The Willow Creek Leadership Summit will impact more than 190,000 leaders in 105 countries and it will be broadcast live to more than 300 locations in North America on August 14 -15 2014.  Over the next few months I will be presenting a series of blogs on some of the speakers for this year’s Leadership Summit.

Bill Hybels is the founder of the Leadership Summit and is a gifted vision caster.    If you want to learn how to cast an effective vision then Bill Hybels is an excellent role model.  In Axiom:  Powerful Leadership Proverbs, Hybels writes,

At the core of leadership sits the power of vision, in my estimation the most potent offensive weapon in the leader’s arsenal.  It has been defined dozens of ways, but for me, the crispest articulation of vision is that it’s a “picture of the future that produces passion in people.”  (p. 30)

Willow Creek Community Church is a testimony of Hybels ability to move people to follow a God-honoring vision.  Here is an example as Hybels shares his vision for the local church,

Gang, this is it!  Don’t you see it?  Can’t you feel it?  The local church is the hope of the world!  It’s the God-ordained redemptive agency that the future of the entire world hangs on.  Cancel your career plans!  Do something important with your one and only life!  Lay it down for the sake of the local church!”  (p. 30)

See what I mean.  If you want to renew your vision for your role in the local church then come to the Summit this summer.  The writer of Proverbs reminds us,

Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained,  but happy is he who keeps the law.  (Proverbs 29:18)

May you have the vision to see the world as God sees the world.

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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