The GLS Progress - Update 1

With the first GLS being about four weeks away and most happening in October and November, we thought you all might be interested to hear about all the various irons that are on the fire around the world in preparation for the GLS this year.

Today, we wrap up the East Africa GLS training which took place all this week. Volunteers from Uganda, Malawi and Kenya were poured into, envisioned, and trained in the nitty-gritty details of putting on these events in their country. We covet your prayers as our team heads to Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria next week to continue training our teams in West Africa at our 7 different Nigerian sites. Below is a picture of some tech volunteers being trained in Kenya this week.

All summer there have been and will continue to be various other trainings occurring all over the globe, including locations in Singapore, Bolivia, and South Africa to name a few. Training is an extremely high value at the GLS. Quality events are ensured by quality training, and we are dedicated to pouring into the volunteers who so selflessly sacrifice their time to participate in this venture. We are SO grateful for them, and without them, the GLS truly couldn't happen.

Another massive project in making the GLS happen every year is the incredible task of translating the content from the Leadership Summit into 29 different languages. This process is extremely complex, detailed and time-consuming, and our translators give extreme diligence to generating the most accurate, clearest translations possible. Imagine taking the highly conceptual, idiomatic content from the Leadership Summit and trying to translate it into the given context for that particular language.

Take this quote from Gary Hamel, one of this year's Summit faculty: "Their employees were prisoners of precedent, locked in jails run by the custodians of covention." This is a compelling sentence in its original English context, but native speakers can sometimes take for granted that the jargon and idioms in their language can be easily translated into others. Can you imagine translating that sentence understandably into 29 different languages? That's just one instance, and it happens for each and every Summit session at every foreign-language GLS location.

That gives you just a taste of all the activity going on around the world right now in preparation for this exciting event. Check back again next week to hear more about the exciting initiatives being spearheaded as we prepare for God to work mightly through this event.

The Story of the GLS

If you can change a leader, you can change a church. When you change a church, you can change a community. And when enough churches are changing, you can affect a region, a country and eventually the world.

In the wake of this mission, the Global Leadership Summit was born. Through the impact of the original Leadership Summit and travelling with the international arm of the Willow Creek Association; Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, started to notice a trend. When a church leader led well, communities were effected, people were evangelized and churches were refreshed. In short, the gospel in all its fullness was spread when an impassioned, dedicated, inspired leader exercised his Romans 12:8 gift. When leaders suffered through a lack of training and inspiration; churches died away, cultures grew more and more secularized, and the corruption in governments festered. Hybels and others with him recognized the widespread need for top-quality leadership training to be made available world-wide; regardless of location, language or ability to pay.

After much strategizing and planning, a new idea was forming. The content from the Leadership Summit was so high-quality, and applied so well to the contexts of the world-wide church - there had to be a way to leverage it internationally; cost-effectively, with the highest impact possible. But there wasn't a model in existence that would enable the content to be available at the scope the leaders envisioned. But, what about ...DVDs?

A DVD conference. But, who would sit for two days watching a screen? Would that be the kind of top-quality event the leaders envisioned? Would it work?

They didn't know if it would work. But, it was an ingenious way to broadcast the content world-wide in a cost-effective way.

And so, in the fall 2005, the Global Leadership Summit launched in 22 sites and 9 countries. The logistical challenges were immense. There was venue selection, catering, notebooks to print, content to translate, resources to order and translate and ship, projectors, sound-systems, and volunteer teams. There was live music and programming; requiring knowledgeable tech teams and talented artists. All of those elements and more were obstacles at each of the 22 sites. Every element you see at a WCA conference was delivered, ensuring the highest quality standards. The leaders of the GLS were determined to deliver a world-class event for each delegate who attended. And deliver they did. Originally, they thought they might reach 3,500 or so international participants.

There were 14,000 in attendance that first year.

God was up to something. In fact, He still is. Each year, the GLS has continued to widen its breadth. In 2006, there were 51 sites in 18 countries with 24,219 delegates in attendance. In 2007; 78 sites, 30 countries and 42,617 attendees. In 2008, despite the financial crisis that gripped the world, the GLS continued to expand to 115 sites, 51 countries and 46,556 attendees.

And in 2009, with finances still tight, we are projecting 160 sites, 57 countries and roughly 60,000 participants.

God is still at work. This has truly morphed into a spirit-inspired leadership movement. Check back here often as the fall progresses for updates on the GLS, to hear the stories of the leaders impacted, and to get a front-row seat to the work God is doing across the globe. We couldn't be more excited.

Welcome to The GLS blog!

Welcome, all.

This fall, the GLS will reach 57 countries and 160 sites. A need exists to connect our participants to each other from Asia to Europe, to Latin America and Africa and back again. Imagine the potential a simple blog could offer us to unite GLS attenders and volunteers from all over the world, share stories of life transformation, send updates and news about the GLS and tell how God is working. Check back soon and often for our new look and fresh content. We can't wait to see what God is going to do this fall through the GLS, and while we know the story will be too big to tell here, we hope this tool will give us glimpses into the Kingdom he is building through this ministry.