This is an excerpt from an article titled, “Vision and Strategy for a Bible-Centered Community,” featured in the July–Aug ’12 issue of Bible Study Magazine, a publication that gives readers tools and methods for studying the Bible. To read the article in full, subscribe at BibleStudyMagazine.com/Hybels. Subscribe before July 31st with the coupon code BSMHYBELS to get $5.00 of the subscription price..

Bill Hybels pushes to develop leaders in the Christian community. Toward this end, The Willow Creek Association created The Global Leadership Summit, a two-day event that draws thousands of attendees to the Chicago area and tens of thousands to satellite and videocast events all over the world. “There aren’t very many places church leaders can turn that convene a world-class faculty to sharpen the leadership gifts. They need a regular investment—they need an infusion of vision, skill and training.”

“I sat down with a couple of my friends and said, ‘What if we try to raise up the value and the competence of pastors and Christian influencers all around the world in the area of leadership?’ I didn’t care if 15 people came or if 2,500 people came. My commitment was to find the best faculty that knew a lot about leadership to improve people’s ability to lead Christian organizations, local churches and businesses.”
“That was 15 or 16 or so years ago, and it is now simulcast all over North America; 85 other countries will translate it into 35 foreign languages. We are dumbfounded at the response. … We’re watching God do this amazing thing, and we’re very grateful and humbled to be a part of it.”

“I work with thousands of pastors around the country whose churches are flourishing and they have a white-hot vision for what God has for their future. They teach the Scriptures unapologetically, they have fantastic worship, they’re baptizing hundreds of people a year, young and old are coming, rich and poor are coming, and black and white are coming. … I stay pretty enthusiastic because I see these kinds of churches rising up. They are the ones Jesus said that the gates of hell could not prevail against.”