HEADWATERS LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

Energy spent only in indignation is wasted unless it fuels positive action. Indignation gave rise to action. For many years there has been teaching, preaching, writting, cajoling, protesting, and complaining about the collapse of the biblical consensus in our civilization and its institutions. Even in the White House aides have seen and experienced the advancing decay in frightening proximity. As a newspaper reporter and editorial page writer, you could have covered and analyzed the events that revealed the deepening of the crisis. As a pastor, you could have counseled hundreds of people over a 30-year period, and seen the tragic direct results of the appalling worldview and lifestyle arising from the new consensus and its ‘Brave New World.’ Questions formed in my mind:

• How do we reverse the cultural tide?
• How do we recover our roots?
• How do we restore the Judeo-Christian consensus?
• How do we rescue an entire civilization that is in its death throes?
• How do we ‘save’ the world?

Slowly it is realized that these are issues of the Kingdom of God and its penetration into all infrastructure components of societies. Jesus Himself asserted that the goal of history is the advance of the Kingdom everywhere:

Matt 24:14:

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations (Greek, ethne, “people groups”), and then the end (Greek, telos, “purpose,” “goal”) will come.”

This led to more questions:

• What are the ‘ethnes’ we need to reach?
• What is the ‘Gospel of the Kingdom’?
• How do we proclaim it in the ‘whole world’?

If You could also discover that you become weary from being in a perpetual state of indignation. It is easy not to like what was happening in the world around us, and to ourcountry and others. However, the perpetual indignation is robbing us of the joy of the Lord, and a sense of love for people for whom Christ died, even those who were bringing about the destruction of the biblical worldview. That’s when we need to decide it was time to take positive action. That type of action led to the birth of Headwaters Leadership Institute. The aim is simple: Pour out the renewing, restorative dynamic on the cultural stream. That dynamic is the Gospel of the Kingdom. It is catalytic, and launches transformation in whatever it touches.

Carrying out this mission is a positive, thrilling task. We are committed to the biblically-based Inside-Out/Bottom-Up strategy. We have tested it in a $2 billion a year secular institution, and seen amazing results. HLI is seeking to ignite, not a mere “earthquake” of short-lived revolution, but a “tectonic shift” resulting in enduring transformation. One of the strategic objectives is to conduct the E-Generation Seminar everywhere possible. The E-Generation is the “Elisha” generation. These are young people—high school juniors all the way up to and including college students—who will be sent into the future with a clearly established biblical worldview, a vision for God’s Kingdom and a passion to impact the five key spheres of society—Church, Family, Education, Governance, Marketplace—as ambassadors of the Kingdom. The E-Generation Seminar has already been tested, with great success. 

We can think of no greater mission than being used of God to contribute to the advance of His Kingdom in the world and the healing of the nations and their infrastructures by equipping those who will lead in the future! Please join us in this great venture.

THE HEADWATERS LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Headwaters Leadership Institute (HLI) develops leadership curricula and presents seminars, workshops and retreats for the key “streams” of culture:

• Church
• Family
• Education
• Governance and Politics
• Business and the Marketplace

HLI is the prime content provider for Bible In the Boardroom.

THE HLI MISSION

HLI will develop and present curricula and strategies based on biblical principles for the development of leaders for the Church, Family, Education, Governance-Politics, Business-Marketplace.

People living in today's turbulent world need periodically to regain focus, and discover refreshment of their personal vision and mission, as well as reconnect with their values. For businesses, the pace of global change is dizzying, along with redefined markets, organizational demands and financial challenges. Churches must be effective in a culture that cycles through change constantly. The Headwaters Leadership Institute focuses on helping you and the people you lead to function effectively and successfully in the whirlpools surging around you.

HLI exists to contribute to a future in which culture and its institutions function by biblical principles resulting in a fruitful impact on individuals and their societies. THE HLI MISSION HLI will develop and present curricula based on biblical principles for the development of leaders for the Church, Family, Education systems and institutions, agencies of governments, and business corporations. HLI’S CORE VALUES 1. The Bible as the treasury of authoritative principles that purify and give fruitful vitality to all the streams of human society 2. The Church, Family, Education, Government, Business as the key elements of the stream that sustain healthy society 3. The linkage orthodoxy with orthopraxy, through joining the enduring principles with practical application

HLI VISION

HLI exists to contribute to a future in which the institutions that comprise the cultural stream are transformed by biblical principles, resulting in a fruitful impact on individuals and their societies.

The fundamental issue behind this vision was stated by Moses long ago: Deut 30:15-20

• "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
• 16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
• 17 "But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,
• 18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
• 19 " I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
• 20 by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

BIBLICAL BACKGROUND: 2 Kings 2:19-22

HLI exists to contribute to a future in which the institutions that comprise the cultural stream are transformed by biblical principles, resulting in a fruitful impact on individuals and their societies.

