GLOBAL DISCIPLES

Our vision is to see every person have an opportunity to choose and follow Jesus Christ. Our prayer is that disciples of Jesus, from all nations and vocations, will embrace this vision and do their part. As Global Disciples, we see our part as assisting clusters of churches around the world to multiply Christ-like disciples and locally sustainable fellowships among least-reached peoples.

Global Disciples serves clusters of churches which have a vision to go and make disciples among least-reached people in their region. Our 24 years of experience verifies what missiologists have told us for years: Disciples of Jesus are most effective in reaching people for Christ who are from a similar language or cultural group. Frontier missions - reaching people groups unreached with the Gospel - is usually best done by near-culture mission workers. Many of them have similar socio-economic and educational levels and are knowledgeable of where least-reached people groups live in their region.

The Global Disciples Approach is our model for training near-culture workers in discipleship-mission, leadership, and small business development so that they can multiply disciples and plant churches among least-reached peoples.

1. Discipleship-mission training, or Global Discipleship Training (GDT), is the first phase of training for the near-culture mission workers. This training equips disciple-makers and church planters by developing intimacy with Jesus and building on biblical understandings of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. The focus is Christ-like disciples who make disciples and the practical application is through outreach and church planting.
2. Small Business Development (SBD), is the second phase of training where participants develop their own business and ministry plan. The business may be started to provide an identity in a community and to help the church planter achieve financial self-sufficiency.
3. Leadership Development (LEAD) is the third phase of training designed especially for disciple-makers and church planters who are on location planting churches among a least-reached people group. This training is focused on biblical themes of character and leadership skills with lessons designed to encourage growth as a follower of Christ, a disciple-maker, and an effective leader.

Near-culture leaders are selected by their cluster of churches to be trained as a Program Director in one of the training phases (GDT, SBD, LEAD). Following a 2-week Director's Training, the Program Director can launch their GDT, SBD, or LEAD training program, usually with 15 participants each, with the overall goal of multiplying disciples and planting churches among least-reached peoples.

Our Facilitators, Global Disciples staff who oversee program activity in their region, are our primary connection to the cluster of churches we serve. Facilitators meet with leaders from the cluster of churches to discern whether their vision aligns with Global Disciples' vision of reaching the least-reached through our Global Disciples Approach. If the visions align, the church cluster sends a leader to be trained as a Program Director in either GDT, SBD, or LEAD.

We give high priority to equipping, mentoring, and encouraging the training Program Directors through: excellent quality Director's Trainings, regular contact with and site visits from their Facilitator, equipping and encouragement through our Annual Equipping Events (AEEs), and providing seed funds that contribute to local sustainability.

Training programs are funded primarily by the local church cluster with support from Global Disciples. We ensure the local ownership of the program by requiring the church cluster to provide 51% of the program cost for the first year, while Global Disciples provides 49%. In the second year of the program's training, the church cluster provides 70% of expenses and Global Disciples contributes 30%. By year three the church cluster is responsible for 85% of the training and outreach costs. In year four, the program has achieved self-sufficiency and is funded 100% by the local church cluster.

One key to keeping up with rapid multiplication is to develop capable leaders from within. Program Directors who have excelled in their leadership, can be chosen to serve on staff as a Facilitator. Our experience has been that 1 of every 10 Program Directors becomes a Facilitator. We continue this pattern by developing Head Facilitators and Regional Coordinators who supervise and coach other Facilitators.

Administrative support is provided at the continental (Africa, Asia, South America) and regional levels through regional hubs. Financial support is provided in part through National Foundations, groups of business people in various countries who give generously to support the work of Global Disciples in their country. Currently Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Canada, and the US each have a National Foundation, with emerging Foundations developing in several other countries.

Global Disciples was started in 1996, with five discipleship-mission programs in three countries. Over the past 24 years, those five training programs have multiplied to more than 1,966 GDT, SBD, and LEAD training programs in over 62 countries. At this point, 84% of all programs launched in the past 15 years continue to train, equip, and send out disciple-making church planters, without further funding from Global Disciples.

In 2019, we averaged 67 new churches planted every week with 1,606 new believers joining these fellowships each week! We are humbled and grateful for the way that God has been using this simple approach to multiply thousands of new fellowships of believers in least-reached areas around the world.

We are working to prepare for the next level of multiplication of new disciples and new fellowships of believers in least-reached areas. This means making sure that the prayer base is in place, the leaders are prepared, our organizational structure is developed for growth, and that the finances are available. We have therefore adopted a "Moving Forward Plan" to prepare for future growth. The Moving Forward Plan has four cornerstones:
1. Select Well - Serve Well: partnering with the right clusters of churches whose vision aligns with our vision of reaching the least-reached.
2. Fund for Multiplication: seeing increased funding from donors at every giving level; increased giving from Global Disciples' National Foundations.
3. We Do One Thing: maintain our central focus of equipping near-culture workers to train disciple makers and church planters to plant churches among least-reached people.
4. Develop Aligned Leaders: invest in developing leaders of integrity, who build trusting relationships, are deeply rooted in the Word of God, filled with the Holy Spirit, and united towards our common mission.