Seeds Conference

The past two days I was able to attend a multi-cast of the SEEDS conference at Church on The Move in Tulsa, OK.  The SEEDS conference is like a lot of other conferences - main speakers, breakout sessions, etc. There were some great speakers - Steven Furtick (Elevation Church), Marty Sklar (Disney), Craig Groeschel (LifeChurch), and a couple of others.

All of the speakers were good, but Groeschel's presentation was great. I don't know if his style resonated with me more or it was just better; either way, it was good.

His teaching was based on Acts 20:22-24 (the life of Paul) and the subject was how God builds spiritual leaders.  He summarized the passage with these four points:

1. Spiritual leaders are prompted by the Spirit.  Leaders should be open to the Spirit's leadings - should be looking for the Spirit's leading.
2. Know that there will be certain uncertainty.  Leaders are compelled, but will not be sure of everything.  They will need to go step by step, each one with faith.  Not knowing the next step doesn't mean you shouldn't keep going.
3. Leaders will encounter predictable resistance - there will be people who think the ideas are stupid or are not worth risking for.  It's not that we shouldn't be smart and respectful, seeking out advice and learning from others, but we shouldn't compromise our vision for other's fear.
4. Lastly, leaders will have a sense of uncommon clarity in their vision after going through the three steps. There is a crystallization of all God is doing and where God is leading them.

It's hard to encapsulate all the he had to say in these four points - there was a lot of color that went along with them.  Suffice it to say it was inspiring and is helping me crystallize some of my own thoughts and 

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