Leadership.

 This past week I attended a leadership conference for my job at the preschool. When my boss invited me to attend, I accepted and was intrigued, but really had no idea how much I would love it. After I left the conference on Friday, I felt refreshed and ready to change the world. It was the high you get after you go to a high-energy youth conference, except now I am an adult.

A little background on the Global Leadership Summit. I believe this was the seventeenth year of the conference and it is held in a suburb of Chicago at Willow Creek Community Church, a church that has 20,000 people in attendance on a weekend. HUGE. I stayed in my own town for the conference and attended the conference via satellite - while not as thrilling, was still effective. The conference was shown around the world via satellite with approximately 65,000 + leaders watching. The material was aimed for church leaders, but I found many nuggets of truth to apply to my job as a special events coordinator for a preschool and also my personal life as a mom. All the speakers were well-known authors or leaders in the world, including Bill Hybels, Condoleezza Rice, Jim Collins, and John Ortberg. There were other people there that I had never heard of, but are changing their corner of the world in crazy ways.Gungor and a Cello Beatboxer (a guy named Kevin Olusola - youtube him - you will be AMAZED!) were musical guests at the conference as well. All in all, it was pretty inspirational.

Here are few nuggets of truth and inspirational quotes I picked up there and thought I would share:

One of my favorite talks was Bill Hybels. A quote that stuck out in my mind was when he was talking about the parable in the Bible of the sower of seed: "If you want to see more trees, plant more seeds!"  He also talked about his use of an index card and focusing on six goals/tasks for six weeks and putting focus and prayer into those six things. He closed his speech with the question "Have you thanked God lately for getting to lead something?"

Another speech I found amazing was Craig Groeschel. I loved the quote he started his talk with: "If you're not dead, you're not done." If you aren't dead, then you aren't done serving the Lord and being a leader. He also said that we typically overestimate what we can do in the short run, but underestimate what we can do with a life of faithfulness." Another point he made was that honor builds up.

One other speaker that had an incredible story was Pranitha Timothy. After a brain tumor took away her speech for two years, God gave her back her voice and she has been using it for Him. She has been a part of leading 50 slave rescue operations in India. Looking at her you would not think of her as a leader or a courageous woman, but she is amazing and doing things for the Lord. I love some of the points she made during her speech. We are called to serve. This life belongs to God and it is not our own.

A few other quotes that were amazing:

John Ortberg: "Too often we argue about Christianity instead of marveling at Jesus."

Marc Kielburger: "Take your gift you are good at and an issue you are passionate about and put them together to make a better world"

Jim Collins: "The X factor of great leadership is humility, along with will."

Condoleezza Rice: "After Struggle comes victory (After Friday came Sunday)"

Patrick Lencioni: "Your Core value is something you are willing to be punished for."

This conference made me want to go out and change the world and make a difference. Now I just need to figure out what God has in store for me...