We are headed out to the first day of Willow Creek Association’s A2 conference. Designed to be different than the leadership summit, its goal is to change the typical conference learning experience by exploring case studies of five innovative church models — first introduced by their leaders then followed by a lively Q&A by the “bullpen” — questioned by a panel of church experts which includes Bill Hybels, Erwin McManus, David Anderson, William Vanderbloemen, Jim Mellado, and Greg Hawkins.The goal of this conference is to help church leaders and staff learn how to anticipate and avoid common ministry pitfalls and apply breakthrough thinking and principles to the mission of each individual church. The church models on the docket are:
Wednesday (today)
- LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) :: Craig Groeschel :: Multi-site Phenomenon
- Los Angeles Dream Center (Los Angeles, CA) :: Matthew Barnett :: Community Impact
Thursday
- Christ Church (Montclair, NJ) :: David Ireland :: Multicultural Outreach
- CityLife Church (Australia) :: Mark & Nicole Conner :: Leading Through Change
Friday
- Gateway Church (Austin, TX) :: John Burke :: Come-As-You-Are Culture
And to top it off, Gene Appel – now the Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington campus) will share his latest transition strategies and leadership challenges for their next era of ministry.
I am looking forweard to hearing the Life Church multi-site strategy as well as John Burke from Gateway Community Church, whom I met at a conference last year — he and his staff were very helpful as we underwent our capital campaign in sharing “lessons learned” and “if I could have done it differently’s”. I am also hoping to get some breakout time with Greg Hawkins, Willows Executive Pastor who has been a great blessing over the last year.
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