The Willow Creek Leadership Summit...

[Mark]

... was telecast live from Chicago to Birmingham last week. For three days, our church staff attended most of it (held in the impressive new building of Mountaintop Community Church - heavily underwritten, btw, by Richard M. Scrushy of HealthSouth prior to falling from grace, according to The Birmingham News).

Let the record show I admire Willow Creek, but do not agree with everything the Willow Creek Assocation does. The conference was far more enjoyable than I ever expected. Some of it electrifying, in fact.

Get this partial list of speakers: T.D. Jakes, Bill Hybels, USC President Steve Sample, Coach Pat Summitt of Univ of Tennessee women's basketball fame (introduced by Willow Creek's female "Teaching Pastor", btw), Yahoo's Tim Sanders (eccentric, fascinating, powerful), and one of the top people from The Gallop Poll, whose name escapes me.

Memorable quote among many from Hybels, who has always impressed me as being less rooster-ish than other mega pastors: "Early on we wanted to build a church where the spiritual gifts and callings of men and women, young and old, would be recognized equally..."

[Wade]

[Mark]

[Ed Pettibone]

[mlovell]

[Mark Pepin]

[mlovell]

[Mark Pepin]

[Mark]

[Joshua Villines]

[Norm]

[wilkey]

[Mark]

[bobfrgsn]

[John Sneed]

[bobfrgsn]

[John Sneed]

[Mark]

[bobfrgsn]

[bobfrgsn]

[John Sneed]

[bobfrgsn]