Meet David Ashcraft, Global Leadership Network CEO: A Passion for Leaders

By Amber Van Schooneveld 

David Ashcraft, President and CEO of the Global Leadership Network, swore he would never become a pastor. As the son of a pastor, it was everyone’s expectation for his life—and he planned to prove them wrong. David envisioned a life in business or perhaps the law.  

But in the background, God was weaving a different plan.  

After David graduated from high school, he went to Texas Tech University to study Business Administration—and to escape from the ministry life he’d grown up in. During the summers, he worked at a Christian youth camp in a remote canyon in Texas, a job he says, in retrospect, he had no business doing at the time as he wasn’t following God.  

But under the blue Texas sky and the red bluffs of the canyon, God began to reshape David’s heart. As he saw the way God was moving in the young people’s lives around him, David humbly prayed, “God, if you want me to pursue ministry, I will.” 

Early Ministry Years of Struggling 

That prayer started David on a path that eventually led him to seminary and to accept a job as Senior Pastor of a small church in the green farmlands of Pennsylvania. The church, with only 150 members, was struggling. They were grappling with the pain of a leader who had left the church. It was 1991, and the worship war between traditional organs and modern guitars was still raging within the little church’s walls.  

But David had been chosen by the Board of Elders for one reason: to help the church introduce more people to Jesus. He began making choices in line with this vision, but it was painful. Many disagreed with his decisions and his leadership.  

David admits, “As a new pastor, I came up against so many leadership challenges that I simply wasn’t prepared for.” 

The first five years were a struggle, and David and his wife, Ruth, weren’t sure how it might end.   

“It was bad enough that sometimes after board meetings, Ruth would ask, ‘Should I start packing?’” 

The Years of Growth 

Eventually, things began to turn around. David began investing in his leadership skills, attending the Global Leadership Summit beginning with its inaugural event in 1995. And he began investing in the leadership skills of the others in his church as well.  

God began to lay on their heart the importance of learning from other leaders and churches in order to bring more people to Jesus.  

“When we had 200 people, we studied churches that had 400. When we had 500, we studied churches that had 1,000,” says David. “We wanted to be prepared with the systems that made a church of that size work if God chose to bless us.”    

God did choose to bless them. Eventually, the church that started with 150 members grew to the largest church in the Northeastern United States, LCBC Church. When David resigned 32 years after he took the role of Senior Pastor, LCBC Church had an average weekly attendance of 22,000 people across 19 sites.  

The Key to Growth 

David says that the key to the growth of LCBC was developing a leadership culture—and the Global Leadership Summit was a tool that equipped them to do just that. He has attended the Summit along with the staff at LCBC for 25 years, and his church has hosted the Summit for more than 20 years.  

“The Global Leadership Summit helped us develop a leadership culture at our church. It elevated everyone’s leadership capacity,” says David. “When we had a project or a program that needed a leader, we had a large pool of skilled people to pull from.” 

So when David was selected as President and CEO of the Global Leadership Network (GLN) in 2023, it was the perfect match. The GLN hosts the Leadership Summit, now the largest leadership conference in the world with attendees in more than 100 countries. It helps leaders learn the relational, visionary and practical skills they need to get better and make an even greater impact. 

A Passion to Serve Pastors and the Church 

The vision of the GLN goes deeper than leadership. The vision is to serve pastors and equip churches so they can introduce more people to Jesus.  

“The Global Leadership Summit is a tool to serve pastors. We help pastors and churches reach leaders in their community who aren’t in church,” says David.  

The Summit is also a tool to help pastors and churches get better. 

“The stronger the pastor, the stronger the church,” David says. “Our purpose is to help leaders build prevailing churches. A prevailing church is a church that is well led and well organized. It’s focused and has a purpose. It’s growing, thriving and making an impact in its community.” 

The Summit isn’t about a specific methodology; it’s about developing leaders so that they can respond to whatever issues their community is facing.  

“The Summit doesn’t teach leaders how to solve a specific problem. We help them learn how to become problem solvers. We help them develop a leadership culture so that they can lead forward in the midst of adversity no matter their context.” 

If you are ready to invest in your leadership and develop a leadership culture around you, get your tickets to attend the Summit.