Now the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. "We have a problem, my lord," they told him. "This town is located in beautiful natural surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive." Elisha said, "Bring me a new bowl with salt in it." So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, "This is what the LORD says: I have made this water wholesome. It will no longer cause death or infertility." And sure enough! The water has remained wholesome ever since, just as Elisha said. NLT The HLI Application The key cultural, corporate and institutional streams of society need revitalization. The “salt” is the biblical principles that bring renewal, fresh concepts and heightened levels of energy and vitality to all the “streams” of society. HLI’s identity is that of one of the “bowls” by which the revitalizing principles are poured into the springs which sustain society. Just as the freshened waters made practical impact on the land, so HLI focuses on helping institutions formulate and implement practical strategies based on the enduring principles.

WALLACE HENLEY

It was while working in the White House as an aide to the President of the United States that Wallace realized the truth he now proclaims and teaches: “The Church of Jesus Christ is the most potent organism in the world today and the local church is its strategic arm.” Wallace says there was a period when he was a young man in the 1960s when he believed society’s hopes were in politics and government. While at the White House, he became part of a prayer group, and Wallace’s vision changed. Jesus Christ and His Kingdom constitute the world’s hope, and for almost 40 years that’s the vision Wallace has pursued. In 1973, after leaving the Nixon White House during the Watergate crisis, Wallace became a senior pastor. After the collapse of communism, he spent a decade traveling heavily in the former Soviet bloc, as well other parts of the world, training church leaders in how to take advantage of the new opportunities opening to them. In 1997, Wallace was co-founder of a Bible College near New Delhi, India, which has now graduated more than 200 church planters. Every church Wallace served as senior pastor experienced dramatic growth. Two of them doubled and the third had ten-fold growth, from an attendance of 100 to more than 1,100 in five years. He is now associate pastor at Houston’s Second Baptist Church, a congregation of 54,000 members, with about 3,000 joining annually. Wallace is the author or co-author of more than 20 books, several of them with Ed Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church. He holds a Master’s degree in organizational leadership from Trinity Theological Seminary-Canterbury Christchurch College, England, and an honorary doctorate from Encourager Bible College (India) for his contributions to leadership training in developing nations. Wallace understands church growth for the small, medium and megachurch.

HUGH WILLIS

After spending 40 years in the energy industry, Hugh Willis has devoted himself to energizing people for Christ’s Kingdom. After a near-brush with death, Hugh realized God had given him back his life, and made a commitment to spending his remaining years helping people understand where they fit in the Body of Christ and their gifts, talents and skills can best be utilized. In his 40 years in the oil and gas industry, Hugh worked in 70 countries. He has been a management consultant, a leader in acquisitions and mergers in the petroleum field, focusing on metering and control products. Hugh is Chairman of the Board of Headwaters Leadership Institute, strategic partner for The Brilliance Church Growth Institute. He is also President and Co-Founder of NSIGHT For Life LLC. This company provides consulting services for strategic planning, goal-setting, team-building, executive coaching and professional development. Hugh’s greatest passion is the activation of the people-resource for local churches. He and his wife, Linda, lead the New Member Ministry at Houston’s Second Baptist Church West Campus, a congregation of more than 15,000. Annually, they oversee the intake and assimilation of more than 2,000 people who join Second’s West Campus. Hugh is a Certified Consultant for the Birkman Method ® for Birkman International, and is an Approved Dynamas Consultant. He puts these tools to use in working with local church leaders to help identify and mobilize leadership for congregations, and the activation of the whole church.

BRAD K. HAYS

A life-shaking personal tragedy brought Brad to a fresh discovery of his biblical moorings, a broad understanding of God’s Kingdom, and a compelling new life vision. Brad, CEO of Headwaters Leadership Institute, strategic partner for The Brilliance Church Growth Institute, heard God’s call to launch out in a ministry with the mission of “Applying God’s Transforming Word to the Workplace.” Brad now uses the rich template of a successful business career to help churches and companies succeed through practical implementation of biblical principles. His work ranges from advising a large corporation in bringing together strategic elements for a huge oil and gas enterprise in Africa, to personal executive coaching, and interactions with church and business leaders. He especially delights in teaching church leaders how to penetrate every facet of their communities with God’s transforming Word, resulting in impact, outreach and church growth. During his business career of more than 35 years, Brad led large operating divisions for Honeywell International (formerly Allied Signal), and Pennzoil. Brad also led two start-up technology companies as CEO. Brad’s fulltime focus now is helping corporations of all types use biblical principles for management, organizational design, and the other functions that bring marketplace quality and success. He is Founder of Bible in the Boardroom, and Partner in Leaven Partnership LLC. Brad has served as Director for the Center for Christianity in Business at Houston Baptist University, and is Houston Chairperson for Convene, an international organization of Christian CEOs and business owners. Like Wallace and Hugh, Brad has passion for the local church. He is an avid Bible student and teacher and is on the teaching team at Houston’s Second Baptist Church.