Michael and Jeff, piggybacking off the energy from the Global Summit this past spring, plan to visit five of the nine civilizations at different times this year. These civilization gatherings are intentional in bringing global partners face-to-face to not only share ministry plans from their own contexts, but to also discuss and plan a master strategy for that civilization with Michael and Jeff providing the framework. The time is also to be celebratory and patterned after the way in which the churches of the New Testament gathered.
The first of these civilization gatherings recently happened in France with European partners attending from France, Cote d’Ivoire, the Netherlands, Kosovo, Albania, Spain, the Algerian diaspora, the Arab speaking diaspora, Belgium, Ukraine, and North America. They all share a commitment to following the patterns of Acts in building global apostolic networks.
Our partners in France, Jean-Claude Rellier and Philippe Brobecker, hosted the event and handled the logistics of travel and hosting for those in attendance. Jean-Claude has partnered with BILD for the last 30 years, leading the Institute for Applied Evangelical Theology (ITEA) that provides the vision for non-formal church-based leadership training and discipleship in churches across France and has expanded into French-speaking African countries using BILD leadership training materials.
The importance of gathering as civilizations has become increasingly clear as Michael and Jeff continue to delve into the Scriptures and the patterns found in the book of Acts. The New Testament book of Acts provides the framework for their vision for the entire global BILD network.
BILD is committed to following the biblical patterns from the book of Acts. This has culminated in understanding and shaping our churches and network in the paradigm based on the way of Christ and His Apostles or the Antioch Tradition, rooted in the gospel message and Christ’s teachings and the letters in the New Testament. It is how we are to shape our lives around God’s Plan for His Church: gathering weekly as a family of families in our churches, sharing the bread and cup, using our spiritual gifts to build up the body, maturing in our faith, recognizing and training leaders, and entrusting elders who will shepherd the church. It is following Christ into His Great Commission to spread the gospel through His Church.
As this paradigm has taken shape, recovered by Jeff Reed in his Paradigm Papers and Encyclicals, and now being rooted by Michael Vos in the next generation, an emerging Christendom is taking place around the world as our global church network partners enact the way of Christ and His Apostles in their own cultural contexts.
To fully grasp and implement this paradigm, our international partners have been working with BILD coaches as they create master strategies for their ministries, identifying leaders to help strengthen churches by using the First Principles Series, and to grow their networks as the gospel progresses throughout their villages, cities and countries. Michael’s and Jeff’s visits to five of the nine civilizations will help to shape and sharpen these strategies and provide a global apostolic vision as these partners network together.
Michael said each leader has their own sphere and expression. Building a strategy for a whole civilization brings clarity for those who don’t know what to do beyond their own context and gives people clear roles, he said.
Steve Galegor, a BILD apostolic partner who has been coaching many of the European civilization leaders in developing their master strategies, said the purpose of the gathering in France was for those leaders to get to know each other and hear of each other's experiences and how they are learning and implementing the way of Christ and His Apostles. For many, it was their first time meeting with each other.
Steve said that at the civilization gathering in France each leader gave a report of the current state of the work in their sphere of ministry, what they are encouraged about, challenges they are facing, and where they envision the Spirit leading them in the paradigm. It was an encouraging time for them all.
Philippe Brobecker, a ministry leader in France who played an integral role in organizing the civilization gathering, said he enjoyed meeting people in similar ministry situations and was encouraged by the discussions and questions that helped everyone move forward in their understanding and implementation of the way of Christ and His Apostles in their ministry spheres.
“Each ministry team from different countries was able to present its situation and work,” Philippe said. “It was all very exciting, and we were pleasantly surprised to see some of the ministries take on a greater scope. It is interesting to note that while we are on the same continent, there are several civilizations among us or connected to us: Western, Orthodox, Islamic, African and Latin American.”
Steve shared some insights of the impact in Europe as the paradigm emerges. He said Europe has long been a civilization influenced by both its Western and Eastern portions and this dual influence still forms one of the key dynamics in the civilization, especially concerning the gospel’s progress, in the post Cold War world. “There remains an openness and freshness about the work of the churches in Eastern Europe like Kosova, Albania, and Ukraine that is an encouragement to leaders in the Western portion where the highly secular culture like that of France makes the work more challenging,” he said. ”The way of Christ and His Apostles and the foundations and vision it lays is the uniting feature among them in this broad diversity. The fact that we had both ends of the spectrum represented gave a sense that work across the continent is within reach and what we are all contributing toward.”
Steve said it was a time to focus on the role of and unique challenges of shaping the Western Church (now post Christendom) in the way of Christ and His Apostles. The two days concluded with a celebration meal and a time of reflection on what has been accomplished looking back on a whole generation of work like that of France and Albania, to the fresh new work developing in places like Ukraine.
“Overall, I was impacted by the chance to see individual leaders come together and become more than just a sum of individual parts,” Steve said. “It was the first step toward a one-mindedness and working relationships as a team in Europe around the way of Christ and His Apostles.”
Future civilization gatherings are being planned, including one that recently took place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for Latin America. The shape of these gatherings are an outcome of the work Michael and Jeff continue to do as they build essential tools like Jeff’s Mastering the Scriptures Series and White Papers and documents like Michael’s Global Dialogue papers to help steward these global movements.
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