Spur Leadership Conference Notes: Day 2

I'm not going to lie. I went to the Spur Leadership Conference for three reasons

1) It was in Austin

2) It was a leadership conference for $99

3) Steven Furtick

Elevation Church and Steven Furtick are probably have the largest influence on how I run my high school ministry theexchangehutto.com. That's partially because they're style of ministry resonates with me, and partially because they're my good luck charm (wait...can pastors say things like that?) I visited Elevation Church back in May, and I decided to implement a few of their ideas with my high school group...our group LITERALLY doubled in size the following week. Less than a month later we doubled in size a second time. And we've maintained those numbers for the last 3 months.

It's impossible to pinpoint the exact cause of our sudden success, but it did come immediately after visiting his church. So I feel their ministry has a been an incredible blessing to our ministry and they'll probably never know it. Anyway....

Session VII - Steven Furtick - Pastor of Elevation Church

Furtick's Blog

The Story of Elevation Church

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.

“I’m scared of the thought that my life might pass me by without God doing something great with my life.” - From "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" by Jim Cymbala

Random Thoughts:

• Speak to peoples potential rather than what you don't want them to be
• Embrace an audacious vision for my life and call it out of the people around me
• You never know when you're going to say a sentence which will ignite the potential within someone
• If no one has laughed at your vision lately it's not a vision it's a daydream
• The difference between a vision and a daydream is the audacity to act

Session VIII - Les Csorba - Former Special Assistant to the President of the US

1) Turn Your Leadership Upside Down - Servant Leadership

• A leaders obsession is his followers
• Are you interested in results or right?

2) Build Trust by Trusting Others - Trustworthy Leadership

• You don't build trust by micro-managing
• You build trust by letting go and allowing people to fail

3) Self-Awareness Builds Real Vision - Visionary Leadership

Random Thoughts on the Best Leaders:

• High Self-Awareness
• More Ambitious for the Company than for Themself
• Empathetic and Caring
• Manage the Privileges of Leadership
• Truth Others
• Reproduce
• They Overcome Adversity

Session IX - General Tommy Franks - Four Star General, Commander-in-Chief, United States Central Command

Random Thoughts on Leadership:

• All absolutes take place within a context
• We're born only responsible for ourselves. Eventually we become responsible for others. Part of growing up is realizing being responsible for others is more important than being responsible for self.
• Nothing that's good comes without a price
• Some decisions make no difference. Others will change the direction of your entire life

"Why can't we just have a cookie?"