Collecting and understanding data from the field allows us to see God at work and helps identify next steps. Such information is vital to our goals of one healthy, multiplying expression of the Church for every 1000 people.
On June 26, 2018, I and colleague Mike Waid met with leaders from over 25 other organizations to discuss measuring our mission. We discussed the iShare platform, a tool we developed along with an outside engineering firm.
As I review my notes on the Bold Moves Summit, things have become clearer to me. I am increasingly excited to be used by the Lord for His Kingdom come. Thanks to you, Keith and Kay, to Bekele and to your team for a conference that will produce eternal rewards. [from a participant]
Some came from far. Others were nearby. As the Bold Moves conference began in late February in Manila, 229 people from 89 countries gathered to explore Bold Moves: Boldly Multiplying, Boldly Expanding, Boldly Partnering and Boldly Leading. Directing a global conference with visas, around-the-clock arrivals and departures, establishing a meaningful agenda and executing it in atimely manner is in itself a bold move!
My prayer for weeks before the conference was from Luke 19 as Jesus expresses his love for Jerusalem. He laments that “you did not recognize the time when God visited you.” I felt God wanted to visit Bold Moves participants with a fresh breath of the Holy Spirit, a renewed vision and tools to overcome barriers. He wanted to invite us to closely follow our God who is boldly moving towards “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)
My prayer was that we each would recognize the time when God visited us in Manila.
My prayer was overwhelmingly answered. There is a renewed dependence, vision and commitment. We have identified the big challenges. We have discussed the barriers. We have developed pathways to success. Participants departed saying, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (Acts 4:29)
This was my first GCM conference and it was the best organized conference that I have attended with our organization. I liked that it was global and I could meet people from around the world. I liked how practical it was – writing down the next steps and emphasizing what the Lord is saying and how he is leading. I liked all the talks and the workshops. [Eastern Europe]
The 4 clear themes, the women time, the best practices (huge impact to have had Joey and his wife in person). [Latin America and Caribbean]
Seeing best practices, big challenges table times, clear directions of how to take notes and put ideas into the notebook. [Central Asia]
I liked learning a new process together to find a solution to a Big Challenge. Best practices to learn how others trusted God and made progress. [Southeast Asia]
The Bold Moves Conference was designed and executed by a highly-competent and highly-committed team from Albania, Panama, Australia, the Philippines and the USA.
Eventually, there were 229 participants from 89 countries with 17 cancellations due to visa difficulties or other issues. Among these participants, 51 were women representing the highest number of engaged women leaders in the history of Global Church Movements. The meeting was held in Manila, Philippines at the Crimson Hotel in the Alabang area.
The conference theme was Bold Moves: It is Possible. There were daily subthemes of:
4G :: Boldly Multiplying.
Achieving multiple streams of 4th generation church multiplication in every country)
1:1000 :: Boldly Expanding.
Establishing a church accessible to everyone, in every village, neighborhood, high-rise and digital space)
1:1>2 :: Boldly Partnering.
Intentionally engaging kingdom-minded partners in a -led paradigm to share in the mission.
50X :: Boldly Leading.
Becoming a movement leader, a leader of leaders with a goal of every GCM staff influentially leading 50 other leaders.
The conference was designed with these values in mind:
This conference should focus on problem solving, identifying and overcoming the big challenges and barriers limiting our 2020 goals.
This conference should intentionally engage women leading church multiplication. This was not conceived as a “wives’ track” but designed to engage those leading church multiplication.
This conference should intentionally welcome key leaders and partners who are not GCM staff. Key denominational pastors and leaders, partner organizations and key volunteers were fully engaged in all aspects of the conference, including problem solving and identifying best practices.
This conference should catalyze and energize the “wisdom in the room.” The focus should be on engaging the participants rather than plenary presentations.
This conference would not have live reports but would use video to capture the best practices each region of the world is learning in a compelling story format so that the knowledge is most easily transferable throughout our global movement.
A leadership development process would be used to tackle 3 big challenges. Identifying pathways to overcome these challenges would be important. But equally important would be helping global leaders with a systems-thinking approach to creatively and collaboratively overcome barriers.
Extensive discussion opportunities focused on best practices and an immersive, 6-hour problem-solving exercise. All participants engaged on one three wicked big challenges:
How do we achieve multiple streams of 4th generation in every country?
How do we expand our scope to achieve a church for every 1000 people in every country?
How do we partner in new and more effective ways to effectively engage all the kingdom laborers in every country?
These responses are common in the evaluations received:
Daily 20 minute introductions by our Vice President Bekele Shanko set the tone for each day. The combination of current reality based on observations from the 2017 reports related to the day’s sub-theme and future vision delivered every morning in the context of the daily theme for the day was very powerful.
High level of participant engagement. Every hour there were new and meaningful discussions.
