Leadership Archives

Operating a small business as a church planter has economic advantages but also gives the church planter credibility within a community.

We do it all the time. We meet someone new and within a short time, we ask, “What do you do?”

Some of us enjoy using that question to launch a conversation about what we value most. But eventually, we get around to our job. Whether we like it or not, we tend to link our vocation and our identity.

This tendency presents a problem for disciple-makers and church planters who go into villages, towns, or neighborhoods that are least-reached and may be quite resistant to the Gospel.

How do they explain what they do to their new neighbors and the people they meet and interact with?

The Advantage Of Small Businesses

They need an identity that makes sense to those who do not yet know Jesus. A small business can provide that, and Global Disciples provides training to churches to equip their near-culture workers to start a small business.

The economic advantage of a small business is obvious for a church planter. They can generate some income, especially when their sending cluster of churches is poor. But a vocational identity that’s understood by the community—a tailor, a shopkeeper, a farmer—is significant in building trusting relationships.

Global Disciples, Small Business & Vocation

A Guiding Principle of Global Disciples states: “We value the Apostle Paul’s approach to mission as fitting for our time.” Paul made tents as he traveled to preach and plant churches.

As churches in slower economies around the world send out more and more near-culture workers, this principle frees them from the restraint of finances, so they can reach least-reached people.

“Co-vocational” churches

Interestingly, these ‘co-vocational’ church planters tend to do better at multiplying new fellowships of believers because it’s easier to connect with people, and the model doesn’t demand as much financially as planting a church with a full-time church planter.

Like so many things revealed in Scripture, it’s hard to improve on what the Apostle Paul modeled. He was planting dynamic new expressions of the Body of Christ in places where people had not yet heard the Good News of Jesus. And so are we—as partners with you and with many churches near those who are least-reached.

Global Disciples Canada is a Christian mission organization that trains local leaders living near least-reached communities to multiply disciples for Christ. One-third of our world hasn’t heard the Good News of Jesus. Yet. Global Disciples refers to these as “least-reached” people, and fewer than 10% of all missionaries work among these groups. We live in a time where many of these people are within reach of a local church. Through our simple and effective strategy of training and coaching, believers share the Gospel in their own nations and cultures. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” and we’re committed to doing just that. If you are looking for a Christian mission organization to partner with to become a better disciple and help make disciples, connect with us today!

Danbir knows about facing hurdles and obstacles, he leads a discipleship-mission training in Nepal.

He and the disciple-makers he trained ran into a significant need when they went to share the Gospel in a village—and discovered there was no water! No water for anyone in the community to drink, to wash, to water fields. And his team did not carry any water with them.

God is always at work, but He doesn’t guarantee that our part in His work will run smoothly and that everybody gets along.

Difficulties show up when, like Danbir, we face needs we can’t meet, experience opposition to our mission, or when we’re in conflict with those around us. But as whole-hearted disciples, we learn to trust God to work despite these hurdles. As a result, we can see a powerful testimony and rich spiritual fruit in our lives.

Danbir Overcomes A Hurdle.

When Danbir was faced with this need for water, he recognized he had to trust God. As a whole-hearted disciple of Jesus, he gathered his team to fast and pray. When the Lord miraculously provided water for the village, it became a powerful testimony. Danbir reported, “There are now 20 new believers preparing for baptism!”

The hurdles we face can also stem from our own human nature as we relate to and serve one another. Rushil, another Nepali director, shared that during his initial training, conflict developed between students from two different ethnic groups. Longstanding prejudices and cultural traits fueled the tensions and interfered with learning to be a whole-hearted disciple of Jesus.

Overcoming Hurdles in Mission Through Relationship

Then a local pastor taught on the session on Right Relationships. Rushil said, “Through that, the lives of the participants were touched by the Lord. They confessed their guilt and sought reconciliation among themselves. In that way, the Lord brought transformation to their lives.” They were knit together in the Spirit and experienced His power as they went on to share the Good News among least-reached people!

As we serve the Lord and share the Gospel, we won’t experience smooth sailing. But God is faithful to His promises and His people, and able to move the mountains of difficulty to fulfill His mission through each of us.

