love to hear your suggestions for questions to ask Bill.

If you could ask Bill Hybels one question about discerning God’s voice, what would it be?

By: Jim Mellado (@JimMellado)

President, WCA

Bill Hybels’ New Book- For FREE

It's Free! Bill Hybels and Zondervan are giving away the Kindle Edition of The Power of a Whisper for free this week (until October 18th).

Pass it on!

By: WCA (@wcagls)

He Chose 12 and Changed the World

During the Summit we asked speakers to give us 'a few minutes more' after their message. This year Craig Groeschel interviewed Tony Dungy about the value of mentoring. Craig said, "I require everyone on our staff have someone outside of our organization mentor them." Craig continued, "Jesus was the greatest mentor of all time, He choose 12 and changed the world."



Ideas for Next Steps....

• Who in your life are you building into?
• Who is building into you? Who do you need to ask to build into?
• Summit Digital Resource Card to keep your leadership development moving after the Summit.
• Summit 2010 Team Edition to help you extend the impact of the Summit further into your team.

Leading from a Healthy Soul

"I heard God say… I love your service, but if you lose your soul, it’s not worth it." –Eric Camfield

Last week we met with Eric Camfield, Small Group Director at Christ Church of Oak Brook, talked us through that real change in a small group starts with a leader. The group leader doesn’t need to be perfect, but he or she does need to be working on their heart in order to help others do the same.

Eric shared his spiritual growth model for his congregation- STEP:

• Sight for the pathway
• Training for the soul
• Equipment for life
• Partners for the Journey

And he talked about 3 key roles for group leaders:

1. Invest in their faith journey
2. Follow 4 ministry values (LIFE) (Loving each other. Inviting others along. Finding ways to serve together. Engaging God in his word.)
3. Build with the end in mind.

“We often overestimate what we can do in one year, and underestimate what we can do in five.” -Eric Camfield

If you missed the STIR webcast with Eric, no worries, you can still watch a recording. The next webcast, The Word Became FRESH, is today from noon-1pm (Central time) with special guest Bill Donahue.

By: WCA (@wcagls)

Learn more about the STIR half day event for ministry leaders.

First Weekend of the GLS Rocked!

The first weekend of The GLS internationally was a huge success! Leaders who attended the GLS in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and New Zealand were served and inspired.

From Twitter:

“Great 1st day @ #wcagls in Scotland. Good is the enemy of great. Bill Hybels on leaders getting ppl from here 2 there. Hope! So much 4 1 day” from @Chuck_USS

“Fire of God is really coming down at willow conference at Rising Brook Church. Loving worshipping and being filled with living God” from @jonodown

“Stafford UK gls is amazing. Awesome to see hundreds of leaders worshipping togther and ministering to each other” from @jmthommo

“Two stimulating days at #wcagls Bristol. Thanks for excellent hosting, leading and organisation. The Land Between feels better now.” From @technovic

Below are pictures from our South Africa site where just over 1,000 people gathered at Gracepoint Methodist Church in Johannesburg.


From one of our Willow Creek South Africa leaders, Janine Couchman:

“This past week-end we experienced the GLS in Johannesburg where we saw God answer our fervent prayers and touch the lives of His leaders. This was one of the hardest preparations we have ever experienced for the GLS in our country and we are so grateful for the way God came through on the 1^st day of the event. Watching God take control of everything this past weekend was such a blessing! He did way more than we could have asked! He touched lives & hearts like only he can! His "shalom" was evident in everything!

One of the most powerful moments experienced was on day 2 after the Jeff Manion session called The Land Between. Our facilitator asked those who identified themselves in the land between to stand and 2/3 of the audience rose to their feet. Then he prayed for them and a holy silence fell during which time it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was at work bringing wholeness, healing, hope, renewed joy and the spirit to persevere. He then asked those nearby to place a hand on their shoulders and again he prayed for everyone to trust God. We’ve read many evaluation forms which mentioned this moment as giving them strength and courage to know they are not alone and that God is working with them even though they are in the wilderness.”

We are grateful to God for anointing he placed over this event and the way that it built into the leaders God has charged to lead his Kingdom on earth.

This week, October 8-9, The GLS will be in 5 countries and 13 cities. We are praying for equally as impactful events for all those who will be attending.

Australia: Adelaide, Brisbane, Geelong, & Newcastle
New Zealand: Dunedin, & Nelson
Nigeria: Lagos (DCC)
South Africa: Durban, & Port Elizabeth
United Kingdom: Bolton, London Battersea, St. Albans, & Swansea

If you’d like to know more, you can follow the GLS throughout the season to learn more about the countries, contexts, and prayer requests. We will also post updates, pictures and videos on this blog once the events are complete.

You can check our facebook page, follow @wcagls on twitter (hashtag: #wcagls), follow Gary Schwammlein to hear about his GLS travels taking him all over the world beginning October 12.

