Beyond the Summit
July 1, 1999
THE LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW
In 1996, Jon Krakauer, a journalist for Outside magazine, climbed Mt. Everest as one of eight clients of a New Zealand expedition. Five of the eight made it all the way to the top. Of the five who did, only Krakauer, however, survived the climb. The other four, plus five more climbers from three other expeditions, died as a rogue storm blew in that afternoon. In Into Thin Air, Krakauer described what it was like to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the highest mountain and ceiling of the world. "I'd been fantasizing about this moment," he writes, "and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care … "Reaching the top of Everest is supposed to trigger a surge of intense elation … But the summit was really only the halfway point. Any impulse I might have felt toward self-congratulation was extinguished by overwhelming apprehension about the long, dangerous descent that lay ahead." It was on the descent that Krakauer's teammates perished due to a series of miscalculations. Midlife is a kind of summit—you have experience, a network, a decent income. You may be relatively comfortable now. But midlife is only the halfway point. The next stage—of life and ministry—may be the most perilous. At 47, Bill Hybels is a unique blend of intense and intentional. He still pastors the church he planted when he was 24, Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago. LEADERSHIP editors Dave Goetz and Marshall Shelley asked him about the challenges ahead. As you near 50, has midlife affected your enthusiasm for ministry? This is the best time in my life, ...
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