Read how Ebatshu and his team reached the isolated Batwa people and led to a movement of church multiplication among them.

Ebatshu has a vision to reach the Batwa or Pygmy people of Central Africa.

Church Multiplication In Central Africa

The Batwa are isolated in the forests, living as hunter-gatherers and interacting only marginally with the peoples around them. Culturally, they are often treated as lower class and discriminated against by the majority peoples.

However, Ebatshu included five Batwa believers in the discipleship-mission training he directs, launched with your help through Global Disciples.

For outreach, he traveled into the forests to minister to their people, and that’s where he met Adika. Like most of his tribe, Adika lived without clothes, dependent on whatever the forest provided.

“Who is Jesus?”

Ebatshu began talking about Jesus but Adika just waved him off, saying, “Who is this Jesus?” Ebatshu knew that actions can speak loudly, so he gave Adika his spare shirt and trousers.

Adika was surprised and wanted to know why. Ebatshu said, “Because Jesus loves you, I love you, and I want to give these clothes to you.”

“Then I want to know this Jesus,” Adika replied. He listened intently to the Gospel and gave his life to Christ. Soon his wife and three children also placed their faith in Jesus.

Community Outreach And Church Multiplication

Ebatshu and his team continued their outreach in the community and spent each evening discipling Adika, teaching him about his new life in Christ.

Soon, others followed Adika’s lead.

A local witchdoctor who was very sick was immediately healed when the outreach team prayed for him in the name of Jesus.

He put his faith in Jesus, as did several women, including one who was a prostitute. She was pregnant at the time and wore a special charm to protect her. Once she put her faith in Jesus, she decided to remove the charm and rely on God’s protection! And she developed a small business to support herself, leaving prostitution behind.

The Batwa Believers

In a short time about 80 Batwa believers were meeting regularly with Adika as their pastor. He even chose a new name—he’s now Moses, the one who leads his people with the Good News of Jesus.

It’s been over seven years since Ebatshu met Moses, formerly Adika. Today, Moses is leading a growing movement among his people. The church is now 200 members strong, and Moses has also planted seven new churches in neighboring villages, giving oversight to the leaders he put in place.

While the Batwa don’t have the Bible in their own language yet, Ebatshu has given each pastor a Bible in a trade language they understand. The pastors read it to their congregation each week, helping them know the God they worship and follow.

They also started a school for the children—a significant step for a people often excluded from education or training by the majority peoples around them. And yes, most of the Batwa in this region now wear clothes, a sign of changed lives and the dignity of being valued by God.

What a joy to see how the Lord has used Ebatshu and Moses to bring about multiplication among this people, rejected by their neighbors but never by the One who created and died for them.

Global Disciples And Church Multiplication

Discover the power of intimacy and build a strong foundation for your walk with Christ through prayer, worship, and obedience.

“I have been searching for meaning all my life,” related Chesy, a director in training from Cameroon. “I went to seminary searching; I have been pastoring for years, still searching. God spoke to me during my time with Him after the teaching of intimacy with God.”

We often hear comments like these from the men and women in training as directors for discipleship-mission programs.

They have spent their lives following Christ, often in leadership positions in the church, but they have yet to experience true intimacy with God.

Teaching this core value has been the key to transforming many leaders who work alongside Global Disciples. Our trainers frequently hear that “we were looking for more teaching and knowledge to succeed in our ministry, but after we learned about intimacy with God, we found our life is like a house built on air without a foundation.”

The Power Of Intimacy With Jesus

They’re not alone. Many of us miss this foundational truth in our walk with God. We were created for a relationship with Christ by the Holy Spirit. We bring glory to God through worship, prayer, obedience, service, and fellowship.

Jesus practiced this regularly as he sought the Father in time alone in prayer, fasting, and meditation. During the director’s training, students see Jesus’ model and learn the hindrances to intimacy and the ways to overcome them.

With a new intimate connection to God, Chesy is now back home in Cameroon teaching the discipleship-mission training with students at the Apostolic Center of Missions and Discipleship.

