I went to the Willow Creek Arts Conference in Chicago this past week. Here are some things I learned:
- I don't like the O'Hare Airport at all.
- Waiting in lines at the O'Hare Airport is not fun.
- Going to a conference by yourself to a city you've never been to is kind of strange.
- Willow Creek Community Church is very large.
- I would give my left eye to have the kind of budget and equipment that Willow has for their arts department.
- Wrigley Field is a pain to get to (parked at the airport, took the blue line from the airport to the Addison exit, took a bus to Wrigley Field) but it's definitely worth the pain.
- A church organizational structure based on giftedness rather than hierarchy is a pretty neat way to make decisions.
- Schaumburg is a nice Chicago suburb to drive around.
- Planning for a service way in advance actually works.
- Collaboration between all parts of the creative process creates a dynamic that God honors.
- There is a law that states that out of all of the 52 weeks that are in a year, the one week that you are gone from your home is the week that your daughter will have to go to the emergency room because she's sick.
I enjoyed the Willow Creek Arts Conference - but I think next year I will go back to the Saddleback Worship Conference. One thing I like about Saddleback's conference over Willow Creek is that at night there are things you can do on Saddleback's campus during the conference - concerts, coffeehouse shows, hanging out, etc. But overall it was a good conference.
4 comments:
I see you touched some hot spots :0). But very important to have structure - not fly by the seat of your pants attitude when trying to develop things.
Sorry I didn't get to talk much in detail with you about the conference. I got to hear you talk about it in between this and that this past weekend.
All in all it sounds like there were some new things learned. And some that just needed to be reinforced.
Sometimes it makes things frustrating though when you come back cause you have all these new ideas and want to implement them and BOOM - then you realize you can't do them right away.
All in due time! It would be cool to get a small group together and go, somewhere on down the road. Those conferences are too expensive, I think. Maybe someday.
I'm hoping Saddleback next year - How about the Youngs, the Hawkins, and the Hagues California tour?
I totally agree about the O'Hare airport :) I think my boss has figured out a way for us to get to Los Angeles without going through O'Hare She said something about flying into San Francisco first
I went to Salt Lake City by myself to a diabetes conference and it was strange..I was horribly homesick
I hope Noelle is ok
Hopefully it won't be a long process to see results from what you learned at Willowcreek It sounds like Element might be the first place to start
Hey - Hey! I like the California tour idea!
ROAD TRIP!!???!!! Just kidding, it would be hard to do with kids although we could do a lot of sight seeing. Flying-good, driving-bad :0). Maybe, the road trip thing might work better when they graduate - which would be a while for you guys and us. The Hagues just about have it made.
Keep it in mind! :0)
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