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Last year I attended the Leadership Summit.  For obvious reason, it wasn’t possible this year.  I wished I could have experienced Craig Groeschel at the ’08 Summit.  The review below will have to do…

Summit ’08: Craig Groeschel, IT

Craig’s talk comes from his new book, ‘IT‘, which I’ll be reading, beginning this evening. This was an impactful talk, the Summit highpoint for me so far.

• Craig asks, ‘Is IT the Holy Spirit?’
• IT seems tough to nail down. Certainly God makes it happen. It’s from him, for him, for his glory.
• We can’t manufacture IT, create IT.
• One person can’t bring IT.
• One person can kill IT.
• IT is not a model.
• IT is not a style.
• IT can’t be taught.
• But can be caught.
• There is an upside: you always experience changed lives when IT is present.
• There is a downside: there are always critics.
• There’s good news: every church can have IT.
• And there’s bad news: any church can leave IT.
• You could say, ‘IT happens.’

Acts 2.42-47: IT was present in a big way with undeniable outcomes.

4 Qualities present when IT is there:

• Ministries have a laser focus.
  • More ministry isn’t better. Better ministry is better. Rather – what can your church be the very best at? In order to reach people that no one is reaching, you’ll have to do things that no one else is doing. And to do that, you can’t do what everyone else is doing.
    • We spent a couple years addressing this issue. Wrestling with men’s ministry, women’s ministry, and such. We still don’t have a sports ministry. We still haven’t resurrected affinity ministries.
  •  
    • Practice ‘planned abandonment’.
  • At lifechurch.tv they only do 5 things…
    • weekend worship exp
    • small groups
    • kid’s ministry
    • student’s ministry
    • missions
  • What are you doing that you need to stop doing?
• See opportunities where others see obstacles.
  • If God gave us what we thought we want, we might not get what we really need.
    • We wanted to launch 3 campuses. We only can launch one. What’s God trying to show us?
    • Our weekend attendance has not been on the normal rise for the past several months.
    • Our giving has been impacted by… what? The economy? Lack of sustained growth? Disobedience?
    • What’s God trying to say?
    • Our senior team and staff have been listening to God on this for some time. We’ll committed to continuing:
      • High impact weekend services
      • Personal relationships, via numerous groups – formalized and infomral
      • Children’s ministry
      • Student ministry
      • Missions/Outreach
      • Midweek learning opportunities
        • We’re just a few weeks away weeks away from some gear-shifting that has me stoked!
• They are willing to fail, rather than play is safe.
  • Failure is not an option – it is a necessity.
  • It’s often the first step into seeing God, allowing us to see who God really is.
  • There may be a vision that has multiple steps of failure that have to be experienced before we understand and embrace what God wants to do.
  • I’m grateful to be part of a church that isn’t afraid of change, embraces risk, and celebrates failure as new ground ventured!
• Led by people who have IT …
  • You must have IT in order for your people to get IT
  • Cannot be someone else… must be genuinely our truest, God-created self
  • Craig admitted that there was a season where he lost IT… he had become a full-time pastor and a part-time Christian.
  • When we have IT – we aren’t content, we are filled with love for Christ…

If I have IT others won’t be fooled. The people who know me best will see IT… or not.

I’m renewing my commitment to blocks of time – not only daily – but weekly, monthly and quarterly – for solitude, to hear God, to keep IT alive within me.

I’m grateful for a family, team, and friends who share community with me. I need you in the journey. I need you to sharpen my leadership. I want you to help me continue to take my next step toward Christ… to keep IT.

Craig ended with this Franciscan benediction:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths,

and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your

heart.  May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and

exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and

peace.  May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from

pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your

hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that

you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others

claim cannot be done.

(Via Mark Waltz | …because People Matter.)