Serving others sets a Christ-like leader apart from those who lead by the model of the world. It’s not easy; our natural bent is to say “I’m in charge,” not to ask “How may I serve you?” Read Annes story of leading discipleship from the kitchen!

Anne is a Global Disciples Facilitator in Uganda who practices servant-leadership. For some time, she prayed about planting a church in a needy community.

Anne led an outreach team with 21 men, to go for several weeks of preaching and prayer, to lay the groundwork for a church. Anne organized intercessors to cover her team in prayer during ministry time. She set up rotations to handle the practical needs of the team, including meals.

Everything was in order and the Holy Spirit was clearly anointing them for this outreach.

Leading Discipleship From The Kitchen

When Anne and her team arrived at the host home, she went over arrangements with her hostess…and hit a snag. The woman refused to have the men in her kitchen. Instead of sharing the load with her team, the responsibility for feeding them now fell solely on Anne’s shoulders.

Anne wrestled with God over this. “I’m the leader,” she prayed. “You asked all this of me, but now I have to work in the kitchen instead.” The Lord’s response? “Anne, I need you to do this; to honor this woman’s authority in her own home.”

So Anne obeyed. She participated as much as she could in the outreach and preaching but spent most of her time preparing daily meals for 20-plus people—a laborious task, without pizza deliveries, take-out meals, or instant anything heated up in a microwave.

Anne Has a Great Response

Over several weeks, Anne’s team saw a great response to the preaching, prayer, and evangelism, and they established the nucleus of a new church. When they gathered to evaluate their experience, one comment came up immediately and was echoed by each person on the team. “Anne served us,” they said. “Even though she is the leader, she chose to serve.”

Through Anne’s example, these young leaders learned to live out leadership according to the model of Christ and to serve others in humble obedience.

Global Disciples Canada

Is it possible to build and lead a dynamic, healthy, and culturally diverse team to accomplish the Great Commission? We believe it is.

Our experience in working on international, cross-cultural teams has emerged naturally out of who we are and what we do. As Global Disciples, we equip people to reach those least-reached with the gospel in their own nations.

We work with clusters of churches in collaboration with a denomination, association, or an existing network of churches – now over 1,500 different affiliations in over 65 countries. In partnership with these local churches, we now serve over 3000 locally sustainable mission training-sending programs around the world.

Working as a cross-cultural, international team has been in our DNA since we began 27 years ago, with ﬁve discipleship-mission training programs in three countries.

Today, only 19% of our 180 team members are in North America – the rest live and work from their homelands.

We have six people and four nationalities represented on our executive team, and our training Alliance is led by a team of eight from six countries. We travel together, train together, pray, and plan and equip each other, across a wide range of cultures and perspectives. And we enjoy sharing what we are learning and hearing from others about what their experiences have taught them.

Out of this, we see four keys to building and leading a strong culturally diverse team.

4 Keys to building and leading a strong Culturally diverse team

Deal Openly with Cultural Differences
Develop Friendships and Build Trust
Determine Clear Focus and Priorities
Define Accountability and Selection of Leaders

1. Deal Openly with Cultural Differences

It may seem obvious but talking openly about cultural diﬀerences and expectations right up front – and along the way – is essential for building and leading healthy cross-cultural teams. It’s not enough to think, “Well, I’ll have to get used to that …” as we are often inclined to do.

Identifying differences in perspectives, patterns, or expectations is honoring everyone involved. Make note of those things – mentally or written down – so you don’t rehash things every time they come up. Decide together about how your team will deal with diﬀerences and agree to revisit it later if necessary. This can allow you to move on quickly in a mutually agreed-upon way. Be careful to not automatically defer to the dominant culture or the leader’s preference. North Americans often tend to be the ﬁrst to speak or make statements strongly.

Allowing others to speak ﬁrst is empowering, even if they need to be personally invited to comment. On issues like scheduling, it is often wise to go with or adapt from the culture of the setting, especially for a meeting or training people.

2. Develop Friendship and Trust

There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world – one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most inﬂuential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.” That one thing, according to Stephen M.R. Covey, is trust. We agree.

