Steven Furtick (born February 19, 1980) is an American Baptist minister, author, and music editor for Elevation Worship. He is the founder and senior master of Elevation Church, based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Early life and education
Furtick was born and raised in Moncks Corner, South Carolina and attended Berkeley High School. At age 16, after reading Jim Cymbala's Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, he felt called to pastor a church in a large city. He studied at North Greenville University in communications and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, after which he studied at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and earned a Master of Divinity degree.
Set
In 2004, Furtick served as worship leader at Christ Covenant Church in Shelby, North Carolina, a Baptist Church. [4] In 2006, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and founded Elevation Church with seven families and his family. The church held its first service on February 5, 2006
In 2007, he helped found the music group Elevation Worship as a songwriter and has since been nominated for a GMA Dove and Grammy Award, winning a Grammy for their album, Old Church Basement.
In 2007, he made headlines when his church gave away $40,000 to members who said the envelopes contained $5, $20 and even $1,000, suggesting they spend it kindly on others. other.
Furtick speaks at events worldwide including the 2011 Global Leadership Summit chaired by Bill Hybels, the 2012 C3 Conference hosted by Ed Young Jr. hosted , the 2012 Hillsong Conference hosted by Brian Houston , and the 2012 and 2013 Presence Conferences hosted by Phil Pringle . Furtick also participated in The Elephant Room 1 and The Elephant Room 2 hosted by James MacDonald. Furtick was named to Oprah's SuperSoul100 list of visionaries and influential leaders in 2016.
In 2012, to meet the need to mentor 1,000 students at area schools, Furtick launched a community outreach program at Elevation Church called the M1 Initiative. Furtick said, "We've always said we want to be a healthy city for our city and support our leaders with a volunteer capacity they can trust." More than 1,600 members responded and committed to mentoring children during the 2012-2013 school year.
Furtick has committed 12% of Elevation Church donations to support national and global outreach efforts