The GLS Ignites a Dream Once Buried in Self-Doubt

Many people attending The Global Leadership Summit come with a dream or a vision.

Sometimes they enter our doors with their dream already in full-fledged operation and they’re seeking skills to improve. But other times they enter our doors wondering what’s next, while their dream has been buried in self-doubt.

Whatever the case, the Summit exists to equip and empower you to accomplish your God-given dream, or inspire and encourage you to fan the flame of your dream, and take action.

For Heather Ricks, founder and director of Story One, a worship-focused support raising organization, God used the Summit to ignite her dream forward and show her the leader she is. As a result, missionaries around the world are being equipped, churches are being planted and more and more people are discovering Jesus.

God begins to stir a dream

For 21 years, Heather and her husband lived off raised support in six different ministry settings. Through this experience, she developed a passion for worship-focused support raising and started working in the training department of a mission organization. “During this time, I saw firsthand the discouragement of missionaries, whose training promoted the idea that support-raising is about how much and how quickly one can raise funds,” Heather explains. “Due to my own experiences, I knew that God had greater purposes for fundraising; therefore, I wrote a book called, God and Elephants: A Worshippers Guide to Raising Support.”

Realizing the significance of your dream

“I’ve been told that my ideas were game changers, but I never knew quite how to live them out,” Heather shares. “Each speaker at the Summit took those seeds God had planted in me and helped me see how my ideas really were unique. The speakers gave me a greater vision as to how my ideas could change lives for the better.

“My dream is to see God exalted, lives transformed and workers sent out through the support-raising journey,” says Heather. “It’s my dream that the journey will not just be seen as a task to get money, but as an avenue for everyone to unite as one voice in an act of worship to God and join in His work here and around the world.”

A daunting big step

As Heather began to unpack the significance of her dream, the Summit prompted some serious life decisions. “Resigning from my job and starting my own non-profit ministry is not something I took lightly,” says Heather. “Months of prayer and wavering back and forth went into making this decision, but I never felt ready. What I wasn’t expecting was for God to speak to me so directly at the Summit.

“God confirmed this decision and used the Summit to equip me to do what He knew all along I could do for Him. That following week I began the daunting task of exploring a non-profit ministry, and now it is going full-time.

“God has taken what seemed like a small, insignificant dream, and turned it into a non-profit ministry. Now I help people discover God on the support-raising journey, as they prepare their hearts to serve in their different ministries around the world.”

What would the world be like without this dream?

If Heather had never been to the Summit, she wouldn’t have taken that big step of starting a non-profit. “I would still be a receptionist, doodling my dreams in a notebook while scheduling appointments,” says Heather. “The world would be missing missionaries, church planters and ministry workers who are equipped and trained for the support-raising journey, in order to discover God in deeper ways and lead others into worship of Him.”

“People always told me I was a leader, but through this process, I’ve been surprised by the fact that I’ve been bold enough to really be one.”

Ignite your dream. Attend the Summit!

“Many people I’ve known have struggled with the fact that a good portion of the Summit is secular,” Heather shares. “However, no one can discount the fact that, from beginning to end, this conference is bathed in prayer. As a result, God speaks in powerful ways as He takes the knowledge of the world and turns it into wisdom for His kingdom purposes.

“Come with an open heart and allow God to use others, regardless of their situation, to speak truth to you. It’s worth it!”