Today is day two of Willow Creek's annual "The Leadership Summit" conference. Yesterday, in his opening plenary address, Willow founding pastor Bill Hybels shared his insights into "The High Drama of Decision Making."

"So much of leadership is decision making," Hybels explained. Yet many church leaders fail to reflect on their decision-making processes. As a result, those leaders can feel totally unprepared to tackle a tough decision with confidence.

Excellent leaders, on the other hand, reflect on their decision-making processes to such an extent that they are able to reduce a lifetime's wisdom into short leadership proverbs, or axioms.

These axioms meet the four requirements for a good decision: 1) they are consistent with the Bible's teaching on a given subject; 2) they are consistent with the wise counsel of trusted advisers; 3) they are informed by past experience; 4) and they are consistent with the Spirit's prompting.

Hybels offered as an example a famous proverb of Abraham Lincoln: ...