Key Leadership Event In Eight Weeks

You do NOT want to miss this. It is our premier leadership training event of the entire year. People use it as leadership training for their role at PCC, but the sessions also apply to the business world and just for personal growth. It's called The Leadership Summit, and some of THE most high capacity leaders in the world are there. Every year we hear amazing stories of personal spiritual growth and insight that bloom out of Summit experiences.

This year, we'll hear from Tony Dungy, Jack Welch, Jim Collins, T.D. Jakes, Andy Stanley, and Bill Hybels, just to name a few.

This year the Summit is August 5-6 at Atlee Community Church in Mechanicsville. Thursday and Friday sessions are from 10:00AM to 6:00PM. There are great opportunities for conversation and networking over lunch and at breaks. We ask all PCC Leaders who attend the event to also attend a dinner on Friday evening; we'll have good discussion about the future of our church and help connect the teachings we have heard with the reality of our leadership and church situations.

The two days are WELL WORTH the $95 cost for the event. I hope you can go with us...we normally have 50-80 leaders from PCC go. This year will be better than ever!

Save the date. Email lori.wheeler@pccwired.net to register.

See more about the event at http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2010/

Guest Blogger Beth Brawley

Guest blogger Beth Brawley leads the Creative Arts Team at PCC and is an avid blogger.  Here's a copy of her post from her blog - Grace, Every Day - about how an experience at last year's Leadership Summit continues to impact her.

PCC will be going to the Summit again this year, August 6-7.  Find out more about the event here.  If you're interested in going with us, contact Lori at the PCC office (804.598.1174)

At last year's Leadership Summit I was introduced - via video - to Carly Fiorina. She was a dynamic, engaging speaker and I was captivated, listening to a strong woman talk about leadership and empowerment. I picked up her book, Tough Choices, and have referred to it off and on throughout the past several months.

Truth be told, I'm just reading it VERY slowly - it's sort of a monthly devotional book for me, with constant encouragement and information about leadership.

Okay. Honest truth? It's in the bathroom.

Midway through the book Fiorina talks about the creation of Lucent Technologies, which arose out of AT&T getting rid of a collection of assets called Newco. She was tapped to be Executive VP of Corporate Operations. Here's what she says:

"For some, the words aspiration and inspiration are mumbo jumbo; or hype; or soft, nonoperational stuff. These are people who forget that every income statement and balance sheet in the world is produced by the everyday hard work of everyday people. And people achieve more when they're motivated by a purpose worthy of their efforts. They align their individual actions in to a more powerful collective effort when they know they strive for a common and commonly understood goal. Nowhere are aspiration and inspiration more important than in a large, complex organization undergoing major change. In large companies myriad actions taken and countless small decisions made must add up to the bottom line. And in a period of change, each employee must break old habits and learn new skills, and every employee's actions and decisions must align in new ways to produce something different."

In the midst of everything that we are doing as PCC staff members, in spite of what we're feeling and experiencing on a personal level, regardless of the current status of our personal relationship with God, we are in the middle of some major changes at PCC. We are the folks who are not only doing the "everyday work of everyday people", but we are also inspiring and leading volunteers who are doing the same thing as they serve at PCC.

We each have unique goals for our ministry areas that are hopefully clearly and commonly understood by those folks who serve with us. But I think it's important to still remember that we are, technically speaking, a "large, complex organization undergoing major change."

Our mission is to reach and lead. That is the purpose worthy of our efforts. Lives are changing because of what God's spirit is doing through PCC.

I just want to challenge each of us - myself included - to continue to live in the awareness of the challenges of change, and to take to heart the necessity of breaking old habits, learning new skills and aligning our actions and decisions in new ways. God is using us - and he is also changing us, through this time of change. It's a remarkable thing that ultimately results in eternal impact for our community. We are led by a senior pastor and an executive pastor - but we are also given the great responsibility and even the luxury of leading ourselves.

I'm focusing on praying for us as a body today, and thankful that God's drawn us all together for the sake of His name.