Highly integrated conference. Many have commented on how integrated the conference was around the overall Bold Moves theme and the daily Bold themes. Pastor Dale Hummel of Wooddale Church led daily times with Biblical truths around the sub-themes.
Best practices discussion. Each morning, video and live presentations were visionary and demonstrated how others had overcome faith barriers to move forward in multiplication, scope, partnering and leading.
Big Challenges. This immersive experience in collaborative problem solving based on the popular TED Talk How to Make Toast [See the website DrawToast.com] was mentioned by many as one of the more meaningful opportunities to engage with other leaders in a way that gives them confidence, a practical plan and hope that these barriers can be overcome.
My prayer for weeks before the conference was from Luke 19 as Jesus expresses his love for Jerusalem. He laments that “you did not recognize the time when God visited you.” I felt God wanted to visit Bold Moves participants with a fresh breath of the Holy Spirit and a renewed vision and tools to overcome barriers. He wanted to invite us to closely follow our God who is boldly moving towards “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the people groups (nations); and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)
My prayer was that we each would recognize the time when God visited us in Manila.
My prayer was overwhelmingly answered. There is a renewed dependence, vision and commitment. We have identified the big challenges. We have discussed the threats. We have developed pathways to success. Participants departed saying, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.” (Acts 4:29-31)
The noise from people beside the road was getting louder. Girma was explaining the gospel to some young men who had not yet followed Jesus. As he continued sharing Christ, group beside the road grew increasingly larger and louder.
We could see them through some bushes. They were near our vehicle. The noise was getting louder as the crowd became more agitated. One picked up a large stone, another a thick stick.
Use the left and right buttons to see photos in this photo album.
We were visiting a newly-planted church called Tuchi. As we greeted the new believers, Pastor Ayano informed us that some of those present were not yet followers of Jesus. He invited Girma, the National Team Leader in Ethiopia, to help them understand the gospel.
Just 30 minutes before at Shubigamo, another new church, seven seekers had come to know Christ. We were reliving the experience as we drove to the Tuchi church.
We should have been praying.
Satan knew what was happening. He was ready to wage battle against God’s people.
As the gospel was being presented at the new Tuchi church, opposition arose from some of the townspeople who were not happy to have “foreigners” in their town. They were shouting that the town had their own and didn’t need outsiders. The truth was, Satan didn’t want more people in God’s Kingdom.
We decided to leave so that Pastor Ayano would not have problems.
We quickly loaded into the van, praying for God’s peace to overcome the anger. As we drove away, Pastor Ayano spoke with his fellow townspeople to calm them down. We realized that our lack of spiritual warfare prayer had given Satan an opportunity. Fortunately several of the young men accepted Christ before we left.
It’s been a very full 10 days in Ethiopia and then Kenya. We have seen amazing things and heard incredible stories. The lame are walking. The blind are seeing. The captives are being set free. Small local bodies of Jesus Christ are celebrating their new-found life and their neighbors are seeing the change and joining them.
We visited churches and encouraged new believers and the faithful church planting leaders. Keith spoke to a group of 300 pastors. We trained church planters how to use our new iShare measurement system.
Please, are you the Mr Seabourn who taught Electronics when I was a young boy at Government Technical College, Bukuru, Nigeria? If you are, thank you for helping me learn how to be a committed Christian as a young man with very little experience of life. Many thanks. ~Isaac Ajibade
So began a conversation through Facebook Messenger.
I currently pastor a small parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God here in the United Kingdom in a town called Gillingham, Kent. I am also a Professional Environmental Health Practitioner to support the work of the ministry.
Later, Isaac shared more.
On the 21st April 1979 during a Fellowship meeting where you spoke, I felt the need to make a better faith commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ. I pleaded with Him to take away the sin of anger towards others which I often demonstrated while playing football, often injuring others. Jesus took the anger away and I made peace with God. The change continues today with fellowship with Jesus and love for fellow men. God used you to be a source of the help that I needed as a young person seeking. I fell in love with Jesus.
It’s exciting to hear stories of God’s faithfulness almost 40 years later. I was a teacher of electronics for the government in Nigeria. Part of the joy of walking with God is that we never know when a conversation will be life-changing for someone.
Knowing God Personally on the God Tools app
On a trip this week, I handed Heath my phone opened to the Knowing God Personally section of the God Tools app. Heath read through the gospel. We discussed it. Although Heath is comfortable as a childhood-Catholic attending a Unitarian fellowship, seeds were planted.
Success in witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.
Who knows, maybe Heath will have an Isaac story in the future.
As I review my notes on the Bold Moves Summit, things have become clearer to me. I am increasingly excited to be used by the Lord for His Kingdom come. Thanks to you, Keith and Kay, to Bekele and to your team for a conference that will produce eternal rewards. [from a participant]
