Global Leadership Summit

Two weeks ago, the CARE for AIDS administrative staff (that's seven of us) attended the Global Leadership Summit in Nairobi.  GLS is a Christian leadership conference put on by the Willow Creek Association in Chicago and then re-broadcast in over a hundred locations around the world.  I was amazed at the interest and turnout here in Kenya - the HUGE Nairobi Pentecostal Church was packed out for two full days, during which we watched videos of eight keynote speakers from the original conference in Chicago, listened to several local leaders from Kenya, and took part in short breakout sessions to talk about what we were learning. 

I took away a great deal from the American sessions.  Blake Mycoskie was one of my favorite speakers - he's the founder and head of TOMS shoes (if you've never heard their story, check it out at www.toms.com), and he talked about how powerful it can be to engage the corporate world with a mindset of giving.  I also enjoyed Rick Warren's discussion on how he responded to the wealth that came along after writing The Purpose Driven Life and selling 30 million copies - maybe I'll never have the problem of figuring out what to do with millions of dollars, but it was fascinating to hear his family's approach to faithfully handling that kind of money.  We also heard from brilliant business thinkers like Jim Collins and Jack Welch, who presented a really interesting look at how to be a business leader from a Christian perspective. 

I'm not sure if all of the Kenyans took away the same things that I did from the conference, but they all had a GREAT time.  Not only did they get a lunch buffet each day, they were really inspired by the passion and faith that was displayed through all of the different speakers.  Rick Warren talked about how the AIDS crisis will be one of the defining challenges to the 21st century church, which was a great encouragement to our staff.  They also loved a talk by Bill Hybel's, which challenged all of us to figure out what is our "Holy Discontent," or the issue that we can't stand.   Many of them picked out different aspects of HIV/AIDS that truly struck them at their core, and they were all thankful for the opportunity to work in a job that allows them to fight against those injustices. 

There were also some parts of the conference that were very...Kenyan.  At times the audience would laugh at things that were definitely not a joke in the minds of the American speakers, which made me glad that the presenters weren't live to hear the crowd reactions.  Kenyans often use a speaking style in which they will repeat themselves and pause to let the audience fill in the blanks - this isn't too common in the States, but anytime a speaker on the video paused, most of the audience would yell out what they thought the speaker was about to say...hilarious!  I also loved the fact that we took a 30-minute break halfway through the morning session for everyone to go get tea, and the juxtaposition between a Kenyan worship band and Andy Stanley on video was pretty funny too.  All Kenyan, all the time!