Steven Furtick's Book Release Event Combines Promotion, Outreach
Steven Furtick, lead pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, N.C., promoted the release of his new book, Greater, on Tuesday by hosting a live webcast event that is bringing together some of country's most well-known church leaders and, at the same time, helping children in need.
The purpose of Furtick's book is to show readers they don't have to settle for "good enough" in their lives, nor should they pursue false notions of "greatness" that will only leave them frustrated. Instead, he says, they should understand that they can accomplish greater things than they might ever expect by trusting in God and His power.
Tuesday's event, dubbed "Greater Day," was broadcast live on Elevation Network and has featured discussions about the book, clips of the related teaching DVD and live music inspired by the chapters in the book.
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Additionally, for each book that was purchased through Elevation Network during the event, a backpack full of school supplies is being donated to one of a number of nonprofit organizations throughout the country that will then distribute the supplies to local children in need.
Among the church leaders who spoke with Furtick via Skype during the event were Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, Matt Redman, worship leader and Christian songwriter, and Mark Driscoll, preaching and vision pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, among others.
Furtick started off the day's interviews with Groeschel, whom he asked to speak on the topic of having big dreams but starting small.
All ministries start small, said Groeschel. His church's attendance stayed below 600 people in during its first three years in existence, but today it is made up of 50,000 regular attendees at multiple sites across the country.
He also emphasized the idea that some ministries are small only for a "season," while others will remain small throughout the minister's lifetime, but success doesn't ultimately depend on numbers.
"The impact that comes from that can ripple well beyond the people that you're impacting. And I just think we need to be careful not to measure success just based on size. You lead the right one person to Christ, and that can be the greatest impact you have," he said.
Redman, who was participating in the event from the United Kingdom, shared one reason why he still needs to trust God in order to do greater things.
Redman is currently serving at a church plant in Brighton, England, a city of approximately 250,000 people where only one percent of the population goes to church on Sundays. If he and the members of the church, St. Peters, hope to see an increase in the number of Christians in the city, he suggested, they are going to have to rely on God.
"On paper, and with Jesus out of the equation, it looks hopeless, doesn't it? But when you have a God mindset, and you see a track record of who He is, what He can achieve, what He does time and time again without fail, then the future looks pretty bright," Redman told Furtick.
The live webcast is not the first major event Furtick has held in order to promote one of his books. In 2010, he preached on the topic of "audacious faith" to a live Web audience for 24 hours straight as a way to promote his first book, Sun Stand Still: What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible.
Furtick founded Elevation Church just seven years ago, and already it has grown to a weekly attendance of over 10,000 people across seven campuses. It has been included on Outreach Magazine's list of the 100 Largest and Fastest-Growing Churches in America each of the last six years.
