Month: September 2017

Gary Schwammlein: Celebrating A Global Legacy

Posted on September 7, 2017 by - Stories

We are incredibly grateful for Gary Schwammlein’s extraordinary leadership and faithfulness in expanding the influence of Christ with faith-centered leaders around the world. As of September 1, 2017, he officially changed roles from Willow Creek Association (WCA) president to president emeritas.

Gary joined the WCA in 1994, after a highly successful thirty-year career at a large multi-national business. He felt God calling him to use his international experience and connections to help churches globally. His vision and tireless work built the infrastructure for the unparalleled global ministry network we enjoy today, working across denominational and cultural lines in 132 countries.

In 2014, around his 70th birthday, Gary was preparing to retire when he was asked to serve as WCA president. Despite his initial reluctance, and following a prompting from God to accept the position, Gary engineered a bold new vision to grow The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) and reinvigorate the ministry. Under the four years of his leadership as president, the GLS has experienced exponential growth from 175,000 global attendees to more than 400,000 in 1,225 global and U.S. cities.

Beyond his vision, Gary leads with an intense passion, genuine humility, a positive directness, a commitment to prayer and a disarming sense of humor. He achieved impressive results while, at the same time, building a healthy and thriving culture within WCA staff and global movement.

It was a great honor for our team to create a Grander Vision video about his life, which was recently shared at the 2017 Summit Celebration.

Gary Schwammlein Grander Vision GLS17 The Global Leadership Summit

So, many of us are asking, what will Gary be doing in his new role? As president emeritas, he will continue his work with the international ministry at WCA—albeit on a reduced schedule. We are thrilled that the GLS movement will continue to benefit from his passion and wisdom for years to come.

So Gary, on behalf of all who have worked alongside you and felt the influence of your leadership, we would like to say:

We honor you, Gary Schwammlein. Thank you for a job well done in service of the worldwide church on behalf of Jesus Christ. We continue to be blessed by the exceptional way you stewarded your life and ministry. We hold you in the highest regard.

Inmates Plan Fundraiser for Future Prison GLS Sites

Posted on September 6, 2017 by - Because of the GLS, Calling, Government, North America, Prison, Stories

Erin Keating, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Stand Together, has a heart for prison ministry. Her youngest brother is currently incarcerated, and while seeking to share her newfound faith in God, bring light into her brother’s life and help him find his self-worth and value, she encountered The Global Leadership Summit.

After three years of attending, the 2015 Summit brought a profound inspiration to her field of vision to bring the GLS, not just to the prison where her brother is, but to prisons across the country.

This year, Erin and her friends volunteered their time to serve at the Lawrenceville Correctional Center’s Summit in 2017, and were deeply impacted by the response.

Excited about what the GLS could do for prisoners, it was a no brainer for her and her friends to be a part of raising funds and serving the inmates who participated in this 2017 event. “We all left deeply motivated to do more,” Erin says.  “Not only would we like to be much better at fundraising to bring this to more prisons in 2018, but we’d also like to follow up with Lawrenceville Correctional throughout the year with ancillary programming to keep the materials and lessons alive.”

To that end, God was already working among them throughout the year since the last GLS event. “We received the biggest blessing at the end of our two days with them,” Erin shares. “I hope you are sitting down for this…

“They felt so strongly that the GLS is bringing true leadership lessons, hopeful inspirations and real, life-affirming messages that they wanted to pay it forward. In the three weeks leading up to the Summit, they ran a fundraiser within the prison by selling sub sandwiches to fellow inmates. They raised… $1,300!

Keep in mind, inmates make very little money (sometimes as low as $0.27/hour) and to think they were willing to give that up to support bringing this conference to another prison next year is ANSWERED PRAYERS!  Praise God!

I’d like to personally match those dollars and encourage others to match as well!”

Thank you to all who’ve prayed or supported the expansion of the GLS in prisons across the country. In 2017, the GLS served 60 prison sites, up from 11 sites in 2015. To continue to give toward this movement, go to give.willowcreek.com.

Tom De Vries: A Behind-the-Scenes Interview with WCA’s New President

Posted on September 5, 2017 by - News & Updates

This week, Tom De Vries assumed the role of president of Willow Creek Association (WCA) and The Global Leadership Summit (GLS).

