Growing Crowds and Growing People in Nigeria
Trainings in Nigeria draw ever-increasing crowds.
We recently completed one of our biggest Building Healthy Leaders (BHL) sessions with Christian professors and other members of a university in Nigeria. We experienced what happened in John 4 at this training, when after meeting with Jesus at the well, the Samaritan woman ran and invited the whole city.
We started with 98 participants on the first day.
We began by setting up an ongoing 3D design (a spirit-filled and engaging learning community) which deeply inspired our host, the chaplain of the university. The focus of the first day of training was on basic concepts of leadership (vision, alignment and fulfillment), five kinds of power, and abusive vs. servant leadership. At the end of the session, one professor walked up to me and said,
“I have been teaching leadership for years now and I have never heard it this way; I have never come across the word “alignment” in leadership. I am deeply touched. I need to learn more about alignment as a leader.”
Another lecturer told me that he never thought about leadership as movement, and that as a leader of many years he is now not sure that he has been moving the people. He said that this training has brought a lot of light.
On day two of this seminar, the number of participants increased to 115.
We turned our focus to the global leadership crisis, the three components of leader development, and the nature of Jesus’ leadership. One of the participants told me that the statistics on the need to build stunned him and showed him why the church is not growing as it should. He further stressed that this adjusted his focus as a Christian leader from concentrating just on evangelism to focusing on leader development.
On day three, we turned our focus to the transformational goal (5Cs) of healthy leaders. Many of the participants were deeply touched when our trainer took the class through the third C (character). A professor of religious studies from the university also openly confessed to me that the Three Levels of Doctrinal Authority really made a deep impression in his heart and will help him to interact better with his students.
By day four, the number of participants had increased to 169.
Our focus was on the transformational process (4Ds). One of the participants, a professor of veterinary medicine in the university said, “The four dynamics is a systematic distillation of the process Jesus used in Mark 3:14-15 into a capsule, such that once one is able to swallow the pill, then healing and transformation is guaranteed.” Another participant, a lecturer in the same university, was also deeply impressed by the training:
“I am a member of the technical team of this chapel. We usually pray and sing before ushering in the pastor to preach but we never gave it a thought that these activities could be a context for the content of the Word of God to bear fruit in people's hearts. Now that you have unveiled this to us, we will lead worship more intentionally, with the end result of transformation in mind.”
The general overseer of the church, Bishop E, was personally transformed by the training, and has given all of the participants marching orders to build and mentor three leaders each within the next year.
God is at work in Nigeria!
