Post by Jackie Deshommes
Pastor Steven Furtick
Pastor Steven Furtick is the lead pastor of Elevation Church in North Carolina. He has written 3 books and has lead his church into a domain of global streaming. With about 19 different locations and several other pastors, he is able to lead through an online platform. His YouTube videos get millions of views as well as the official elevation church YouTube channel. The elevation Church channel has about 1 million subscribers and Furtick’s channel has about 600,000 subscribers.
YouTube
YouTube has been in the social media industry for about 14 years now. Since then many things have change. People are able to share videos, comment, like videos, subscribe to people, upload videos and the list goes on. Nowadays people are able to livestream and make money all on YouTube. In this day and age, many church organizations participate in live-streaming in orders for their members to have access to the service while they may be home sick. It has now because a way to outreach others and to create a sense of community through the online presence. Having the ability to live stream a service allows people to decide whether they want to watch while it is being stream or watch it later. This means that you wouldn’t miss anything if you took a bathroom break.
“A live stream provides another opportunity to keep from missing a week, when you don’t intend to, but life forces you to be away.”
https://www.churchproduction.com/education/why-live-stream/
Many individuals spend every week or even everyday watching Steven Furtick sermons on YouTube. The thing is, his sermons aren’t your ordinary church sermons. These sermons share some of life’s most valuable life lessons. A belief in God or not, anyone can learn something from pastor Steven Furtick’s sermons. I remember my first time hearing a snippet from one of his words. I was scrolling on Facebook and he had 3 guys standing near him and the pulpit. He was basically making a visual representation of struggling between where a person is and where they want to be. He describes how people may want to quit because they are struggling so much to get to where they want to be in life but they fail to realize where they have come from or where they were before.
From this video I realized that there was a such thing as a sermon that can relate so closely to real life which is opposite from what I grew up believing. I believe that because this relate to so many people’s lives, this video was viewed over 9 million times on Facebook to this date. He has so many videos on Facebook that millions of people can watch him and feel moved by his word.
Leadership Competencies
Ruben’s (2006) Leadership competencies display a well amount of characteristics that describe aspects of a leader. For one, I can say that Steven Furtick has displayed themes within the organization competency and the communication competency on YouTube. Ruben (2006) describes Influence and Persuasion within the communication competency as involving “motivating, guiding, directing, building coalitions, and consensus, and/or gaining the commitment of others, often in order to bring change” (Ruben 2006, pp 35.) Steven Furtick is a lead pastor through online and in his different locations and serves as a model that motivates others to change the way that they think about certain things or live their lives. In the organizational aspect, Steven Furtick has the ability to Teach and Coach others. According to Ruben(2006), “Leaders are teachers, and they accomplish their goals through the people they teach” (Ruben 2006, pp. 49). If Steven Furtick were to give a sermon where no one was able to feel or relate to anything he said, his job would not be as effective. Part of being a leader over Youtube has allowed his videos to go viral. His subscriptions, likes, shares, comments, etc. has only further validated the reasons that make him an excellent leader.
Conclusion
Would you evaluate Pastor Steven Furtick as a social media leaders? Youtube has verified that he has been able to lead millions to his words. Not only is he “a” pastor but he is the founder of Elevation church as well as the “Lead Pastor” of several others. This means that he leads his congregation as well as the people under him who are also in charge of leading a congregation. A leader has the ability to not only teach others but to also be taught by others. Ruben (2006) has concluded a list of competencies with about seven themes each. Many of those themes describe Steven Furtick’s leadership.
References
Furtick, S. [Official Steven Furtick]. (2017, May 31). Don’t Stop In The Middle | Pastor Steven Furtick. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wzfa4Ia7Es
Clifford, P. Top 6 reasons your church should be live streaming. Retrieved from https://www.churchproduction.com/education/why-live-stream/
Ruben, B. (2006). What Leaders Need to Know and Do: A Leadership Competencies Scorecard. Washington, DC: National Association of College and University Business Officers. (Chapters 5-7)
Ruben, B. (2006). What Leaders Need to Know and Do: A Leadership Competencies Scorecard. Washington, DC: National Association of College and University Business Officers. (Competency Grid)
Who Are Today's Leaders In This Digital Age? 