A Merry Christmas Wish

Before a little Christmas break on the GLS blog, we wanted to wish you and yours a blessed Christmas season and a very Happy New Year. We have been grateful to be a part of your lives this fall.

We thought we would leave you with this short video clip from twitterer and blogger @loswhit. A beautiful worship moment depicting cultures spontaneously coming together to worship one God. This clip captures the true spirit of Christmas, God With Us. Our wish for you is that you will experience God With Us directly in some way this Christmas.

We hope this blesses you today.

Filipino Church Planters Equipped at The GLS

From an email coming from Clovis Hill Community Church in Fresno, California:

We have a relationship with two pastors in the Philippines and we are helping to plant some churches there. Out of the missions budget we sent the pastors to the Global Summit. Though expensive for them, it costs only $17 per person registration and $25 for hotel nights. Quite affordable for us to send them. It is our desire that those in under resourced areas would have the same training we are blessed to have at Clovis Hills. No less for them — we are partners in Kingdom work.

See his response:

My beloved in the Lord, God is really good all the time. We are so thankful and blessed by what have been wonderfully and tremendously unexpected once in a life time kind of experience to be apart in these Global Leadership Summit. We learned a lot of things related to my leadership as a church planter and of course how to manage a local church. I and my wife, Pastor Albert and his wife Joy, wants to thank you for your generosity, and desire for us to be trained and equipped so that we could be able to do the work of God more easy and more effective. We learned so much from the speakers, Bill Hybels, he taught leading in a new reality; Wayne Cordero, teaches dead leader running, Harvey Carey, teaches against all odds, Dr. Wess stafford, of Compassion International he teached leveraging your past and many others. This conference contributed so much knowledge in our work in the ministry especially serving the Lord in doing church planting. We believe this is not just the beginning and the last conference of Global Leadership Summit, as far as we know they are holding every year in the Philippines. Glory be to God and yes of course, we are thankful about it. God bless you all.

Thanks,
Ptr. Ding and Family

The GLS Equips and Envisions Its Volunteers

In addition to the church leaders the GLS serves through the conferences, there is an unseen force at work behind the scenes of the GLS. A force without which we could never do what we do. This force is the volunteer core who executes the events in each country. Every event has a group of dedicated volunteers, some who work year-round, to produce the GLS. A remarkable symbiosis results. This is one of those stories.

When Anton Radoslavov was asked to serve as the technical director for the first GLS in Bulgaria in 2007, he was a little surprised by the detailed instructions he received from the WCA. After all, he worked as a producer and technician for a national Christian TV and radio station. He knew what he was doing. But as he soon discovered, the level of excellence expected in his country, especially for Christian events, was nowhere near what it could be. Working together with WCA representatives Marty O'Connor and Ulf Osterlund, Anton and his team were inspired to offer up their best in service to God and the Church.

This has created a seismic shift in Anton’s approach to ministry. No longer does he view himself as just a technician, but rather an instrument used by God to help communicate the vision, inspiration, and skill development that so many pastors and leaders in Bulgaria desperately need. God can use him to help redeem and restore his country. Realizing this has changed everything for him, he was looking for additional opportunities to fuel his passion and serve the Kingdom. In May 2009, Anton volunteered on the technical team for WCA’s Student Ministries Conference in Nuremberg, Germany. Together, with more than 50 volunteers from around the world, Anton and this team served more than 4,000 student leaders looking to get better at reaching the next generation for Christ in Germany. According to Anton, “It was an awesome experience that gave me a taste of heaven, a place where you are serving exactly as you were created to be.” Returning to Bulgaria, he felt a very real, but quiet confirmation from the Holy Spirit that he was living life to its fullest.

The GLS in Congo

In a country marred by unrest, civil war and unspeakable atrocity, the first ever Global Leadership Summit in Kinshasa, Congo was a great success by all accounts. On November 13-14, 2009, The GLS served 1100 Congolese church leaders, inspiring and equipping them to do God's work in a country scarred by decades of a brutal civil war.

