(AgapePress) - More than 30,000 leaders from churches and ministries across the nation will take part in a leadership summit next month.

The annual summit originates from Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and will be broadcast live via satellite to more than 50 locations in North America. It features speakers such as Karen Hughes, advisor to President George W. Bush; and Andy Stanley, founding and senior pastor of North Point Community Church near Atlanta. The theme this year is "Sharpening the Leader's Edge."

Jim Mellado, president of the Willow Creek Association -- a multi-denominational, worldwide network of more than 9,500 churches -- says those in leadership positions in churches and other ministries need to pursue God's vision for their unique task. The summit, he says, can inspire and equip pastors and lay leaders to return to their churches with fresh skills, vision, and direction.

"Our hope is that they would tie this summit to leadership team retreats, elder and board of director retreats [as done at at Willow Creek], and be able to get everybody on the same page and aligned to hit the ground running come the fall season. That's our hope," he says.

According to Mellado, the need for leadership training has grown with the dawn of mega-churches.

"These days, there are increasing numbers of churches that are growing larger, and the leadership demands in such a church have grown exponentially," he says. "In many regards, those demands -- such as developing staff, having multi-staff situations, hiring folks, organizing people's efforts -- are things that folks that didn't learn in seminary."

The summit is set for August 7-9 at Willow Creek Community Church, where the senior pastor is speaker and author Bill Hybels.

© 2003 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines