Welcome to the first Hero of the Day post of December. Here at www.stevenfurtick.com, rest assured that we’ll be doing our best to make the yuletide gay for the next 25 days.

This week’s Hero of the Day is a staff member. In fact, he was the first staff member at Elevation. Moreover, (just had to use that word!) he and his wife were the 3rd and 4th members of Elevation Church. (Holly and I were the 1st and 2nd).

He’s none other than James Brett Chunks Corbett (he’s got a lot of names), our Administrative Pastor, and he blew my mind yesterday. In fact, although this guy was already close to my heart and had my complete trust and confidence, what he pulled of yesterday catapulted him into another stratosphere of respect and appreciation.

What he did yesterday bordered on insanity and set an example for all of us to remember.

What did he do?

He had a baby. Well, his wife Amy did. It was their second child. They named him Austin. Good looking kid.

People have babies everyday though. Surely that’s not enough to secure his eternal fame and glory as the Hero of the Day, right?

Right.

What makes Chunks the Hero of the Day is that 2 hours after his wife gave birth, he showed up at the church office. You see, we had a very important meeting (see yesterday’s post) and it couldn’t be rescheduled. He knew it was important to me and the whole team. Moreover, (I used it twice in one post! I’m on a roll… ) he said he wanted to set an example for the staff that when something’s important, it’s important. Wow. We got the message, loud and clear.

You may be thinking a couple things:

1. That Furtick must be some kind of slave driver to make a staff member show up for a meeting right after his wife gave birth… .
Let the record show that I didn’t ask him to do it, and didn’t expect it.

2. I thought family came before ministry… I’ve heard you say that before Pastor Steven. Aren’t you condoning someone for violating this very principle?
While I’ll admit that it’s a slippery slope, you’ve got to understand a few things:

-Chunks’ wife is totally on board with the vision of our church, and is a part of his ministry. What’s important to him is important to her.

-She told him to go. And she meant it. Her parents were in town, sitting by her side, and it gave them a chance to hang out for a couple hours without their obnoxious son in-law :). Amy knows she comes first in Chunks’ life, and if she would have even hinted that it bothered her, he would have stayed put.

-He was only gone 2 ½ hours. He was back by her side all afternoon, through the night, and will be changing diapers all day today. At least you’d better be Chunks.

-It was their second child, a little different from the first time around, I’m
sure.

I don’t care if what you think he did was too radical or overboard, I’m thankful to have a guy at my right hand who cares that much about Elevation Church.

He’s showing us what it means to put your family first and still make the house of God important.

And Amy showed us what it means to be a true partner in ministry.

Actually, I changed my mind.

Chunks is not the Hero of the Day.

Amy is.

Chunks, 2nd place ain’t bad.

Thanks Corbetts, for your sacrifice for the Gospel!

Congrats on a beautiful baby boy. I’m praying that he’ll be a world changer.

He will.