Leadership Beyond

Friends,

This week, lift up our international network.  One of the great blessings about being involved with ILI is the connection with leaders serving the Lord in some of the most desperate places around the world.

Participating in the regional conference in Tehachapi on Sept. 3-5 are leaders involved in reaching Islam and Haiti.  Juan Sarmiento is the US Director of PM Internacional, an hispanic mission agency sending missionaries from primarily Latin America to Islam.  PMI has workers in North Africa, the Middle East, and Indonesia.  You can learn more about PMI at www.pminternacional.org.  Juan attended the regional conference in Fresno in 2009 and has been a presenter in numerous conferences since.

Another key leader is Chris Stockwell.  Chris is involved with a work of compassion in Haiti called Three Angels Children Relief.  He as on site in Haiti within days of the earthquake.  Their orphanage was one of the only structures still standing in their neighborhood after the quake and became the of care for the community.  Chris hopes to partner with other ILI partners already in Haiti to bring the conference to the work there.  Chris attended the regional conference in Santa Clarita in February of this year.  You can learn more about Three Angels at www.threeangelsrelief.org/.

Aldar and Tula Dambaev are leaders/missionaries from Mongolia.  They are currently on mission in the Mongolia/Russia/China corner.  Aldar was having trouble with his passport but hopes to be back in the US by Aug. 5th and with us in September.  Keep Aldar and Tula in prayer.  Specifically that Aldar receives his passport by diplomatic currier this week in Mongolia!

At the end of September, (Sept. 24-26) Dar and Barry Franks are hosting another Regional Conference in Sutter Creek (just south-east of Sacramento in the Gold Country.  Participating in that conference are Angel Hernandez and Suresh Kumar.  Angel is a missionary in San Antonio, Paraguay.  Suresh Kumar is a national leader headquarted in Southern India leading a work called Harvest India.  Learn more about Harvest India at www.harvestindia.org.

Our focus in ILI continues to be the lost around the world, even as we call our disciples to step up into a higher level of leadership in America.  Keep these leaders and their families in prayer, and also for the expansion of our kingdom networks around the world. 

Blessings,

Kyle

Friends of ILI,

Some great stuff by Mark Driscoll - click here

"Almighty God, whose Son taught that faithful discharge of duty is not enough: Lest we become unprofitable servants, lead us we pray beyond conformity into the creative fellowship of true disciples of the same Jesus Christ our Lord."
                                                               John W. Suter

When you think about the spread of the Gospel message by the early church missionaries, we often wonder at the rapid – nearly “viral”, in today’s terms – spread of the Good News of Jesus. Amazing, isn’t it? Of course it is, but it’s not inexplicable. 

Actually the book of Acts is very clear as to how early missions moved forward with such rapidity. In Acts chapter 13, the Holy Spirit (who actually remembered the Great Commission) pushes Barnabas and Saul out of the nest in Antioch and onto the mission field in Cyprus and points beyond. We read in verse 5 that, “when they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Synagogues of the Jews.” Repeatedly throughout the book of Acts, that networking process is repeated. We read of missionaries finding the nearest synagogue, preaching the Gospel and making disciples and friends at every step of the way. In no manner discounting the power of the Holy Spirit, the book of Acts bears witness to the effectiveness of their built-in network of relationships from synagogue to synagogue. 

How fast do you suppose the Gospel would have spread, hypothetically speaking, if Barnabas and Saul refused to go because they didn’t know how to get to Cyprus, let alone find the nearest synagogue? I think at the very least – assuming that they weren’t reduced to ash by a lightning bolt from the heavens – they would be disqualified and unfit for missions service. What do you think?

We would find that heard to believe, but that exact scenario is playing itself out today. The only difference being that weare the called out missionaries and our social network isn’t synagogues, it’s the Internet. What I am talking about specifically is social networking using tools like this ILI site, Facebook and others.

