Establishing churches that last.
BILD has been engaged with church-planting movements in 46 nations where churches and networks have seen the need to mature leaders in the faith. Supporting the training of church leaders enables them to equip all believers for the works of the ministry and have lasting impact on their families, churches, communities and cultures.
For over 50 years two men struggled to implement a strategy that would fulfill a vision of seeing the church grow and believers mature like in the book of Acts. In a large and hard to reach country, they saw a great need for more trained leaders and for those leaders to be prepared for the mission, building what they read in Acts. Sending them to seminaries outside of their country fell short of meeting that need as leaders returned still lacking in understanding with no real maturing at a financial cost many couldn’t afford. Then in 2014 they heard about BILD’s church-based leadership training and how it went from basic believer all the way to top leadership development. BILD’s system was appealing because it aligned with the book of Acts, and was accessible because leaders could be trained in the church and by the church. Today, BILD’s executive education program includes the top 14 leaders of this network, who oversee thousands of churches and networks of 10 million believers. They have been trained in this reproducible and accessible system, thus they are expanding the BILD trainings to their churches and people. Empowering leaders with this training system demonstrates how all of us are playing a role in fulfilling the Great Commission.
In India, 179 church networks consisting of between five and 80 churches each are using BILD resources to establish new believers and train leaders. Believers are becoming established in the faith, seeing the barriers of caste and economic differences broken down, exercising their spiritual gifts, and caring for one another as church families develop.
Churches in the East African Community (Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Tanzania) are strengthening leaders through church-based leadership training using BILD materials. The program has been embraced by 181 church and ministry leaders and the impact has been seen at every level of society: ministry, individual, family, community, and workplace.