There's a leader in you, and you, and you, and you...

Summit2004
Originally uploaded by BeanTipton.

At the beginning of the month I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Awesome doesn’t even begin to describe it. I encourage anyone who has an opportunity next year from August 11-13, to go. This year there were over 40 satellite locations around the US and Canada. Go and find the person you were meant to be.

This Summit is designed to build the leader in every person. In the words of Bill Hybels, “Everyone is a leader.” Those are words I would have never believed before I was a Christian and even in my early walk with Christ. But as a woman growing in my faith, I am learning so much more about ministry, God’s purpose and myself. In a world where we fear the future, I do not fear. In the words of Wynonna Judd, “I know where I’m going.” My greatest growing passion has been to spread the message of Jesus’ love and salvation and share it with as many people as possible. Much, much, much easier said than done.

However, that’s a blog for another time. I digress.

Over the two and half days at this conference, I was challenged and encouraged to take leaps of faith into the leadership realm. I have been actively pushing away roles of leadership, because they frighten me. I always thought I was too insecure to be a leader. But what I really needed to do was realize that I, alone, cannot do it. If I trust that Christ will guide me into a role and grow me as a leader, then he will. If I try to do it alone, I might succeed for a while, but nothing that has substantial impact can be done alone.

For a long time I have been hushing the whisper to step-up and help with the creative communication at our church. We have plenty of volunteers, but we really need someone to organize them all and create a cohesive atmosphere for all of us to thrive in. I was terrified that it would be too time-consuming and that Crossroads would say that I wasn’t ready for a leadership role, but I took that leap of faith and trusted that that whisper was coming straight from my heavenly Father.

Now, I am finding myself writing a vision statement for creative arts team and loving every second of it. This is going to be a challenge, but its going to be worth it. I know I have a calling to be exactly where I’m headed. For the first time in my life, I feel called and that feels wonderful.