By being authentic, building friendships, enjoying life together, and addressing diﬀerences or concerns promptly, we build trust. In most cultures, trust is built on credibility. And credibility is generally established and maintained through at least four things:

Integrity
- honesty, walking your talk, being consistent inside and out
Positive Intent
- our motives, our agenda, and our resulting behavior
Capabilities
- our attitudes appreciated skills, knowledge, and style
Results
- our track record, getting the right things done in a good way

In our Cross-cultural teams, we talk often about leading by example or “modeling the way.” Sharing this common desire and discipline provides a healthy level of mutual accountability. It gives opportunities to practice “speaking the truth in love” as we seek together to “live a life worthy of the calling we have received” (Ephesians 4:1–15), in which we are humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love, and making eﬀorts to preserve the unity of the Spirit. All this nurtures friendship and trust.

Some of our best interactions come over tea times and mealtimes, sharing about our lives and being disciples as we travel, sharing a room at night, or sipping coﬀee. As we understand where people come from, their joys, and challenges, our appreciation grows.

3. Determine Clear Focus and Priorities

Connectedness and unity in cross-cultural teams grow as we embrace a common focus and reach an agreement on what is most important now and in the future. On our teams, we try to keep three things up front: Why are we together (our vision)? What will we do to pursue this vision or accomplish our purpose (our mission and central focus)? And how will we approach this task or responsibility (our core values and guiding principles)?

To answer those questions as Global Disciples we have developed what we call our arena, using the image of a soccer or football ﬁeld to deﬁne where we work and interact as we pursue our mission and vision.

Our mission statement and our central focus (our what) deﬁne the goal lines of our playing ﬁeld. The sidelines are deﬁned by our Core Values, describing how we behave and interact with others, and our Guiding Principles clarify what we do. This Global Disciples Arena has been hugely helpful in defining the focus and overall priorities of our culturally diverse teams.

When delegating specific tasks cross-culturally, we broaden this to six questions: Who is to do it? What is it we want to be done? When do we want it completed? Where will it be done (if that matters)? How it is to be done if we have a preference? And why are you asking your team/team members to do this?

Delegating effectively in any culture is challenging but it is multiplied across cultures and can easily become prescriptive or feel paternalistic. Clarity and attention to ensuring common understanding allow us to avoid many pitfalls in leading across cultures – if we develop a level of trust and friendship that fosters open conversation about our diﬀerences.

Our diﬀerent views of time and deadlines have led to many interesting discussions on differing expectations. When we built a cushion into deadlines to assure things were submitted in time for printing and preparation, one leader began asking, “Is the line really dead now?”

4. Define Accountability and Selection of Leaders

Clear expectations matter, especially across cultures. Who should set those expectations on cross-cultural teams? The common assumption may be the team leader, but it’s not that simple on healthy multicultural teams. A leader’s role is to guide the team through discerning mutually accepted expectations, patterns of accountability, and how future leaders or team members are selected.

This doesn’t have to be laborious when you go back to the ﬁrst principles of building and leading culturally diverse teams. Establishing trust and friendship so that diﬀering views can be expressed freely is essential and when paired with a mutual commitment to listen well, to pause and pray – listening for the Holy Spirit’s counsel when differences persist – it makes a huge diﬀerence.

We also face cultural assumptions about how leaders are chosen. Within Global Disciples we say, “select well, serve well.” When hiring or promoting staﬀ, we explore their buy-in with our vision, mission, and core values. Without that, there’s no need to go further.

Then we consider our Four Cs: Character, Competency, Chemistry, and Calling (anointing for the job). In recent years, we have also used Patrick Lencioni’s three virtues of The Ideal Team Player: Humble, Hungry, and Smart (i.e., relationally sensitive and appropriate). Considering these factors together provides a balanced and healthy framework for discernment in hiring and promotions across cultures.

However, it requires time for the candidate or team member to apply these considerations. We have also had a near-culture colleague spend time with the candidate in their home with their spouse and family. In these settings, we have learned much that has averted potentially bad decisions and have never regretted time together while interviewing.

In many cultures, promoting a younger or less experienced person over someone older or with more history is a challenge. It takes time, patience, open communication, and authentic affirmation when working with the older, more seasoned person who is not promoted. By God’s grace, we’ve made that transition several times without losing the more senior leader or seeing their passion for our common mission decline.

