Blog

Last week was Leadership Week at JBU.

We brought two incredible people to campus. Phil Vischer, Creator of VeggieTales and Sean Womack, Former VP of Marketing for Walmart.

The theme for Leadership Week 2012 was Relive: Defining Moments of Faith.

Our team decided on this theme because of a great leader by the name of Samuel. The story of Samuel tells of a defining moment of faith, a chance to RElive.

After many many years of rebelling against God, the Israelites finally decided they were finished doing things their own way. They were ready to turn back to the Lord, and they had a new leader named Samuel.

When the Israelites came together in one place for this event, the Philistines saw it as their chance to attack. Samuel, being the great leader he was, decided to make a sacrifice to God in the hopes that God would protect them from the Philistines. Which God did. So Samuel created a big stone monument to signify Israel’s return to God and God’s protection from the Philistines. Samuel called the stone Ebeneezer. Ebeneezer represents a defining moment for Israel. A chance to start over and RElive.

Both Phil and Sean told their stories; stories of defining moments in their lives.

Phil spoke about the rise and fall of VeggieTales. He went from being the next Walt Disney, to bankrupt staring at a blank sheet of paper. His challenge to the students was not to fall in love with your dreams. Dreams become idols when we fall in love with them.

You can watch Phil’s chapel talk here.

Sean told his story in chapel on Thursday. Sean was the VP of Marketing for Walmart Stores. He was managing a $570 million dollar advertising budget, and helping Walmart transform its image. But an affair with his boss and accepting gratuities from ad agencies caused his career, his marriage and his family to unravel. His story was very public and very painful. I can’t do his story justice here, but it is an incredible story of God’s grace and redemption. A defining moment of faith.

It was a great week. I’m still not finished processing it, but I’m hoping to post another blog with the things I learned. I think the biggest lesson for me is to not hold too tightly to anything in this life. It is all temporary. How we live today is what matters. I’m so thankful for Phil and Sean. Thankful for their stories. Thankful for their transparency. And thankful that they were willing to share what they’ve learned with us.