A man called Bill

I returned last night from two days up at Launceston. I travelled up to take part in the global leadership summit organised by the Willow Creek Church in Chicago. The pastor of that church has visited Australia on several occasions in recent years. Every time he has come I have attended his conferences here. I would struggle to name another Christian leader who has had a greater impact on my life and ministry than Bill Hybels. I have listened to him speak many times. It doesn’t matter what topic he speaks about, there are always two things that pulsate through every message he gives. The first and most obvious thing you hear when listening to Bill is an incredible passion for the lost. His life just throbs with a passion to see lost people brought into the Kingdom. Linked with this however is another conviction that is always present in every message. Not only does he have a passion for the lost, but he also has a life giving belief that the local church really is the hope of the world. He passionately believes in the Church. These days it is so common to hear people speak with great negativity of the Church, but with Bill I always come away feeling a deep sense of thrill at belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ.

On the leadership summit Bill was joined by several other leaders all speaking on the theme of leadership in the Body of Christ. We heard form guys such as John Maxwell, Rick Warren, Ken Blanchard, Kenneth Ulmer, Henry Cloud, Curtis Sliwa, Jack Groppel and there was even a lady included, Eleanor Josaitis. The entire event has been simulcast in eleven countries and 130 cities and attended by over 60,000 church leaders. Although meeting in Launceston with about 400 others from around Tasmania, there was also a very real sense that you were a part of something much larger.

Bill Hybles like all Christian leaders cops an amazing amount of criticism from within the Body of Christ, and yet despite it all God is using him in ways that he would have never dreamed off 30 years ago when he started out with a handful of young people meeting in a rented picture theatre in Chicago. Every time I hear him something of his passion and heart rubs off on me.

I came home and today in our services we saw two quite different people give their lives to the Lord. One was a teenage girl invited along to our church by her friend and the other was a much older person, a lady who has been a member of our church for many years, but today she acknowledged that she had never given her life to the Lord. This is why I do what I do!