Much like the first day, the second day of Summit was packed full of small groups, speakers, and team activities. However, on this second day the emphasis was on the role of leadership in the church.
In order to help us better understand this complex topic, Rick Atchley, senior minister of The Hills Church, delivered one of the most challenging messages I’ve ever heard on the desperate need for leadership in America’s churches today.
Rick Atchley, Senior Minister at The Hills Church
During his lecture, a lot of Mr. Atchley’s words made an impression on me. However, one of the biggest things I walked away with was his statement that,
“You must minister from your blessing instead of for a blessing.”
This point really got me thinking. I’m only nineteen, but throughout my life I’ve seen numerous individuals go into ministry and then get burned out. Mr. Atchley’s statement made me stop and think about how critical it is to allow ourselves to be filled by God before we try to serve and minister to others. I also wondered how often we as the church forget about this step and then wonder why we seem to have nothing to offer others.
In addition to hearing thought-provoking speakers like Mr. Atchley who caused me to examine and reassess my thinking, I also loved the case studies in which we got to participate.
The unique thing about these case studies is that they were written by our guest speakers and draw on real experiences from their lives. After discussing the case studies amongst ourselves, we then discussed these case studies as a class with the speakers who wrote them.
Throughout this process, we were given the opportunity to process the way we would behave before hearing how older and wiser individuals actually chose to handle things.
All in all, listening to Mr. Atchley challenged me to rethink my role in the church and in God’s bigger story for my life.
What is your role in that story?
Students participated in relays and other games during team activity time