If you are a international guest yourself, we would love to hear about your experience! Feel free to leave a comment below and tell us about your leadership story.

Keep watching this space for more updates on all the awesome ministry happening all over the world!

By: Alex Mills
International Coordinator, WCA

Whoever Believes in Me

Over the next months, we’ll be posting a series of wallpaper downloads with scripture. Our hope is that they will serve as a daily reminder to connect and be in a relationship with our amazing God—a Father who meets us where we are.

October's highlighted verse is John 7:38- Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.

Download this month's desktop wallpaper.


> July's wallpaper
> August's wallpaper
> September's wallpaper

A Parable of Churchville

We hear a lot of stories of church leadership and spiritual transformation. One of the churches who has been engaged with REVEAL recently posted a blog titled, 'A Parable of Churchville.' We liked it and thought you might enjoy it too.

Welcome to Churchville, Population 10. (Generally very good and likeable people.)

An exciting opportunity has come to Churchville, as electricity has become available to the residents.

Time passes, and a very interesting thing happens. Half of the residents of Churchville take advantage of the availability of electricity by bringing it into their homes. One of these comes to believe so strongly in the benefits of electricity that he (upper left) is willing to give anything for the sake of electricity and deeply desires for all of his neighbors to come to experience it as he has. The four others who have connected to electricity are also enthusiastic about it. It has dramatically changed how they live their everyday lives. This "connected" half of Churchville's population all exhibit a love of electricity and a high degree of hospitality toward and concern for their neighbors.

But half of the residents of Churchville never chose to connect their homes to the available electric current, and they have varying reasons. One of them simply isn't convinced that electricity exists. He says that his neighbors who claim to have electricity in their homes are just fooling themselves with wishful thinking. Yet, even though he thinks these five neighbors of his are living under a delusion, he remains in Churchville rather than leaving, because it's a good place to be.

The other four of our non-electric residents are a bit more of a puzzle. They believe in electricity, but for whatever reason still have yet to make the appropriate arrangements for it to come into their home. The most notable thing, though, was three of these four seem to be unaware that they are living without electricity! They talk and often act as if they have it in their homes, even to the point of occasionally buying an appliance or sending the electric company money for the bill they think they owe. (One of them even volunteers to serve on the board of the electric company.) Yet these three continue to go on with their electricity-less lives, with no realization that they could be living any differently.

Only one of the non-electric residents notices the gap between how she is living and what her life would be like with electricity. One of the "connected" neighbors gave her a light bulb, and she really wants more light in her house. Neighbors and electric company workers are confident that she will make the necessary arrangements and become connected soon.

So what's the point of the parable? I am a big fan of the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey for churches. It seeks to give church leaders a measurable way of looking at how effectively they help people grow. Our church participated almost two years ago, and will take our second survey this fall to see how we have improved.

Our results indicate that somewhere close to 1/2 of our people have yet to significantly arrange their lives in ways that would make growth in their love for God and others natural. Also, of these, only about 1 in 5 recognize that things should be different.

Of all of the things that are presented to church leaders as worthy of our time and energy, nothing is more essential than this: modeling and communicating how profoundly good it is to live our lives fully in the kingdom of God, so that any others who desire to do so will know how, and that others will have a more accurate understanding of what it is they're being invited to in the Christian life.

"Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news: 'It's time. The kingdom of God is now available. Change your mind and direction and believe the good news." (Mark 1:15, paraphrase)

By: Rev. Daniel Harris, Pastor of Discipleship
First United Methodist Church of Midland, TX
Used with Permission from Daniel's blog: SalvationLife


If you're looking for more info on REVEAL, we've posted some research on small group transformation (shameless plug: we also have a webcast free series STIR - Spiritual Transformation In Relationship). You might have seen the post about the antidote for the average church or heard some buzz about REVEAL.

A Few Minutes More: Jeff Manion

During the Summit we asked speakers to give us 'a few minutes more' after their message. Jeff Manion reminded us that the land between is the very soil in which God does some of his richest and deepest work in us. If you are experiencing a land between, God can use this difficult time to foster transformational growth, but you have a choice.



IDEAS TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP

For You

• Are you experiencing the land between right now, or have you in the past? Take time to reflect on your current or past experiences in the land between.
• FREE chapter download from The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions by Jeff Manion
• Summit Digital Resource Card to keep your leadership development moving after the Summit.
• Are you in the land between? On October 29th, Bill Hybels will be interviewed by Jim Mellado during a webcast about taking time to hear and discern God's whispers.

For Your Team

• Summit 2010 Team Edition to help you extend the impact of the Summit further into your team.
• Free STIR Webcast Series designed for ministry leaders to give practical next steps for fostering spiritual growth through small groups.
• STIR: Half Day event - God uses relationships in our lives and ministries to open hearts, break sin patterns and transform us. The STIR One Day is design as a tool for Ministry Leaders. Gather all the small group leaders in your ministry for this half day of laser-focused training with immediate ministry application.