GCGW: Seeing God at Work in the International Church

This April, more than 200 people met in Dubai at the Global Church for a Global World (GCGW) conference, the largest gathering of international church leaders in the world.  These leaders represented international churches in more than 40 countries and multiple church networks including the International Baptist Convention, Missional International Church Network, Fellowship of European International Churches, and more.  While this was a departure from the IBC’s usual spring Ministry Leadership Conferences, it gave us a unique opportunity to see what God is doing through international churches in Muslim and Communist countries and in cultures quite different than what most of our churches experience.

We also enjoyed hearing key speakers Ed Teo from Hong Kong, C.B. Samuel from India, and Leighton Ford from the U.S. who challenged participants to expand their thinking of how to approach ministry on the global stage. We saw God at work in amazing ways, and it was a reminder that despite being in a Muslim country where we had to take a number of precautions to run such a conference, God is still at work!

We ended our time there with a trip out to the desert to go dune bashing, which was an incredible blast!

 There will not be another GCGW for at least five years.  In the meantime, I believe the memories and relationships formed at this year’s conference will bear fruit in more ways than we can imagine!

Next year we are planning two Ministry Leadership Conferences with one in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 13-17 March, and one in Brasilia, Brazil, 23-26 March.  We hope that more leaders than ever will participate including pastoral couples as well as many other leaders from our churches.  We are making scholarships available so that as many people as possible can participate.

David Fresch, Empowering Leaders Strategy Director