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Steven Furtick

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Steven Furtick
Born (1980-02-19) February 19, 1980 (age 44)
Moncks Corner, South Carolina, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPastor
SpouseHolly Furtick
Websitehttp://www.stevenfurtick.com

Steven Furtick (born February 19, 1980) is the Lead Pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and is the author of two books, Sun Stand Still and the New York Times bestselling release, Greater, which debuted at #4 on The New York Times Best Seller list.[1]

Furtick was born and raised in Moncks Corner, South Carolina and attended Berkeley High School.[2] At the age of 16, after reading the book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala, he "felt called to pastor a church in a major city".[3] Furtick received a B.A. in Communication from North Greenville University and a Masters of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.[4]

After serving as music director at a local church in Shelby, North Carolina, Furtick moved to Charlotte and started Elevation Church. The church had their first service on February 5, 2006.[5]

Church growth

Furtick has seen the church grow to over 12,000 in regular attendance, currently meeting in eight different locations, the most recent being in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[6] Elevation was cited by Outreach Magazine as one of the Top 100 fastest growing churches in the country every year since 2007.[7]

Public ministry

In addition to Furtick's local ministry, he has become a guest speaker in the United States and internationally, including speaking at events such as the Willow Creek Association's 2011 Global Leadership Summit hosted by Bill Hybels,[8] C3 Conference 2012, hosted by Ed Young Jr.,[9] Hillsong Conference 2012 hosted by Brian Houston[10] and Presence Conference 2012 and 2013 hosted by Phil Pringle.[11] Furtick also participated in The Elephant Room 1 and 2 hosted by James MacDonald along with other speakers such as Mark Driscoll, T.D. Jakes, Wayne Cordeiro, and Jack Graham.[12]

Outreach

In 2008, Furtick made headlines when his church gave $40,000 to members in envelopes with $5, $20, even $1,000, and told them to spend it kindly on others.[3]

Under Furtick's leadership, Elevation Church has given more than $3.4 million to local and global outreach partners since 2006. In 2011, a partnership with Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx was established to give 100,000 hours and $750,000 to serve Charlotte people in "The Orange Initiative." [13]

Since 2010, Furtick has hosted a week long outreach in February at Elevation Church called "Love Week."[14] During the church's 2010 "Love Week," thousands of Elevation members packed more than 10,000 sandwiches for the homeless, helped single mothers get their cars serviced, donated blood, cleaned up parks and streets, built a soccer field for local ministries and renovated buildings.[15] In 2011, Furtick led Elevation and over 25 other local churches to serve more than 34,000 hours in a single week.[14] In 2012, Elevation partnered with 31 local churches to serve 62 outreach organizations for a total of 50,340 hours around the city of Charlotte, N.C.. More than 4,800 volunteers from Furtick's church and other local churches served at more than 400 events, building houses, stocking food pantries, feeding the hungry and homeless, and holding a senior prom for elderly nursing home residents. Furtick and Elevation Church also partnered with Presbyterian Hospital-Matthews to pledge $80,000 to help fund enhancements and expansion at a local free clinic.[16]

In honor of the release of his new book, Greater, Furtick gave away more than 2,200 book bags filled with school supplies, one bag for every book sold. The book bags were distributed throughout the U.S. and in the U.K. Hundreds more were sent to the gulf region in the wake of Hurricane Isaac.[6]

In 2012, in response to a need of 1,000 mentors for students in Charlotte-area schools, Furtick launched an outreach program at Elevation Church called the M1 Initiative. Furtick, seeking to fill the gap of 1,000 needed mentors solely with Elevation members, said, "We have always said we want to be a blessing to our city and support our leaders with a volunteer force they can count on." More than 1,600 members responded and committed to mentoring a child for the 2012-2013 school year.[6]

Personal life

Furtick and his wife, Holly, have three children; Abbey, Elijah and Graham.[4]

In 2013, Furtick and his wife built a large house (8,400 sq. ft, heated, 16,000 sq. ft total) on 19 acres of land in Weddington, NC, a suburb of Charlotte.[3] Referenced in the news report, during a sermon on September 28, 2013, Furtick talked about the house, which he said was being built with money from the sales and publisher advances related to his books, not his salary from the church.[17] The house and land are valued at $1.7 million. The media has been critical of the church's refusal to release Furtick's compensation information, only saying that Furtick is generous to the church with the money he receives from writing books, arranges for the church to purchase his books directly from the publisher at the author's discount and keep the money from sales, and that the publisher pays the church to produce marketing materials to promote Furtick's books. [18] [19] Despite assertions by Furtick that there is no commingling of church funds and those used to pay for the new 16,000sqft mansion it is readily apparent that the church pays for much of the advertising which supports the book, a clear conflict. [1] [2]

Bibliography

  • Furtick, Steven (2010). Sun Stand Still: What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible. Multnomah Books. ISBN 978-1-60142-322-1.
  • Furtick, Steven (2012). Greater: Dream Bigger. Start Smaller. Ignite God's Vision for Your Life. Multnomah Books. ISBN 978-1-60142-325-2.

References

  1. ^ Best Sellers, September 23, 2012, The New York Times
  2. ^ "Students win in QUEST contest for knowledge". The Post and Courier. May 21, 1998. p. 4.
  3. ^ a b c Funk, Tim. "A cool pastor, and a hot church." Charlotte Observer 14 Sept. 2008: A1. Retrieved 2009-09-03. Cite error: The named reference "Funk" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Elevation Church. "Pastor Steven Furtick". Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  5. ^ Elevation Church. "History". Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  6. ^ a b c "Over 1,600 Elevation Church Volunteers Answer Call to Mentor Students". Christian Post, September 25, 2012. Accessed October 27, 2012.
  7. ^ Outreach Magazine (2008). "2008 The Outreach 100 Largest and Fastest Growing Churches in America"
  8. ^ City of Athens, TX. "Things to do: 2011 Global Leadership Summit". Retrieved April 24, 2012.
  9. ^ C3 Conference. "Speakers". Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  10. ^ Hillsong Conference. "Speakers". Retrieved July 06, 2012.
  11. ^ My C3 Church. "Presence 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  12. ^ The Elephant Room. "Conversations". Retrieved April 23, 2012.
  13. ^ Baxter, Jennifer. "Elevation church keeps growing", Charlotte Observer, 4 September 2011.
  14. ^ a b Smith, Brittany. "Elevation, 50 NC Churches to Serve Homeless, Elders for LOVE Week". Christian Post. February 10, 2012.
  15. ^ Kwon, Lillian. "Megachurch Floods Charlotte with Jesus' Love", Christian Post, 19 February 2010.
  16. ^ Smith, Brittany. "Megachurch's LOVE Week Inspires Selflessness in Charlotte". Christian Post. February 20, 2012.
  17. ^ Furtick, Steven. "Sermon: Scar Shaper". Retrieved October 23, 2013.
  18. ^ Watson, Stuart. "I-Team: How a pastor built a multi-million dollar home". Retrieved October 23, 2013.
  19. ^ Wilson, Jen. "Elevation Church pastor’s home draws scrutiny". Retrieved October 23, 2013.

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