BILD’s annual Global Summit was again hosted by Ames-Des Moines CityChurch (ADMCC) February 19th through the 28th. The first three days were fully dedicated to our international partners, 62 church leaders from 17 countries, working with their BILD coaches. The coaching sessions were used for on-boarding new leaders into Equip and BILD’s training system, strategizing and problem solving with leaders that are working to implement training plans, introducing the Comprehensive Assessment of Complex Apostolic Networks & Glossary to enable the leaders to identify where additional training is needed, and sharing network maps and plans in order to collaborate with other global leaders.
Saturday, a small number of individuals from across the US interested in church planting arrived and participated in sessions that laid out a vision for church planting based on the model of the early church seen in scripture. They spent the afternoon meeting with elders and apostolic leaders from ADMCC and discussing the role of elders and apostolic teams. They then worked on a five-year plan for planting and establishing a church/churches in their own context. These individuals then joined ADMCC for our Sunday morning equipping time as well as Sunday evening church meetings held in homes around a meal.
On Monday, several of BILD’s North American partners arrived and attended sessions along with the group of church planters that had arrived Saturday. The sessions began with a conversation around what they had experienced in the house church on Sunday evening. They then discussed how Paul went about delivering instruction to the early church to align them with Christ’s design for not only their local gatherings, but the whole of the early church network. In the evening, they met with cluster leaders from ADMCC. International leaders continued working with their coaches. Monday evening, some of the leaders, both international and North American, traveled to Blomgren Farms for a meal and discussion about rooting biblical principles throughout our networks, highlighting the parallels between agriculture and church growth and expansion.
Tuesday through Friday, all attendees sat in on presentations by Michael Vos and Jeff Reed. Topics included: Paradigm Curves for Gospel Progress, Rethinking Western Hermeneutics, Paul’s Framework for Setting Church Networks in Order, Process for Doing Theology in Culture with Christ’s Strategy, Paul’s Letters as Tools for Building Complex Apostolic Networks, Mastering the Scriptures Across all the Churches and People, and Revisiting Paradigm Curves for Gospel Progress. The Summit concluded with a celebratory banquet on Friday evening. It was a time of great fellowship around a fantastic meal. After the meal, Michael Vos delivered a keynote titled “A Rooted Global Movement,” again highlighting the parallels between his work in agriculture and the work of leading a well-established global network of churches.
Every year it is evident that bringing leaders together to learn, grow, and fellowship together is highly valuable. Please be watching for additional stories about the impact this year’s time is having both locally and globally.
Photos by Hannah Mae Photography