The international Christian leadership training initiative Million Leaders Mandate will drive into the UK this month. The Evangelical Alliance UK has expressed its full support to the great vision of the programme and has called for active participation from Christians.
Million Leaders Mandate is the vision of an American leadership specialist John Maxwell. It is an ambitious international programme aiming to train a million new Christian leaders in basic leadership skills by 2008. These leaders are being trained to provide visionary leadership to local churches and national Christian organisations, while mentoring other national leaders throughout their region. The programme is sponsored by Maxwell’s worldwide organisation EQUIP.
Maxwell says, "During his public ministry of three and a half years, Jesus did not preach campaigns across Asia, nor did He heal everyone he met. What He did with the majority of His time was to train twelve leaders to impact the world over the next generation. I am convinced that if Christian leaders around the world are trained, resourced and encouraged, there is no limit to what can be accomplished in fulfilling the Great Commission."
Since the launching of the Million Leaders Mandate in 2002, the program has impacted many countries across the world. Especially, it is backed by many evangelical church leaders. For instance in Russia, there are 5000-6000 evangelical churches but most of them have congregations of less than 10 people and constantly face persecution. Many evangelists consider the greatest need for the church today is leadership training and are so much inspired by Maxwell’s program.
In India, evangelical churches testified that EQUIP has helped them to build up partnerships between churches so as to provide physical and spiritual resources to those in greatest need in case of emergency.
The goal of the Million Leaders Mandate to set up one million leaders in the world is to be achieved step by step according to the concrete development plan set by Maxwell. From 2003 to 2005, the program has been introduced in Asia and the Middle East, with the aim to raise 15,000 trainers in India, Philippines, Indonesia, China, Egypt and Lebanon. Since last year, the program has pioneered Africa, where 11,000 trainers are to be found in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. Now, the time for Europe has come in 2005. From UK, Germany, Ukraine, Romania and Russia, 2000 trainers will be raised.
The Evangelical Alliance UK is backing the initiative and is going to host the launch event in association with YWAM and Premier Radio on 9th February in London. Through a day-long session, it begins the recruitment drive to sign up 2000 church and business leaders in the UK and Ireland for the start of the Million Leaders Mandate training course in October 2005.
The course will run two sessions a year for three years. Each leader will receive copies of the workbooks, which they will then use to train 25 others.
John Smith, UK Director, says, "We are extremely excited by Maxwell’s vision. We have examined the workbooks and are impressed by their biblical framework, clear content and practical application. We encourage anyone who feels they want to get involved to sign up. It’s a great opportunity to receive excellent training and for many it will be a life-changing experience."