The following are translated reports given to us by leaders who have participated in our various training seminars in Africa, Asia and Central America:
"Leadership training for Christian service and ministry commonly consists of a series of how-to-do-it suggestions strung together in a neat package that can be quite impressive and yet far off-the-mark at the same time. In my fifty years of field experience in leadership development I have seen the best and the worst of various approaches. In my judgment a key mistake is trying to produce leaders with speeches and lectures. Hands-on experiences, especially in the actual day-to-day work of the church – in worship, in prayer, in service to others, building the community of faith as a partnership needs to be at the center of the leadership learning process. I have seen few efforts toward this goal that are more responsible to the teachings of the New Testament and more carefully modeled on the ways that Christ and the apostles used to establish strong churches than the ConneXions model developed by the Strategic Global Assistance community in Elkhart, Indiana."
Ted Ward
Professor Emeritus of International Studies and Educational Research
Michigan State University
Professor Emeritus of International Studies, Mission, and Education
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
"This teaching on leadership has been great for me. It will also be a great blessing for my family, for the church and for the community ... Everything that we heard in the seminar has been of great help to me as a servant of God, and has come to confirm my ministry. It has also encouraged me to keep going and to change some things that I have been doing wrong. Thank you!"
"It was a great privilege to have received this seminar. I have been in the ministry for six years and I've been to a lot of seminars. However, I had never been to one that was so beautiful, so filled with power, and, truthfully, saturated with the Holy Spirit. It's been a blessing for me. I thank God that I have learned many things about my ministry."
"For a long time, I have been praying to the Lord asking for answers regarding my leadership, and you have given me the answers to those prayers."
"I am very grateful for such precious teaching … All this will help me for the rest of my ministry. It will also help me to grow and to keep on building leaders."
"This seminar has been a great blessing for me. I have learned many beautiful things. I have also realized the mistakes I have made. With God's help I am going to be able to change my bad leadership attitudes."
"The seminar has been very special … I am also thankful because on Wednesday you prayed for my wife and God healed her. She had a serious womb infection, and two hours after the prayer, when she went to be examined, the infection was gone."
"This seminar has been very special for me … I thank God for sending you to our country. It's a blessing from God."
"This seminar has been a huge blessing for my life … Our wish is that many other brothers are blessed, just as we were."
"This was a seminar that will help us to serve others the way Christ did it. It will also help us to search for God's purpose. I have to say that they didn't include a course on leadership at the theological seminary I attended. The teaching was also very motivational, especially because it was based in the Scriptures and in the person of Christ. Thank you for blessing our ministry!"
"Extraordinary teaching! It has helped me a lot."
"Thank you for the teaching. The Lord didn't bring you here in vain. This is the first time that I have received a seminar like this. Everything has been excellent."
"The global vision of our ministry has expanded as a result of this seminar. It has also allowed me to see little things in which I have failed. I will be able to apply 100% of what we learned."
"This seminar has opened my eyes. It also has expanded the vision about serving the Lord the way He wants us to. I want to pass to others what I have learned, that we have to serve others and not ourselves."
"This seminar was a gift from God to me. This will help me in the rest of my ministry. Thank you for coming to my country."
"The seminar has been very special for me. The teaching is deep … Everything has been very well taught, and has been well absorbed by everyone."
"What you are doing is life … Because you teach, God, in this short time, amazingly blesses us … Thank you for your teaching … God used your words to renew my life."
"I thank God, and I thank you for the good materials you sent to us for our spiritual benefit. These materials, the training seminar and the teacher you sent to us, both have helped us and me specially to grow spiritually."
"The two sisters from your team were excellent. Their preaching was done in power, revealing a very close relationship with God. We were very impressed!"
A Song
In one training in Asia, the presence of the Lord wonderfully came as we were teaching on Zephaniah 3:17 regarding God's love to His redeemed people. At the end of the teaching, there was a long time of spontaneous worship. During this time, God gave one sister a beautiful song:
Lord My God in silence He loves me,
In my salvation He gladly rejoices.
He's washed me white as snow,
And my soul rests in peace.
Behold! The river of life is flowing down from the Heavenly City;
Behold! From the fields praises are rising.
O my heart, humbly bow down and worship;
O my spirit, love your Lord in silence.
