Drive Conference 2009 in Review

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the Drive Conference in Atlanta at North Point Community Church. As I expected Andy Stanley and his team did a great job of providing a 3 day getaway for pastors where they could have fun, learn, network, and have more fun. Any time you go to a conference like this it is really hard to narrow down all that you want to talk about because there was so much good stuff. What I'll try to do here, because I know you don't want to read for days, is to tell you all the titles of the main sessions and the breakout sessions I went to and then tell you a point or two that really stood out. If you have never been to Drive I really encourage you to go next May because it will be a great experience.

Andy Stanley was the speaker for the main sessions and the North Point Staff did all the breakouts.

Main Session "Leading in Uncertain Times"
* You need to respond to uncertainty with clarity & flexibility
* Plans can change, but the vision must remain the same
* Die on the hill of vision, but not plans

"Connecting Adults into Small Groups"
* provide multiple ways for people to take the next step of getting assimilated
* realize the joining a small group requires committment and some people just aren't ready for that yet
* make the process easy

"Developing Group Leaders Who Lead Well: What Every Leader Needs"
* simplicity allows for focus, and focus allows for excellence
* clarity prevents frustration & self-defining
* does your training effectively address the needs of your leaders?
* support your leaders
* when you trust your system you can trust your leaders

"Teaching That Sticks"
* you must raise a felt need in the audience
* ask yourself, "what is so important about what I'm about to say?"
* pick 1 point and build everything around it
* the point should be well-crafted, memorable, and as short as possible

Main Session "Listening, Learning, and Leading"
* creativity is intelligence having fun
* leadership is not about making decisions on your own, its about owning decisions once they are made
* the responsibility of the leader is not to make all the decisions, the responsibility of the leader is to ensure that all the decisions made are good ones
* you are probably not the smartest person in your organization, you are just the leader
* leaders are attracted to environments where their ideas and opinions are heard
* leaders who refuse to listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing important to say
* create a system that allows you to get the brightest and most strategic-minded people to the decision-making table and don't just allow seniority to determine structure
* fair ended in Eden, shoot for right

"Putting A Creative Idea to Work"
* the right people are the foundation of a successful creative process
* what is success for your environment?
* define your audience
* don't kill a bad idea too soon
* you have to have permission to fail
* give creative people room to fly but build in accountability

Main Session "Making Vision Stick"
* vision must be transferable
* state it simply- the larger your vision and the more people you want to understand it the simpler it must be
* cast it convincingly- position and present your vision as the solution to a problem that must be addressed immediately
* repeat it regularly- at least twice a year cast vision
* celebrate it systematicly
* embrace it personally & publicly- tie vision into everything & by everyone
* vision requires constant care & attention


As you can see there was a lot to take away from this great conference and I only wish I could have attended more breakout sessions because I didn't even get to go to a lot of other great ones. If you haven't spent much time seeing what North Point is doing to fulfill their vision of "creating a church that unchurched people want to go to" I encourage you too.
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