Broadening Our Mission, Transforming Our World - EQUIP Leadership

IN THIS ISSUE SPRING 2015

Letter from John C. Maxwell Global snapshots An invitation to partnership An excerpt from a trainer’s journal

NEWSLETTER

their own laypeople to become salt and light in their community.

Salt & Light Conference, Duluth, GA

Broadening Our Mission, Transforming Our World

AM SO THANKFUL for the work of EQUIP around the world. Seeing leaders developed in over 190 countries has meant the world to me. Over 5 million leaders have gone through our training and are making a difference in their communities.

In recent years, a word that has been on my mind a lot is Transformation. What does it mean to transform a person, a community, a city, and a nation? What kinds of stories of transformation have we seen through the work of EQUIP up until now? I believe we’ve heard some wonderful stories of leadership growth in people around the world. But a question we at EQUIP have asked ourselves is, “Is that enough?” Of course, developing leaders is our calling. But is it big enough? Is there more to transformation than just leadership development? The answer, I’ve concluded, is yes. We believe that ultimate transformation comes only from an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we at EQUIP can do more to encourage that kind of encounter. So we’ve decided to broaden our mission by narrowing our focus for this season. We want to focus on pastors of local churches, with the goal of helping them mobilize

To do that, at February’s Salt and Light event we introduced a new resource for pastors. It provides everything they need to cast vision to their laypeople, train them, and provide them with the tools to add value to people in their community. This initiative is launching for North American churches first, because we’ve felt a burden to pour more into them than we had before. But we’re very excited about where this can go globally in the future. Thank you for your faithful and generous support for the work of EQUIP. We couldn’t do this without you, and we can’t wait to see where God takes us next. Your friend,

John C. Maxwell

An Invitation to Partnership on page 3

GLOBAL SNAPSHOTS

LOOKING BACK

LOOKING AHEAD

In 2014 in 70 nations in ten key regions of the world (Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, India and China), EQUIP conducted 125 conferences. Here is a breakdown of where some of the leaders were trained and how many:

In 2015 you will again play a vital role as together we raise up transformational leaders around the world. You will help to:

In China alone EQUIP trained 250,000 pastors and other leaders.

Complete the task of launching training in every nation. We are only five nations away from reaching all 196 nations with Christ-centered leadership training and resources.

In the Islamic world including Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and many other nations for the Middle East and North Africa, EQUIP provided leadership training and resources for 5,000 leaders.

In other nations EQUIP taught leadership to 75,000 leaders.

EQUIP’s Global Partners (partnering ministries) trained approximately 170,000 pastors, church planters and other leaders worldwide.

This is a total of 500,000 leaders who received Biblical servant leadership training and tools in 2014 - the result of the faithfulness and generosity of the friends of EQUIP.

Launch our new Salt and Light transformational curriculum and technology in thousands of local churches in America and around the globe.

Expand training for Christian leaders in all the nations of the Middle East, the Gulf States, and North Africa where millions are enslaved by Islam.

Continue training God’s servants in China, North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Pakistan and other nations with governments hostile to the gospel.

Provide logistical support for our Associate Trainers and international partners as they pour their lives into leaders worldwide.

Introduce tens of thousands of men and women to Christ.

Thank you for taking this journey with us.

An Invitation to Partnership The famous aviator, Charles Lindbergh, is celebrated because of what he did alone. You will recall that he flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean in a small, single engine aircraft! But, truthfully, he had lots of help with this project, from those who provided the finances to those who built the aircraft. EQUIP’s founder, John Maxwell, often states, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” In that simple but profound statement he expresses a core value of EQUIP. We believe in partnership! We know that when a dream is from God it is always too big for one person - even one organization - to accomplish alone. From the launch of EQUIP back in 1996, we have invited individuals, churches, and other ministries to join us in this God-given dream to train, resource and encourage Christian leaders in every nation of the world. Together, we are nearing the goal of “boots on the ground” Biblical leadership training in every nation - all 196! To God be praise! In recent months, God has spoken clearly to our founder about a special initiative for EQUIP. Not a new vision or mission. We continue to mobilize Christian leaders to transform their world. The special focus during this season is on expanded partnerships - more and better partnerships - with local churches in America and around the world. This initiative, known as Salt and Light, provides a special curriculum and technology for local churches everywhere to use to mobilize all the people of God to be salt and light in the arenas where they live and work each day. This amazing new personal growth curriculum (with its accompanying technology) is designed to add value to unchurched colleagues and friends while leading them toward a personal encounter with Christ. We are committed to offer these materials as a gift to local churches in the United States and around the world. We envision the involvement of tens of thousands of churches with hundreds of thousands coming to faith in Christ. As never before, we need your prayers and generous and faithful support. We are asking you to consider committing to a monthly gift to help underwrite this major endeavor to provide unique evangelism tools to local churches everywhere. Your monthly partnership will help provide materials and technical support for this unprecedented project. Again, we need your help. No commitment is too small and no commitment is too large considering the size of the need and the worldwide scope of the project. Please complete the enclosed form and mail it to us in the envelope provided for your convenience. We can not do this alone. We need your partnership. In advance, I thank you for your generous reply. Gratefully yours in Christ,

Doug Carter Senior Vice President

An excerpt from a trainer’s journal

I

talked today with a house church pastor from a nation that is almost 100% Islamic who is attending the North Africa Hub Conference. This is his second EQUIP conference. This courageous brother stated that it was very high risk to take the EQUIP curriculum back into his country - but he did just that! For more than a year he has faithfully trained house church pastors in a nation where all Christian activity is illegal and can result in prison, torture and even death. He says God is moving and churches are being established as quickly as leaders can be trained. He says the average house church of 6 to 15 people has only one Bible for all of them to share. Being caught with a Bible is a crime that can lead to imprisonment or death.

October 20-23, 2015 Pebble Beach, CA

He shared with me that when he became a Christian, someone reported him to the government. His wife and only child were taken from him by the police and hidden away for more than a year. (She was later released and today they have 7 children). In 2009, he and six of his key leaders were imprisoned and all of them placed in one cell that was three feet square. They had to stand day and night. Each day they looked forward to being taken out of the cell and beaten. They preferred the beating to being stuffed together in the cell unable to move. Their positive attitude and words of forgiveness to their captors caught the attention of the guards and the warden. Before their release the warden asked how they could have peace and joy while in prison. As they shared their testimonies, the warden gave his heart to Christ. My brother was very reluctant to talk about the torture he has endured, but he was most eager to explain how the EQUIP materials have impacted him and enabled him to raise up leaders across his nation, resulting in the planting of many house churches in all regions of the country. He stated that he and his team travel all across his nation including the very harsh and dangerous desert regions. Many of their trips are on camel caravans with EQUIP materials, food, water and tents on the backs of donkeys. They set up tents to protect them from the burning sun. Under these tents leaders are trained. Most of these leaders have never before had anyone invest in them. He commented that during the past year the number of Christ-followers has grown from about 200 to over 1000. It is such a joy to be here to invest in some of the most courageous and committed leaders I have ever met. The overall climate here is unusually tense due to recent events all across this part of the world. Please keep all these leaders in your prayers. I thank God for the faithful and generous men and women in North America who through their gifts to EQUIP are making an eternal difference in the lives of men and women who serve the Lord in dark, difficult and dangerous places.

For more information, contact Doug Carter at (678) 225-3310 or visit

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