The Democratic Republic of Congo lies in Central Africa. Having been marked deeply in the early to mid twentieth century by colonialism, the DRC gained independence from Belgium in 1960. Shortly thereafter, military leaders violently seized power of the new nation, renaming it Zaire and beginning a period of social unrest and civil war which lasted four plus decades. Humanitarian atrocities which resulted have largely been regarded as one of the biggest crises in modern Africa. A second round of civil war began in 1998 and has claimed 5.4 million people through fighting, disease and starvation. AIDS has left its mark as well. Due to the disproportionate amount of people dying from this disease, the average life expectancy in the DRC is a mere 54 years. The disastrous effects of these forces have left their scar on the Congolese people, the country, and its infrastructure. But, through all of this strife, the Church in this war-torn country is on the move.

70-80% of Congolese people identify themselves as either Roman Catholic or Christian. Most churches are small, about 300 people or so serving a small section of the community where they are located. The pastors are bi-vocational as churches generally cannot afford to pay a salary. Church leaders in Congo are desperate for leadership development. When exploring the possibility of a Congo site last Spring, Gary Schwammlein heard first hand from the Congolese church leaders that they are in desperate need of leadership development. As a result, the first GLS in the DRC was held this fall, the full results of which we will only see in Heaven.

Aliece Hendricks, Executive Director of International Conferences at WCA International attended the Congo GLS. Below are some of her pictures and impressions during her trip. Despite some early challenges due partly to the poor infrastructure of the country, The GLS in Congo was a huge success.

"We were not able to source the equipment [projector especially] we needed for the GLS in the Congo so we brought it from S Africa, the team made a screen the size that we needed and were ingenious in helping us figure out how to hang it.. they have limited technical resources but use what they have to the full extent as challenging as it can be."

Congolese workers lifting the screen.

The day before the event, there were only 200 registered for the event. On the day of the event, 900 extra people arrived, excited and ready to be inspired. As you can imagine, this caused quite a problem for our event management volunteers as they scrambled to provide all the notebooks, food and supplies needed for a surprise 900 guests. After much hard work, every guest was served, and everyone was so grateful for our volunteers who worked so hard to make it all work. In Hendricks' words "really a fishes and loaves event".

The Congolese people were so convinced of the power of an event like this, they had a full intercessory prayer team which undergirded the event with prayer. A full three weeks before the event, they were praying for the success of the event and its impact on the Kingdom's in Congo. The Congolese are faithful prayer warriors, and they believe part of the reason God blessed the event as he did was as a result of their committed efforts.

The GLS in Congo had its effect on Hendricks as well. "The Congolese people are so open and generous, even though they have so little, they touched me to reassess how I steward the resources that I have to help those with less. Many of the Congolese will walk up to an hour jsut to attend church on Sunday, I was reminded not to take lightly the opportunity I have to meet regularly with other believers for the teaching of the word."

Despite their daily circumstances, the Congolese trust in God as their sustainer. They live with a conviction that God redeems and restores every situation. So much so that their joyful worship events often end in dancing. The GLS was no exception.

Hendricks heard over and over how this event will change Congo. The people of Congo need your prayers as they fight to overcome unimaginable circumstances and lay a foundation for their future. Events like this is the reason we at The GLS does what we do. The Congolese are desperate for what the GLS offers and we are so grateful to partner with God in serving them.

Singapore in Pictures

Even though the Global Leadership Summit is over for this year, we want to continue telling the beautiful stories God is weaving in our different partner countries. The below is taken from a report from a WCA representative at a site in Singapore on November 27-28.

Participants warmly and excitedly greeted by our front desk volunteers who handed them their copy of the Summit notebook and nametag. 368 participants all in.

Summit opener - blowing of shofar followed by time of worship.

Dancers in action during the worship time.

Awesome sight – the joyous countenance of the worship team and dancers and the beautiful stage setup and lightings. Sound mix engaged the participants.

Rev Soh played Host Pastor. He was excellent - full of energy and a clear communicator.

Rev Chern facilitate with so much ‘heart’ and his ability to connect with the participants was outstanding.

Process Time – Group Discussion

Process Time – Group Discussion

GLO Bible Presentation by Daniel Hsueh from GLO during lunch time.

Worship time after lunch.

Participants fully immersed in worship.

Participants responding during prayer.

Production crew at the Front-of-House.

Group discussions continued even over tea-break.

Interpretive solo dance item after session by Wayne Cordeiro (last session for the day)

After solo dance item, one third of the participants responded to the altar call and came to the front. Many were in tears and did business with God on their knees at the altar. What an amazing day it was!

The GLS Works to Overcome Corruption, Poverty in Nigeria

To celebrate the GLS season which has just come to a close, we thought we would profile the Nigerian church, which saw an incredibly successful GLS run this past fall.

The GLS in Nigeria is raising up leaders prepared to impact change in their divided churches, impoverished communities and corrupted governments. Nigeria is a country twice the size of California with a rich history full of tragedy and strife. The CIA world fact book lists Nigeria as the 9th biggest populatiopn in the world. Nigeria suffers from a number of ongoing problems common in African nations: high mortality of its citizens due to AIDS, creating a life expectancy of only about 47 years. In fact, Nigeria ranks 3rd in world of people living with AIDS. Oil-rich Nigeria, long hobbled by political instability, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, and poor economic management, has made several attempts at improving its state with some improvement. But, as you can imagine, the church in Nigeria has quite a lot it works against.


Francis Olubambi, The GLS's leader in Nigeria as well as the director for several other Christian ministry branches there, has a vision for Nigeria and what it could become with God at the helm. In a recent conversation with him, he laid out some of the issues the church faces in Nigeria and how The GLS is working to help church and business leaders there overcome the corruption and poverty so entrenched in Nigerian systems.

The situation of the church there is complex.

We have a lot of churches in Nigeria, the churches are growing and the conversion rate is high, [however] Christian ethics is very low it seems as if so many Christian has the charisma and no character. One of the major causes of this shallowness is lack of leadership development. Churches in the Northern part of Nigeria are persecuted by Islamic fundamentalist.

In response to the need here, one way The GLS has addressed the problem of the corruption and poverty seen in Nigeria is to unite denominations and educate business leaders as well on the principles found in the Bible.

GLS conference has been helping to impact leaders across the board: from corporate world and the church world. Another advantage of GLS is that it affords us to bring different churches together for mutual relationship.

The church in Nigeria has seen a tremendous amount of division caused by dissenting beliefs from various denominations. Some groups have grown progressively more liberal while others committed to more traditional outlooks have fought widely with those with a more liberal outlook. The GLS is working to unite these denominations around their first love: Christ. Olubambi's biggest prayer for The GLS in Nigeria? Cooperation in churches.

The team in Nigeria overcame tremendous obstacles during their GLS events. In underresourced areas, there is often huge trouble finding a projector to use at the events. Because The GLS works to produce an extremely high-quality event for every attendee, the best projectors are sought out to create an extremely high quality picture. Occasionally, there isn't a single projector in the entire country up to the standards we work hard to meet. Three of seven Nigerian GLS sites were without projectors only a couple weeks before the event and needed to rent one, sometimes at a very costly rate. The teams also had numberous details to see to. Our awesome volunteer teams didn't miss even one. The attendees who have lived and worked in such difficult conditions all their lives had their sights lifted to envision all that the church can be.

Seven GLS sites were held in Nigeria this past fall. Click here to see the results.

The GLS in 2009 Draws to a Close

The Global Leadership Summit in 2009 has drawn to a close - mostly. Except for three dates which will happen in 2010, the GLS season has ended this year and we are celebrating all of what God has done. After our brief Thanksgiving haitus, here are the sites served from the Nov 27-28 weekend.

Nov 23-24
Busan, Korea

Nov 27-28
Aracruz, Brazil
Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Curitiba, Brazil
Goiania, Brazil
Juazeiro do Norte, Brazil
Accra, Ghana
Lilongwe, Malawi
Lima, Peru
Gdansk, Poland
Porto, Portugal
Huneodoara, Romania
Singapore, Singapore

From South Africa, to Malaysia, to Belgium and all over the rest of the world, international church leaders have been served and encouraged. Keep checking this space as we are just beginning to hear of all the benefits of the Global Summit. We will continue to share our story here and we hope you will keep checking back as we want you to share in all that God is doing in this ministry.

GLS World Tour 2009

The November 20-21 GLS weekend was an incredibly successful couple days of ministry. Click here to see coverage of our Brussels, Belgium site.

Gary Schwammlein, WCA's EVP of International Ministries just returned from a grueling six week trip travelling all over the world working with our partners during their GLS season. He sat in a myriad of meetings, GLS events and coaching sessions with Bill Hybels & other US leaders seeking to mentor and build up international pastors. Below is a brief look into his travels and all the work he witnessed God doing through the GLS.

Live from Belgium

This weekend, one of our team members is live-tweeting his experience from the GLS site in Brussels, Belgium. Here are some of the pics and insights he's been sharing with us along the way.

As leaders do we enjoy God? Do we have intimacy with Him? Tim Keller

I obey, therefore I'm accepted - that's religion, not the Gospel. Tim Keller.

What do ur friends, colleagues, and family members see when they look at you? A full bucket, a replenished life? Bill Hybels

As a church do you know what you would never stop doing in difficult econominc times? Very clarifying exercise.

Church: How are you being THE CHURCH in this new reality?

And from his report of the first day:

Tonight we kicked off the GLS in Brussels. This was the second year for this site. Last year we had 170 people (which was very good for this country) and this year we have close to 250. Very encouraging to see momentum grow. For years the leaders of the GLS in Belgium have prayed for a Willow conference to come to Belgium. Belgium is probably the least Christian country in Western Europe. I believe less than 1/2 a % are actual born again Christians. This is not an easy place to build a church. But they have such a heart to see lost people come to Christ. This is the team that calls me at midnight their time with questions... I asked them how tonight went and they said just to see so many people here is the reward for them.

We are always so inspired to hear about the work of our partners overseas, despite the conditions they are up against. Check out our twitter page for more of our rogue reporter's experience. Also, our hashtags #globalsummit and #gls09 give great insights into what's going on globally. Check back Monday for in-depth stories of transformation.

The GLS Winds Down...

Hi, all- Just wanted to update you on where the GLS will be appearing this weekend. Here is the list of sites where we'll be. Prayer is always so appreciated!

Nov 18-19:
Kampala, Uganda

Nov 20-21:
Brussels, Belgium
Recife, Brazil
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Beijing, China
San Jose, Costa Rica
Tema, Ghana
Puebla, Mexico
Houten, Netherlands
Krakow, Poland
Lisbon, Portugal
Galati, Romania

So many leaders have been impacted this year and many churches have been changed. We have some interesting stories regarding the church in various areas of the world and about a trip some WCA videographers took to South Asia and the effect it has had on them. Stay tuned for these posts and stories from the upcoming weekend...

"Many have said the GLS will change this nation..."

The Global Leadership Summit served 15 countries and 16 sites last week with a total attendance of 4300+. Below are some of the reports.

From Aliece Hendricks, Executive Director of International Events, in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo:

Day 1: When we arrived on Wednesday there were 150-200 registered. At the end of day 1 there were 1100 registrations. With the explosive registration you can imagine the stress on lunch and guest packets. The team worked so hard to serve them quickly and well. A blended worship choir of 90 voices from different churches in the area built unity between divided denominations. 120 volunteers are working hard to serve us. This is changing the way they do events here. Many have said the GLS will change this nation.

Day 2: It is a rainy, cool day in Kinshasa... This will be great for a video conference [low lighting makes for the best projection picture!]. We lost power today right before starting, transferred to generator and all is going well. We had 800+ in the auditorium when we began today and 1100 by end of the first session. Today we have dignitaries from the supreme court, army and main denominations. The host pastor has told us the time is right for this type of training here in Congo. Continue to pray for us and the impact on leaders.

Some pictures from Cluj & Bucharest, Romania:

From Kiev, Ukraine:

[Gary] Hamel really challenged the leaders here with his message. Some thought it was quite provocative to the existing leadership model here. Great applauds both welcoming Hamel…and after. Vivid interaction in groups for more than 15 minutes. Maxwell/Blanchard/Hybels hit a homerun once again! The atmosphere when Bill prayed for those who stood to their feet was intense and holy. Then we continued spiritual direction and we ended with an appropriate worship song that grew and grew to almost lift the already high ceiling. Quite a session!

As you can see, international leaders serving the church were served themselves this past week. We could not be more humbled to be the ones with the privilege of this task. Watch this space this week for updates on the upcoming GLS weekend.

The GLS this Weekend

The November 13-14 weekend is upon upon us and we are over the half way point in the 2009 GLS season. We will be in 15 countries and 16 sites this weekend. Check out below where we'll be:

Nov 11-12
Dublin, Ireland

Nov 12-13
Londrina, Brazil
Porto Alegre, Brazil
Kiev, Ukraine

Nov 13-14
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Santiago, Chile
Kinshasa, Congo
Quito, Ecuador
Tallinn, Estonia
Torshavn, Faroe Islands
Jyvaskyla, Finland
Kumasi, Ghana
Tijuana, Mexico
Hamilton, New Zealand
Lagos, Portugal
Volgograd, Russia

If you could especially keep in your prayers our Ecuador site. Their government has recently been cutting electric power sources and they have been experiencing rolling blackouts for 4-6 hours everyday. They have no way of predicting when these will come. As you can imagine, it would be hard to run a conference under these kind of conditions.

Despite some of the hardships we face, we believe that God will use The GLS this weekend to inspire his church leaders all over the world some of who mare working in such difficult conditions. Please continue to pray.

Overwhelmed by the Stories...

We received so many amazing reports from all our GLS sites! Below are a few we chose to tell you how God moved last weekend. 8,000+ leaders served, at 32 sites in 22 different countries. Read on for the stories of the GLS as told from our WCA reps in the field.

From Joe Horness, GLS Producer, in Nairobi, Kenya:

We ended the day with Wes Stafford’s talk about his upbringing in an abusive missionary school in Africa. Hearing this talk here, in Africa, surrounded by people that were deeply, deeply moved by his story, his [Stafford's] love for them as people, and the lessons he drew from it, was amazing. Then we went into a time of prayer. The piano was playing quietly, and the cleansing rains, which they had prayed for here for so long [Kenya has been suffering through a drought as of late], were falling quietly on the roof. Hands were raised, heads were bowed, and the tears began as people cried out for forgiveness, for grace and for healing. It was beautifully led by Stephen Mairori [WCA's point of contact in Kenya], and God’s presence was so real.

Some pictures from Cochabamba, Bolivia, taken by DaRonn Washington, one of WCA's reps for South America, where 800+ leaders were served:

From Aliece Hendricks, Executive Director of International Conferences, in Lusaka Zambia:

We have had a great first day here in Zambia, it all came together. The audience really connected with the sessions, the tech was flawless and the worship has been very good.
We had a rocky start, we went through 5 projectors yesterday to find one that would work. The team here has worked very hard and are looking forward to tomorrow and doing the GLS next year.

From Ulf Osterlund, WCA's rep in Eastern Europe, reporting on Helsinki, Finland:

The content once again proves to be strong this year. There were people in tears after Hamel…Gibbons was greatly appreciated again and Stafford moved people. One businessman said afterwards that he had been crying all Stafford session without showing a tear! He, as many Finns, could not show his feelings publicly… So God has been moving.

From Janine Couchman, WCA's Event Manager in South Africa, in Walvis Bay, Namibia, overseeing the event:

On Thursday evening [before the event] all the volunteers from the host church gathered for a time of praise and prayer and final briefing for the GLS. About 120 volunteers gathered in the church and the praise began with a song by Hillsong called “With everything” The chorus line “with everything we will shout for your glory” gripped our spirits and we felt the passion, enthusiasm & commitment of the volunteers as they sang out to God. Senior Pastor Tobi Nel dedicated the event and everyone to God and asked God to bring hope, peace, justice, salvation, healing, deliverance and peace to every delegates attending. Then we were blown away when they called Gerry [WCA South Africa's leader & Janine's husband] & I forward to be prayed over and then Tobi and the facilitator Matt sat us down on the platform and then knelt before us and washed our feet…they prayed for God to bless, refresh, revive & strengthen us as we have been doing GLS for 5 weeks straight, week-end after week-end.

