2014 GLS Blackhawk Promo

Ten years ago our team at Blackhawk Ministries hosted our first Global Leadership Summit as a new site in Fort Wayne, Indiana. While in those first few years the GLS was an effective tool for the purpose of leadership development within Blackhawk's ministry, staff and church family and while partner churches and organizations were benefitting as well from the Summit's annual presence at Blackhawk. I sensed a unique willingness of a local, Kingdom-minded business man, Daryle Doden. I asked Daryle for help with our Blackhawk GLS host site efforts. The proposition was simple. Would Daryle and the team at Ambassador Enterprises be willing to contribute to the GLS scholarship effort in Fort Wayne by matching my own fund raising efforts. If I could raise $10,000 from private donors in Blackhawk willing to support the Summit, would Ambassador give an additional $10,000 to make it possible for more local leaders to attend the GLS at our satellite site. Ambassador Enterprises was willing. Over the next couple of years $20,000 became $27,000. Hundreds of under-resourced ministry teams and individuals from the region were given the gift of the GLS in Fort Wayne, Indiana. With Blackhawk's host site, attendance around 400, we sensed a new whisper from the Holy Spirit and we followed it. Ambassador Enterprises was not the only local corporation that showed an interest in the Summit. I knew several high level executives from a few of those companies who had attended our site and decided to take an opportunity at expanding the funding vision for our effort. Here's the deal. At Blackhawk, we do believe that when a leader gets better whatever they are leading gets better. We really truly genuinely believe that. We have seen it. As we looked around Fort Wayne and our community, we realized that on the educational front, on the political and spiritual front, on the business and not-for-profit fronts, leadership development progress was being made. There were still hundreds, thousands of Fort Wayne leaders that needed to get better. So I went to those who lead at a medical center, an insurance agency, and other local organizations to see what interest they might have in helping the Blackhawk GLS effort reach those hundreds and thousands of current and future leaders in our region. They were very interested. Not only were they ready to enlarge their financial support to help more local leaders attend in 2013 but the medical center team had a suggestion that was extremely compelling. Move the Summit away from the Blackhawk Ministries church campus. That is right, move it away. It was their contention that a growing number of local business men and women were interested in the GLS but felt reluctant to attend what was being built as a world-class leadership training event and yet it was still being held at a local church. To them it did not make sense. The suggestion was made to move the Summit to downtown Fort Wayne. Make it more accessible and hopefully more inviting to a broader demographic of people. So we did. The medical center covered the rental cost at the convention center downtown. The other corporate partners along with private donors from Blackhawk kicked in at a higher level than anticipated. The Blackhawk GLS team headed into the Spring at a new venue and over $40,000 in scholarship funds to help new local leaders experience the Summit. Blackhawk's satellite site last year experienced quite a bump. While we did go from 400 to 950 in registrations and local corporate attendance was up 30% and while attendance from the ministry sector rose significantly as well, the greatest bump came in the interest shown by a growing number of new corporate sponsors. The vision and generosity evidenced by the other corporate sponsors was noticed. Today in our region there are a growing number of other local companies that are planning on supporting the GLS effort in Fort Wayne in 2014 with $70,000 to $80,000 additional funds. Our hope is to see 950 turn into 3,000 attendees. In the process, our hope is that we will see Fort Wayne and it's leaders and all that they lead continue to get better and better.