As I reflect on the 2011 Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, I felt the over-arching theme was a push toward action. While this is not unique to the Global Leadership Summit, I felt it was more stressed this year.
Leadership is, according to Wikipedia, “the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.” So, by the very definition, leadership is all about action.
Here are my key takeaways from the conference:
- Think of success as being one side of a two-sided coin. Failure is on the other side. They go hand-in-hand. If you do something, it is as if you flip the coin. If you choose not to “flip the coin” because you are afraid of failing, then you, also, are afraid of success.
- Think of failure as an opportunity to learn something nobody else knows.
- We are not only called to have the faith to finish something – but also the faith to start.
- Just do something.
I believe that, when applied to the church, these statements are affirmations that it is time for the church to rise and stand together and put faith into action. We cannot let the fear of failure, or embarrassment, or whatever, stop us from being the light in the world. Even if we are only at the stage of “digging ditches” in advance of God raining down His blessing, it is time to “do something.”
– Jason Atkinson, SEND North America Business Manager