Relaunching the Evangelical Christian Leadership Development Process by Focusing on Implementing Lifestyle Discipleship in the Local Churches.
The annual evaluation of BIG (Churches with Global Impact) leadership development ministry, several years in a row, revealed that, between several dozens of projects energized in BIG since the early 2000, the most effective educational tool was BIG 5.
BIG 5 is a five years long leadership development process designed and implemented by 25 evangelical leaders in Romania between the years 2007-2012. While analyzing the whole program, the founders concluded that the most helpful, relevant, and practical learning environment launched in BIG 5 was the one year long process entitled: BIG 5.2: “Implementing Lifestyle Discipleship in the Local Church.”
The BIG 5.2. process was launched in 2009, with more than 80 Evangelical Churches enrolled in the program, and more than 280 Evangelical Christian Pastors and leaders from most of the Evangelical denominations in Romania.
On December 13, 2013, I had the privilege to defend my PhD dissertation on NON-FORMAL EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN POST-COMMUNIST ROMANIA: A CASE STUDY. The focus of the Case Study was on the BIG 5.2. leadership development process implemented in Romania in 2009-2010.
On January 23, 2021, our initial curriculum development team met on Zoom to lay the foundation of BIG 5.2. Reload. Bearing in mind the lessons we learned from the previous experience, we talked about the need, the opportunity, our purpose and motivation, the problem we are going to address, the profile of the curriculum development team member, the commitment required to be admitted in the team, our values and best practices, the strategy, and our needs and resources.
We decided at our first meeting that we will pray for and aim at preparing to facilitate the development of the man and woman “after God’s own heart” (Jeremiah 17:8), that the problem we face is our heart, the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9), and that our hearts need healing and deliverance or more specific, change, and transformation.
We also agreed that the solution has to come from the Lord (Jeremiah 17:10), and through the power of the Holy Spirit who has to overcome the barriers or resistance to change and generate lasting change in individuals and impact our Evangelical communities and our nation.
Please pray for our curriculum development team which will grow larger to include up to 25 leaders!
Please pray for the evangelical leaders and churches God wants to be enrolled in the process, for health and energy needed for prayer, fasting, and preparation!
Please also pray for the financial resources needed to get the process going!
Gelu Paul,
Strategic Coordinator