The total US population is about 307 million. And 74% of us – a whopping 228 million people – are on the internet. How’s that for synagogue attendance? The global internet population is now over 1 billion souls and growing. Let’s take a look at current Facebook statistics alone:

•    More than 400 million active users
•    50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
•    More than 35 million users update their status each day
•    More than 60 million status updates posted each day
•    More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
•    More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums,   etc.) shared each week
•    More than 3.5 million events created each month
•    More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
•    Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans

How is that for a fertile mission field? But here is another statistic that is equally eye catching. People (think potential missionaries and mentors) over the age of 45 or 50 are virtually absent as regards internet and social networking site usage as compared to those 35 and under. They can’t or won’t get to the 1 billion global internet users because – just as in the hypothetical case I laid out above – “they can’t figure out how to find it.”  That, in my opinion is at best shocking and at worst it is downright sin. 

So let’s unpack this a bit from the ILI perspective. One of our core values is “Passion for the Harvest.” In truth what kind of passion do these statistics show?  Another value highly integral to the ILI concept is “Multiplication of Leaders”. We have a whole module on Mentors, Coaches and Disciples. Now I recognize that one needn’t be a senior citizen to be a mentor, but a vast percentage of the total available Mentors and Coaches in the US are likely in the 50 + years old category. Based on usage statistics, their potential mentees and disciples are online waiting for the “Leader-who-isn’t there.” How much multiplication can you get when those most knowledgeable and experienced can’t even find the playing field? 

I’d like to get some conversation going here. I’d love your feedback. Am I the only one out there who thinks it’s a sin to overlook social networking? 

Mike Brown

Run, John, run, the law demands,

But gives me neither feet nor hands.

Better news the Gospel brings,

It bids me fly and gives me wings!      

                             John Bunyan.

For those of you who don't know Chris Stockwell, he atteneded our Santa Clarita Regional Conference in February. He is  deeply involved with Three Angels Orphanage in Haiti. Click on this link for the back story.

Chris works for Morley Construction here in LA - a large construction and concrete company. They were key in giving Chris the time off and technical support he needed during his last trip to Haiti that resulted in 28 orphans being brought back to the US.

As a result of Chris' experience in the construction industry, as well as his time spent down in Haiti before and after the earthquake, he has been asked to speak at a national conference sponsored by the American Concrete Institute. These are the guys who set the standards for that industry and many large organizations will attend. The tie in with Haiti is that unlike many third world places, they do not predominately use wood or metal in building construction. Most frequently, they use concrete. As a result, Chris will be speaking on "The Construction Before and Destruction After" the Haiti earthquake.

Chris will have an opportunity to address leaders of large and influential organizations as to the state of the art in Haiti as well as his direct experiences with Three Angels Orphanage. Part of the future vision for Three Angels is to start construction on an all new facility that would include school, housing and hospital. They will need $1M to get going and probably $3-5M long term to pull that off. This is a great opportunity for God to bring some major corporate givers to the table. Chris has asked that we pray specifically for:

1. Clarity of speech
2. Understanding on the part of his audience -  many will be experts and leaders in their respective fields of study
3. That Three Angels will receive financial blessing from this talk
4. That the people of Haiti will directly benefit both monetarily and spiritually as well as by improved construction standards that could emerge
5. That Morley Construction would be viewed as the good company that they are
6. That God and God alone will get the glory

Chris is on his way to Chicago right now. Please join me in prayer for Chris over the next two days that he God will direct his path and go before him.

~mab

Friends,

Writing for two reasons. 

First, Al Vom Steeg has just had conversation with the pastor of a church in Santa Barbara.  They are looking to do a Regional Conference at the end of April.  This is all very new, so not much details are known.  For now just keep it in prayer.

Second, Wes Griffin, director of ILI, has asked me to pull together a USA, California group on the "MyILI" social networking site.  The site is hosted by Ning which provides organizations with a Facebook like vehicle for connecting people together.  I'll be sending you an invitation to join the site and the group.  Check it out.  Wes has high hopes that this can be a helpful vehicle for ongoing networking.  Interestingly, when you go to the site, you'll find all kinds of groups formed from all over the world.  If you're burdened for a particular region (Kenya, for example), I think you can join that group and be instantly connected to leaders from there.  That's pretty cool.  Check it out. 

This is my first attempt at doing this.  If you run into a hassel, let me know.

Thanks for you faithfulness to the Kingdom,

Kyle