2014 GLS Blackhawk Promo
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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.