Faith, Hope & Love

I’m back at home – The flight was simple (flights are simple if you don’t have children climbing all over you!) but as usual on a flight I couldn’t sleep a wink. That means I’ve got to try to make it until at least 6pm tonight before going to bed. Should be fun. My lovely [...]

On the final day they’d saved the best until last. We had a whole day of Q&A with Bill Hybels. This was simply awesome. He gave answers and wisdom to questions about the priority of marriage and the family over ministry; issues worldwide that the church needs to be prepared for in the future; church [...]

Greg describes his role as Executive Pastor to be the one who focuses on “…where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.” He says that the Executive Pastor who knows that they are in the number two role, has to be very clear that their role is to serve the number one, ‘You [...]

Tuesday 1st December – Gordon MacDonald Today felt like deep surgery of the soul. Gordon MacDonald, someone I respect greatly and has written numerous books such as ‘Ordering your private world’ and ‘The resilient life’, led the whole day on the discipline of self-leadership. From my experience, this is the hardest leadership of all. Gordon [...]

The real reason for my trip to America begun today, and if I had to go home now the cost would have been worth it. Today was exceptional. I drove to Willow Creek and picked up my two co-travellers on the way, Des and Bill. We’ll be driving together every day this week and sharing [...]

On Sunday, at 8:30am I left with the Stein’s to go to Willow Community Church – McHenry County, one of their regional sites. We arrived about 10 minutes later, found a parking space easy in their car park, and then walked into their converted warehouse. The spacious car park and a vibrant, welcoming Children’s Ministry [...]

The next day I left the hotel and drove an hour north to my hosts. I purposefully drove along Lake Michigan, and as the Chicago Skyline was getting smaller in my rear view mirror and I again thanked God for the great opportunity that it is to be here, ‘Roxanne’ by the Police came on [...]

I woke up at 5am and was out exploring Chicago by 7.30am. This was after finding ‘Chicago Rock’ on my room radio and dancing around the room to Metallica, Enter Sandman, but that’s another story… It was a beautiful clear sky and a crisp, cold day. The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day [...]

When I arrived in America it was Thanksgiving, so I didn’t know what to expect. Would the roads be busy? Would anything be open? I had been asked by Willow’s Global Hospitality team to be a driver for two other English Pastors, that would be staying near me at Willow and who would travel with [...]

The weeks leading up to my departure had been extremely busy. Preparing to be away for about 10 days was not easy, not least the idea of being away from my beautiful wife and two precious girls. There was also lots to be done at church, and at home, including a heavy teaching and course [...]

A number of months ago I received an invitation to an ‘invite-only’ event at Willow Creek Community Church, Chicago. The event is called ‘Partnering to Prevail’, (you can find out more about it here ) and is a five-day advanced leadership development program that gives Senior Pastors and Church Leaders an opportunity to be in [...]