BIG5 Conferences

Since autumn 1997, BIG Impact launched a series of five annual courses, under the name BIG 5, courses which are focused on five core practices that define the global impact churches. Each course is launched with a conference, the curriculum being developed by a team of about 25 people with experience, who work in small groups to develop each lesson and plenary meet several times for harmonization, completion and debate regarding the creative ways of communication to foster an experiential learning process. The coordination of the development and implementation process of the BIG 5 curriculum is ensured by Gelu Paul, the national coordinator of the BIG Impact Foundation.

The following courses have been released so far:

• The philosophy of ministry, 2007

• Team leadership and teamwork, 2008

• Discipleship as a lifestyle, 2009

For 2010 it was decided, due to busy program of conferences, to have a break to allow all regional centers to reach all the three courses that were launched. The program will continue as follows:

• Pastoral First Aid, 2011

• Global Impact Church, 2012

Follow-up BIG 5

Statistics suggest that, during the first three days after returning from any conference, if the values and practices learned there are not implemented, 95% or those participants will not put their hands on the manual, DVD’s or books bought with their hard-earned cash, and the enthusiasm of the conference dies with the return to the reality of ministry.

That is why the service of in-depth studying was developed. The BIG 5 curriculum suggests that as a part of the conferences held for equipping, the development of pleasant churches, preaching with integrity and relevance, and pastoring with self-sacrifice and impact, be encouraged. But so that all this can happen at a local church level, we have developed several regional centres where the churches that participated at BIG 5 can meet together after every conference at about six meetings where they can work together on the special projects prepared in such a way that the truths learned at the conferences can be implemented in the local churches. We consider that the pastoral team is the key to success for the churches, not only at the conferences but at the in-depth study meetings, where they work together on the proposed project.

The regional centres which function in BIG 5 are: