International (MNN) ― A lot changes in 20 years. The idea for the worldwide web was born. Technology advanced to support communication--and a global community began conversing.
David Shibley with Global Advance says that's true for them, too. Twenty years ago, they began equipping church leaders for ministry.
Today, Global Advance hosts and sponsors over 100 Frontline Shepherds Conferences around the world. These events are catalysts for church planting and indigenous missions efforts. The goal is to ignite a vision within national pastors and church leaders for the advance of the Gospel.
However, they found these newly equipped pastors quickly bumping up against economic realities. The men still had to find a way to earn a living, and the principle of tithing was still taking root. Shibley say they began to think on a broader platform. "Jesus called us to be salt; He called us to be light. The button that one pushes to transform a nation would certainly have to include the business aspect."
Global Advance began Marketplace Missions, with the idea of creating a kingdom-building entrepreneur. Teaching teams consisting of top-level executives and entrepreneurs from the United States conduct 2-3 day conferences for business leaders in developing nations around the world.
Marketplace Missions conferences emphasize both the spiritual and practical aspects of doing business God's way. The goal of the training is to encourage networking in the business community, generate new capital, greater integrity, and spiritual and economic renewal.
As a result, Shibley says, "We're seeing the beginnings of a tremendous new mission force in the world of believers in the marketplace."
To supplement these conferences further, the team launched the Global Advance Business Institute in March 2007. Its purpose is to provide business leaders with MBA-level teaching to help them excel in the marketplace.
It's interesting to note that the marks of the global recession haven't slowed Global Advance's vision--quite the opposite, in fact. Shibley says, "When we tie God's agenda to a genuine call into the business arena to be salt, to be light, to be agents of transformation, tremendous things happen even in the midst of the very, very challenging conditions." It's about getting the body of Christ together, and letting the Holy Spirit change their community through them. What will the next 20 years bring?
