August 10, 2012 – A View From The Middle (Class)

The second and final day of the 2012 Global Leadership Summit hosted by the Willow Creek Association took place Friday, beamed live via satellite from Illinois to over 70,000 registered guests across North America, including our own Wasatch Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church in Salt Lake City as the host site in Utah.

Here is a live photo blog, starting with pictures taken around 6:30 a.m. MST as I drove to our church to prepare for another day. The photos will be updated throughout the day, all the way until the day is done and everything is taken down and packed away for another year.

All photos by John G. Miller

The rising sun creates a sea of red in the clouds over the peaks of the Wasatch Mountains as I wait at a stoplight.

The color of the clouds begins to change to white as I make my way further East at another light.

Breakfast time for the volunteers in the break room before the guests arrive.

The first speaker of the day, Patrick Lencioni.

Enjoying some refreshments outside during break time.

Guests and volunteers share break time together.

Guests fill their plates with food during the morning break.

Sharing conversation in the auditorium before the next session begins.

Pranitha Timothy — director of Aftercare, International Justice Mission in Chennai, India who has led over 50 slave rescue operations and a brain tumor survivor — gave a presentation that touched many hearts.

Lifting hearts and hands while singing a song.

The contemporary Christian music group Gungor performs its song “Beautiful Things” during the lunch break.

Geoffrey Canada — president and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, a leader in urban education and advocate for education reform in the United States who was featured in the acclaimed documentary “Waiting For Superman” — is interviewed before the afternoon break.

Guests from Haiti find material to take home with them in the resource center.

Volunteers go through one more debriefing meeting to discuss what worked and what didn’t work.

Starting to take the giant screen and curtains down.

Filing things away at the end of another year for the Global Leadership Summit.

At the Global Leadership Summit, politics pushed aside (viewfrommiddleclass.wordpress.com)
A day for tears and “see ya laters” at church (viewfrommiddleclass.wordpress.com)
A mission to raise funds for mission trips (viewfrommiddleclass.wordpress.com)
Global Leadership Summit – KEY POINTS for parents raising leaders (erintarr.com)
Soul Food for Friday: Great Quotes from Day 1 of the Global Leadership Summit (richardburkey.wordpress.com)

The Commodores provided some nice soul. When they did their “softer” songs, they gave us something good to bring our special lady close to us, giving us a chance to share our “soul” with that person.

They even put some country flavoring into their music on a tune like “Sail On.” And Lionel Richie ended up writing songs that country stars like Kenny Rogers turned into crossover classics.

Some of those softer tunes got some “raking over” by comedians like Eddie Murphy doing “Buckwheat” singing “Three Times A Lady.”

I know I laughed at that.

The Commodores also knew how to bring the funk, and they could bring it hard enough to get people out on the dance floor. I know I grabbed my lady not that long ago at a friend’s wedding reception, because I just felt the need to shake it to “Brick House.”

Whether it was soft soul or solid funk, they knew what it took to get people on a dance floor.