Global Leadership Summit 2009 in Singapore

The Global Leadership Summit 2009 was a surprisingly engaging and inspiring conference. In Christendom, there is no better Christian leadership summit than the annual event led by Bill Hybels at the Willow Creek church campus in Chicago. What was screened here in Singapore were select videoed sessions of the current conference that ended recently.  To have among the best minds and practitioners of leadership in church and society share with us their take on various  leadership issues was a treat. The videos came in two formats: one was the normal hour long talk and the other was an interview. This combination managed to keep over a thousand people from going into screensaver mode. The facilitator was senior pastor Rev Dr David Lim and he was energetic and skilled at keeping us engaged and coaxing us to process the messages in quiet solo or noisy quartets.

Here are my takeaways from the two day summit:

Best quotation: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Most impactful session: For me it was the insightful and deep talk by Timothy Keller about the Gospel of grace. It used the elder brother of the parable of the prodigal son, to illustrate religiosity or law-driven believer. Timothy Keleer dealt with the root problem of the modern active but lifeless church. What the church needs is a new eureka akin to Martin Luther’s justification by faith but taken deeper and broader. If the church heeds this talk with greater care, it will free thousands of well meaning sons from the draining religiosity that still keeps the children of God slaving joylessly in the father’s farm. Buy his book “The Prodigal God” to access these Gospel insights on grace.

Most enlightening concept: The analogy of the process of change as a rider guiding an elephant on a path. The rider is the rational left-brain linear and logical decision. The elephant is the difficult to move emotional right-brain heavyweight that needs to be persuaded and coaxed to take the path, which is the directional changes needed.

Most innovative idea: Leveraging technology for the kingdom: how Jessica Jackley used the internet to connect donors worldwide to resource micro-financing in developing countries, thereby helping the poor of the world. Click HERE.

Most striking truth to practise until next year: How the leader’s greatest gift to his congregation is to keep his bucket full all the time. Bill Hybel’s plenary talk was not only about this but the rhema word to me was mainly this!

The location of the conference was divine: Grace II, the Grace Assembly of God branch facility. I liked it because it was near my home (in the west where the smart people live), though my friends from the east preferred the previous  location in Riverlife Church, Pasir Ris. The army of well-drilled red-shirted members of Grace AG showed enthusiasm and warmth and I was impressed with their worship team too.  Another thing I liked about the summit was the price: it was a steal when you consider the impact it would have on your leaders for weeks to come.