We are excited to welcome Tom as the leader of our movement. 

We sat down with him recently to get to know more about his story—and to get a sneak peek into the vision he brings to WCA.

WCA: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Tom De Vries: I grew up in Southern California—in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. I’m a second generation pastor, attended Wheaton College and got my Master of Divinity at Fuller Seminary. Upon graduation, I took a call 60 miles east of Los Angeles to start a church. I was pastor at that church for 12 years, and we ended up birthing three congregations. At the same time, I was a regional director for our denomination, the Reformed Church of America (RCA). From there, I became the pastor of a larger church with 2,000 in attendance and five multi-site churches. Most recently, I served as the General Secretary for the RCA denomination.

On the personal side, I’ve been married to my wife, Laura, for thirty-one years and we have three adult children.

WCA: How would your co-workers at the RCA describe your leadership?

De Vries:  They would probably use three words: collaborative, coalescent and synergistic. I am very team-oriented and believe that we achieve great things when we come together and bring our best to the table. Beyond that, I believe together we become a part of something greater—and the things we can do together have more power than what we can do individually.

WCA: How would you describe your tenure as General Secretary to the RCA?

De Vries: My role was to give direction to where we sensed God was leading us for the next 15-year run in the denomination. We went through a two-year discernment process of praying and seeking God’s leading for us. By the end, we landed on three priorities that resulted in new staff, metrics and resources to execute the vision.

WCA: WCA is a global ministry. What your thoughts on the state of Christianity and the Global Church?

De Vries: At the RCA, we worked in 40 countries. We were less involved in planting RCA churches and more involved in long-term partnerships and deep friendships with indigenous Christians in places like the Persian Gulf, China and India. I’ve also been a member of the World Council of Churches, which allowed me to get to know people from different traditions and tribes.

If you look at the work that Todd Johnson, Director of Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell, and others are doing on the World Christian Database, the impact of Christianity is growing globally at a significant rate. The global expansion of The Global Leadership Summit is, in many ways, reflective of the expanding influence of Christianity. Although there are places of challenge and persecution, Christianity is flourishing both in proclamation and action.

WCA: Talk about your past connections to WCA and the GLS.

De Vries: In 1996, as a young church planter from California, several of our church staff got on a plane to Chicago to attend the second-ever GLS in South Barrington. It was a tremendous experience to be in an environment where leadership was celebrated and it led us to the vision to plant churches. We were one of the earliest churches to join WCA.

WCA: What made you interested in taking on the role of president at WCA?

De Vries: Over the years, I saw the focus of WCA becoming more centered on leadership, which is very much how I am wired and what I am passionate about. Robert Clinton, leadership professor at Fuller Seminary, would say that at some point in a leader’s life, there is a place of convergence where your calling, gifting and the place of opportunity for leadership come together. I felt that convergence in my conversations with people at WCA. Our visions were coming together.

WCA: What role do you see GLS playing in the kingdom right now. 

De Vries: All around the world, when you look at the various expressions of Christian mission—church planting, evangelism, compassion and justice work—all are multiplied and enhanced by great leadership. Leadership is the common denominator. Whether a leader is involved in empowering women in Uganda, drilling wells in Kenya or the church-growth movement in China, the GLS can come alongside and provide the leadership foundation that makes mission and ministry better.

If we believe that the local church is the hope of the world, and that its’ future rests in the hands of its’ leaders, we need to do the best we can to support leaders—in the marketplace, in government, in education, in healthcare, in media, etc. The GLS trains leaders to live out their faith and increase their influence in every sector of society.

WCA: What words of encouragement do you have for faith-centered leaders who read this blog?

De Vries: We all can lead, wherever God has placed us. I believe there is a theme of redemption and restoration in the gospel—that there will be a restoration of all things and we need faith-centered leaders in all spheres of society. I believe God gifts us and places us exactly where we can have the biggest impact. And it takes a step of faith to move forward when we sense God is giving us opportunities.

As people of faith, we can depend on God to work in us, through us and even ahead of us to accomplish those Grander Visions that will happen as we are obedient to the whispers of the Spirit.