TOLEDO, Ohio--Church leadership training continues to top the priority list for Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, where about 18,000 people attend services each week.
A Toledo Blade story reported Hybels' words to church leaders during a recent live satellite broadcast, part of a multimedia campaign promoting "The Leadership Summit 2004: Lead with Diligence," a three-day seminar set for Aug. 12-14. The event is expected to draw 40,000 participants via satellite downlinks to churches in 80 North American cities.
"I believe the local church is the hope of the world, and its future rests primarily in the hands of its leaders," Hybels said.
He said he believes that "the church is the most intensive enterprise in society."
"Running a church is more complicated than running a corporation," said Hybels, a former businessman. He said the complication comes in overseeing a work force of volunteers.
"You use power and control, they'll walk," Hybels said. He said most people "love to be led, if they're led well," but many church workers have had negative experiences and were made to feel "devalued and their gifts diminished."
Hybels said he has no answers to questions about vision-casting, inspiration and motivation, and how God chooses to give leadership to certain people. He said the spiritual gift of leadership remains a mystery to him, even after studying it for the last 15 years.
"I still believe it, but I accept it more by faith than I did 15 years ago," Hybels said.
He said geography, gender, race, ethnicity and intelligence do not appear to be important factors. "I've traveled to remote areas and found leaders who have not taken a course or earned a degree," Hybels said.
But he said he is convinced that developing leadership gifts is essential for the church. He cited Jesus Christ as a leader who made training his disciples a priority of his ministry.
"Jesus put on a leadership clinic like no one else," Hybels said. "He developed emerging leaders. He called them to higher levels. Was it a wise investment of his limited ministry time? We're here because of it."
Hybels will speak during the three-day summit in August. Other speakers for the event include: Pat Summitt, coach of the University of Tennessee women's basketball team; Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of the Potter's House church in Dallas; and the Rev. A.R. Bernard, founder and pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