Pictured below is the Walvis Bay volunteer team:

Here are a couple additional highlights from Walvis Bay:

• As we all know too well the world has been impacted by the economic downturn and Walvis Bay was no exception. But incredibly the event was the best ever with the most amazing stories about how people in the church came forward and contributed a total of R500 000 towards making the GLS the success it was. I heard stories about how 2000 glass bottles were collected over a few months from the local rubbish dump, cleaned, washed and prepared for the flowers which created the stunning décor planned by the pastor’s wife for the refreshment tent.

• One of the intercessors from the prayer team testified about a black leader who went to the prayer room at the end of Wess Stafford’s session. He confessed to having experienced racism and oppression and as a result had developed feelings of resentment towards white people but when he arrived at the church to attend the GLS he was overwhelmed by the love and welcome he received from the greeters and ushers. He realized he needed to forgive those who had hurt him after the session so he went for prayer. As he sat being prayed for one of the intercessors felt the Lord urge her to go and sit in front of him and take his hands in hers and pray for him. As she obeyed tears flowed down his face as he was set free from his bitteress. She too was deeply moved by how God used her and blessed her through this experience.

We had to do the hard work of wading through all the stories sent in just to identify these few to tell you. There were so many stories of God's touch on leaders' lives, we were humbled to read them all. Continue to pray as the GLS still has about a month left in this year's run.

Stay tuned...

The Stories Have Started Rolling In...

From Port-au-Prince, Haiti:

GLS Haiti November 5, 2009, 1st Session. Using French translation. Packed.
~Phil Pitzer

From Lelystad, Netherlands:

The whole earth sings! We're taking off in Lelystad. First session is almost done. People respond to the screen very well. The facilitator did a great job! Holy is the Lord.
~JanHendrik Ijtsma

Preparations in Kristiansand, Norway:

The Kristiansand GLS got off to a wonderful start this morning! About 250 folks from the Kristiansand area are here. There are 8 folks here from Eaglebrook Church in St. Paul, MN (another 8 folks are in Oslo). They are an awesome team of volunteers and we couldn’t have gotten everything done last night (clean up/prep) without them! They have such servants’ hearts. We’re all excited and eager to see what God is going to do.
~Nancy Raney, WCA Executive Director of Publishing (visiting a GLS site)

We are just starting to get reports in from the first day of The GLS in the 33 sites this week, and we will be posting these on the blog as they filter in. In the meantime, click #globalsummit to be taken to a twitter search of all the guest tweeting about their GLS experience. There are so many across the world tweeting about their experience, and it's awesome to see the global community being forged here. For those of you who are praying for a GLS site this weekend, keep praying! We can't wait to see what God will do.

Our Biggest Week Yet

This week promises to be our biggest week yet all around the world as we go to 32 sites, 22 countries and 7,000 or so participants.

Below is a list. If God moves you, would you pick a site that jumps out at you and pray for it when it comes to mind?

November 4-5
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

November 5-6
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Jakarta, Indonesia
Nairobi, Kenya

November 6-7
Gold Coast, Australia
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Brasilia, Brazil
Cuiaba, Brazil
Joao Pessosa, Brazil
Manaus, Brazil
Sao Paulo, Brazil
St. John's Canada
Shanghai, China
Prague, Czech Republic
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
San Salvador, El Salvador
Helsinki, Finland
Vassa, Finland
Accra, Ghana
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Reykjavik, Iceland
Guadalajara, Mexico
Walvis Bay, Namibia
Lelystad, Netherlands
Wellington City, New Zealand
Managua, Nicaragua
Kristiansand, Norway
Oslo, Norway
Manila, Philippines
Bucharest, Romania,
Moscow, Russia
Newcastle, UK
Lusaka, Zambia

Again, we covet your prayers. As you can see, there are dozens of teams entering a very stressful weekend that we know God wants to bless. We would ask that you would cover each site in prayer. Updates on all the ministry happening this week coming soon.

The October 30-31 GLS in pictures

The visual story of The GLS this weekend:

From Hong Kong:

From Norway:

From South Africa:

From Taiwan: