Vision, leadership, patience, strategic thinking - each is key to maximizing long-term success in our work and in our daily lives. But what is the best way to think about these often nebulous concepts, and how are they best practiced? Further, how do we persevere in the face of inevitable obstacles? Alan Sears, founder of Alliance Defending Freedom, presented the life of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War II and the 34th President of the United States, and how Eisenhower's faithfulness and perseverance is a model for us all to follow if we want to be used by God to make a difference in the world.

"[Ike's] story has many important lessons that we can apply to our lives today as we seek to shape our futures to please God and to be all that we can be. And few things provide context better than understanding our collective past, learning from those that persevered and kept the faith often through circumstances that made no sense at all to enable us to live in freedom." - Alan Sears

As the first president, CEO, and general counsel of ADF, Alan Sears led all strategic initiatives from 1993-2017, strengthening alliances, forging new relationships, and developing the resources needed to ensure the ministry's capacity to respond to opportunities. Realizing the need for conservative lawyers, Sears created the world-class Blackstone Legal Fellowship leadership-training program which has since graduated more than 1,960 outstanding law students. At the same time, ADF has trained more than 2,000 lawyers to defend religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family. Under Sears' leadership, ADF attorneys won more than three out of four cases and ADF has played various important roles in 52 victories at the United States Supreme Court.