Back

Yep, almost 8000 miles later, I am finally back in the saddle here in Napa. The highlight of my time was the two day conference on leadership held at the Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago. As many of you know, as one working on my doctoral work in leadership, I am always energized by this conference. The only downside was that I had been captured by a virus that dominated my health over those two days. Yet, it was still powerful.

One of my take-homes was a reminder: I cannot stay away from these kinds of gatherings if I am going to be the leader necessary for family and community. I don't have the internal resources to pursue the path of leading. Leading takes heart and these conferences always connect heart, mind, and leading. Sometimes what I really do not appreciate is the "do these 10 steps and you can lead as I have led." Well, if it were that easy, we wouldn't need to come back every year and the market wouldn't be exploding with books galore. Leading isn't easy. What I may often need more than anything is the courage to explore the context of life, loving, learning and leading in order to be more effective. Figuring out what leadership incarnates in a local context is always a challenge. In some ways, the community characteristics will influence what leading looks like. This is the incarnational model of leading.

Sure, there are a number of domains. Leading in a profit context may incarnate differently than the non-prof context. Leading at home may incarnate differently than at the local little league level. Leading in the educational domain may again incarnate differently than in a medical domain. The cultures of those domains influence in many ways the way a team leads.

Anyways, I am getting back in the blogging saddle again. On a final note, it is very cool to get re-connected to many friends from my formative years through the technology of Facebook. Personally (pardon, my age is showing), I enjoy Facebook more than MySpace because it is cleaner, less cluttered, and fewer ads. I can't believe all the people I am contacting that I have not contacted for a long time (in some cases, decades). I look forward to getting back on this saddle. I plan to stay atop this blogsite moreso than the past. If you are one of those people I am reconnecting with, thanks for coming here. So much to learn, so much to grow, so little time. Can't microwave graceformation!

Later,
jg