Finally, frequent, clear communication and well-defined patterns of accountability are essential for building and leading healthy multicultural teams.

A lack of clarity in roles, especially cross-culturally, can result in leaders holding back and underperforming because they don’t want to cross the line of their defined responsibility – or they fear stepping beyond defined responsibilities and creating confusion. Most of our mid-level leaders provide brief weekly reports on key metrics in their jobs.

In senior-level roles, a monthly report and call, with other conversations as needed, is our pattern. Most of our cross-cultural team members are self-starters, and passionate about what they do – so they don’t need constant communication to stay focused. But we all find it important to clearly know what we are accountable for and by what metrics our performance will be measured.

There’s a deep joy and sense of satisfaction in working with multicultural teams as we are compelled by the love of Christ, energized by authentic friendships, and propelled by the common cause–making God’s glory known among the nations!

– Galen Burholder, President/CEO of Global Disciples

From year to year our Executive Team identifies priorities and goals for the next fiscal year. This document is called our “Move Forward” Strategic Plan. Our Four Strategic Focus areas for our 2021/2022 year are the following;

‘Select Well – Serve Well’ – With Clusters of Churches

Get ready for the next level.
- Hire Facilitators who do well as Certified Trainers.
Multiply leaders by engaging volunteers
- Strategy to test capacity for being Facilitators.
Better use of digital media for training & stories.
- Use local videographers – volunteer or contract.
- Decide what types of training to use zoom/media
Broaden the market of Global through collaboration.
- Develop strategy to give-away ‘Global approach.’
- More urban mission as people migrating to cities
Launch ‘We’re Global Disciples pledge’
- Launch the Book Ordinary Disciples, Extraordinary Influence

‘We Do One Thing’ – With our Global Approach

Keep our mission focused on the one thing we do
- Actively avoid mission drift – using our focal point of our “Global Arena.”
Programs focus on developing disciple-makers.
- Keep measuring outcomes, not just activities.
20% of our Director Training Member Programs using Small Business Development (SBD) & Leadership (LEAD) training.
- Research to show the impact of the ‘Global Approach’
Each Certified Trainer teaches at least 1 Directors Training annually
- Develop and equip to empower certified trainers
Simplify Strategic planning forms to serve & accelerate vision.
- Equip our Facilitators to all have prayer groups and include least-reached people in all Strategic planning.

‘Fund for Multiplication’ – With our Finances

Develop funding to enter 7 new strategic nations.
- The goal of 30 new nations in the next 3 years
Stimulate Nat’l Foundations’ growth to multiply.
- Greater focus on Business Groups as phase 1
- Do more to resource Nat’l Foundation leaders
Be nationally recognized and supported in Canada
- Donor representation across Canada
Ensure each staff member stewards finances well
- Develop our best practice guidelines for all staff.
Have 25% of all our Director’s training costs be raised locally.

‘Align & Develop Leaders’ – With our Personnel

Invest to develop leaders
- Pick up the revised leadership development strategy.
Modify & pursue our A1-B2 strategy to multiply
- Coach & teach staff for greater effectiveness.
- Keep the emphasis on multiplying healthy leaders.
Pursue hiring Continently or regionally for IT & video
- Engage continental/regional staff & MarCom in search
Broad new strategy for leadership development.
- Develop baselines & work at Leader Development for all.
Sharpen LEAD’s strategic role in Global Approach.
- Work with church clusters – help multiply leaders.
Improve Alliance’s pattern in raising up leaders.

Global Disciples Canada is a Christian mission organization that trains local leaders living near least-reached communities to multiply disciples for Christ. One-third of our world hasn’t heard the Good News of Jesus. Yet. Global Disciples refers to these as “least-reached” people, and fewer than 10% of all missionaries work among these groups. We live in a time where many of these people are within reach of a local church. Through our simple and effective training and coaching strategy, believers share the Gospel in their own nations and cultures. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” and we’re committed to doing just that. If you are looking for a Christian mission organization to partner with to become a better disciple and help make disciples, connect with us today!