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Learning to Lead
Ignite Conference is Major Success
By Jessica Allen (Class of 2003)
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"This became so much bigger than we imagined," said Sarah Grace Turner, one of the conference's primary coordinators. She and fellow senior Selah Davis were inspired to organize the conference over the summer, when both interned with Dr. John Maxwell and Dr. Tim Elmore. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP, an Atlanta-based organization that specializes in leadership training and development.
A number of internal and external organizations helped sponsor the event, including the ORU Alumni Association and several individual alumni.
"The Alumni Association was one of our key sponsors," Turner said. It donated several thousand dollars for the event. Other contributions came from the ORU Student Association, local businesses, and the organizations whose representatives spoke at the conference.
"God just gave us this idea and it snowballed from there," Davis said. "This whole thing has been supernatural favor." Both Turner and Davis are overwhelmed by the positive response among students and administration.
"The outcome has completely superseded our vision," Turner said. "Students keep coming up to me and sharing the dreams that were sparked and the passions that were stirred...One student told me he knew he had talent, but the conference showed him he needed to work on his character."
Another student revealed to Turner that he was on the verge of suicide when God spoke to him at the conference. It was then he realized that he had a purpose and that God had a call on his life. "When Selah and I were planning [Ignite], we said that if one person's life is touched and changed, it is worth all of this," Turner said.
She is especially pleased by how the various sessions complemented one another. "Each speaker spoke right to what students needed," she added. "The biggest highlight was to see how God orchestrated the speakers that came, and the order that they were in."
All of the conference speakers hailed from different backgrounds with different spheres of influence. Elmore, an ORU alumnus and the vice president of EQUIP, focused on "Living the Life You Were Meant to Live" when he opened the conference on Friday night. The session was designed to help students realize God's purpose for their lives.
Napoleon Kauffmann, an ordained minister and former running back for the Oakland Raiders, addressed students in a special session called the "Breakfast of Champions" on Saturday morning in the student cafeteria. Other speakers included David Salyers, the vice president of marketing for Chick-Fil-A corporation in Atlanta; Tamara Lowe, the cofounder and vice president of LifeWin, Inc. (a $26 million organization that puts on America's largest business seminars); and David Hasz, the director of Leadership Training for Teen Mania Honor Academy in Tyler, Tex.
Salyers focused on the importance of servant leadership, while Lowe spoke on overcoming rejection and brokenness and walking in authority. Citing biblical leaders such as Moses, Joseph, David, and Christ himself, Lowe explained that leaders should expect persecution, but they should not equate rejection with defeat. Finally, Hasz offered insight into how Christians can use their leadership abilities to influence the world.
"I definitely liked it a lot," said Grace Geiger, a freshman who attended the sessions. "The speakers knew what they were talking about, and it was very applicable to our lives."
Freshman Courlesia Cummings agrees that the insight the speakers provided was both useful and practical. "They were able to relate to us from their level. Even the meal they provided was a good example of putting what they said into practice," Cummings said, referring to Salyers' message on servant leadership and the lunch donated from Chick-fil-A.
Turner says that she and Davis are already in the process of mentoring a group of students to carry the torch for next year's Ignite conference. She hopes that it will be an even greater success.
"This was God's vision, it wasn't our vision," Turner emphasized. "God was the one that accomplished it, because it was His...We really count it an honor that He used us and allowed us to be a part of it."
