Strategic initiative lunches
Customize Your Learning Experience at a Strategic Initiative Lunch
Join our speakers and other seasoned church practitioners along with no more than 30 other fellow leaders for a discussion over lunch on a topic of special interest to you. The small group setting allows you to investigate answers to questions specific to your church’s efforts and provides a learning experience customized by each participants needs.
Strategic Initiative Lunches are $15 per person and should be selected during registration. Lunches are limited to 30 leaders per topic. Be sure to register early to reserve your seat at the table.
Eight lunch options include:
SL-1 Resourcing Partners without Causing Damage – Warren Beach
SOLD OUT
About the Speaker
For the past five years, Warren has served as a full-time volunteer for Willow Creek’s Global Connections ministries helping to direct its partnerships with local churches in Latin America and Africa. Warren also serves on the Board of Governors for Opportunity International, a Christian organization that promotes micro-finance in the developing world. In 2006, this organization served more than 1 million small businesses in 28 countries. A former independent trader at the Chicago Board of Trade, Warren has volunteered in several areas of the church including serving on its Board of Directors as well as advisory boards to the church’s Extension ministries which serve people in under-resourced parts of the globe both locally and internationally.
SL-2 Creating Initiatives to Mobilize Your Church – Heather Larson
SOLD OUT
About the Speaker
Heather is the associate director of Willow Creek Community Church's Global Connections, a ministry working to build a church-wide community of "globally-minded citizens." Their various initiatives around AIDS and global poverty include the "Celebration of Hope," an annual collection of items which recently filled sixteen 40-foot containers with various domestic items to be distributed in four different countries. Heather previously served on staff with Axis, Willow Creek's ministry to the twenty-something generation, supporting that community's value to live out compassion and justice as a lifestyle, not just an act of charity. Before coming to Willow, Heather worked on the marketing and public relations teams for the American Red Cross. She received her undergraduate degree from Taylor University.
SL-3 Getting Connected in Africa – Stella Kasirye
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About the Speaker
Stella serves as the Africa Representative for the Willow Creek Community Church Global Connections Unit. She has been involved in church-based HIV/AIDS work for more than fifteen years. In her current position, Stella works with Willow Creek partners in Africa that are working with local churches in the areas of HIV/AIDS and poverty eradication. She passionately believes in grassroots development and the strategic and unique role of the church in the process. Stella holds a BA in Social Work and Social Administration from Makerere University in Kampala and a MA in Educational Ministries from Wheaton College in Illinois. She currently lives in Lilongwe, Malawi and cares for a 13-year-old foster daughter who is HIV-positive.
SL-4 What the South Really Needs from the North – Robert Guerrero
About the Speaker
Born to Dominican parents in New York City, Robert has spent much of his life in both the U.S. and Domnican Republic. He earned a degree in theology from Moody Bible Institute and during his studies was active in the ministry of Lawndale Community Church, Chicago, as well as planting La Villita Community Church alongside Pastor Noel Castellanos. In 1995, Robert and his wife moved into the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo where they planted Iglesia Comunitaria Cristiana (ICC), a church that has grown in ten years from a small house group to a local congregation of more than 400. ICC follows a wholistic ministry model by hosting gatherings relevant to the secular Dominican culture, small group Bible studies, a gym ministry, a preschool, a clinic, a metal carpentry business, and a sports ministry for street kids. Robert is the founder of the Coordinating Community of Del Camino Network for Integral Mission in Latin America with networks in Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Honduras, Bahamas Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
SL-5 Equipping Churches in the North to Engage – Dee Yaccino
About the Speaker
Dee and her husband, Tom, joined the Willow Creek staff in 1995 as country representatives in the Dominican Republic for Willow Creek’s Global Connections team. Together they serve as the link between Willow Creek and national partners to assist in on-going development and outreach programs. They also coordinate serving opportunities for Willow Creek teams ensuring trips are relevant, empowering, and meet real needs expressed by the communities or churches. Dee received her undergraduate degree in Cultural Anthropology, with a minor in minored in Latin American Studies, from Wheaton College as well as a Master of Arts degree in Intercultural Studies and Community Development.
SL-6 Getting Connected in Latin America – Tom Yaccino
About the Speaker
Tom and his wife, Dee, joined the Willow Creek staff in 1995 as country representatives in the Dominican Republic for Willow Creek’s Global Connections team. Together they serve as the link between Willow Creek and national partners to assist in on-going development and outreach programs. They also coordinate serving opportunities for Willow Creek teams ensuring trips are relevant, empowering, and meet real needs expressed by the communities or churches. Tom received his undergraduate degree in Cultural Geography and Spanish at Augustana College as well as a Master of Arts degree in Intercultural Studies and Community Development from Wheaton Graduate School.
SL-7 For Senior Pastors Only: Helping Your Church Address Global Poverty – Gene Appel
About the Speaker
Gene is lead pastor for the South Barrington campus of Willow Creek Community Church, a multi-site church in the Chicago-land area. He has full responsibility for the South Barrington staff and congregation, bringing focused vision, leadership, and teaching to weekend and midweek services. Gene previously served for eighteen years as senior pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas. He received his undergraduate degree from Lincoln Christian College and completed additional graduate work at Lincoln Christian Seminary and Pacific Christian College. Recognized by many as a gifted leader with a passion for following Christ and a sensitivity for hurting people, Gene has coached church leaders from around the world on how to lead churches through healthy change. He is co-author of How to Change Your Church without Killing It.
SL-8 Assessing Your Church's Global Initiatives – Joel Holm
SOLD OUT
About the Speaker
Joel's dream is to see Christ's words "I will build my church" come to life by the church engaging and changing the world. For ten years, Joel pastored Faith Tabernacle, a large, multi-cultural urban ministry, and integrated the building of a local church and leading global initiatives into one cohesive vision. Today he uses this experience, as a speaker and consultant, to help churches design strategic "church-centered" approaches to their mission vision. Joel works with local churches as diverse as Saddleback Church and Willow Creek Community Church to underground Chinese churches and Muslim churches in the Arab world. Based out of Chicago, his work in strategic design and global brokering provides the rare opportunity to see and learn what God is doing through churches in more then 100 countries.
