Guest Blog: Our Global Vision Pt. 2

Brad O'Brien is the Community and Church Planting Pastor at the Summit Church.

We aren’t just excited about what God is doing in Durham through Hope For Durham or in regards to our North American church plants. We are also really excited about the vision we have to equip and mobilize international church planting teams.

This vision is young, but it has a lot of us excited about the potential of reaching some of the world’s most influential cities and unreached people groups via Summit sponsored church planting teams. We believe that planting churches is the best way to reach people and in 2008 we will be deploying our first two church planting teams.

The first team is made up of 3 couples with 2 little baby girls and a recent college graduate. This team will be going into Central Asia to work in a city of about 2 million people. We have visited this city a couple of times and we were astonished to only find one church of about 40 people. This city, that we will call ‘Olympus’, is a beautiful place, but unfortunately millions of people in this city haven’t had the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ. They will be using their skills to give them a platform to minister from. They are great examples of taking what they do over here and learning how to do it globally. We will be visiting them at least twice in 2008 so keep your ears open for more information. Both of our church planting teams have been meeting together for several months now preparing themselves to be salt and light in a brand new country.

The second team is made up of 3 couples one with 2 little girls and at least 5 young professionals. We have had a businessman living in this country for a while now and he has used his entrepreneurial skills to start a small business that is thriving. This has given us a platform to visit the country 4 times in the past year. As people follow God’s call to go and see what He is doing their hearts are captured with a new found love for the people living in the valley that we are adopting. Unlike the first team, this team will be going into a very rural setting where they will be living without many of the luxuries that we take for granted. This team is the team we are seeking to bless financially through our ‘Dine for Development’ event on Thursday night, November 1st. This team will be going into an area where Christ has never been preached before. They aren’t just called to preach Christ, but they are also called to care for the needs of their new neighbors. By making a reservation to attend the ‘Dine for Development’ dinner you will be contributing to their community development budget. The Summit will be matching the total gifts up to $2,000. They will be able to use this budget to fund ideas that they have for ways to bless the people around them.

‘Dine for Development’ is just the first part of our Global Vision Conference coming up November 1-4. After being on staff for almost five years now I believe that one reason God continues to bless us is because we seek to find new ways to bless others. This weekend conference will be filled with information and opportunities to build new relationships with a few of our church planters, but it will also be an opportunity for you to hear from God. Have you ever asked yourself if you would be willing to do what you do here in RDU on a global setting? Would you be willing to be a part of one of our international church plants? We need college students, young professionals, young couples, families, and senior adults. We can help you find a perfect fit, but first you have to ask yourself if you are willing to go.

Where will you go? What will you do? These are two questions that you will be faced with over the next couple of weeks at the Summit. Please begin to pray now for God to show you how He wants you to be involved in what He is already doing around the world!

Comments

We are all called to be a part of what God is doing in the world. This conference will make it easy for the church to find their specific role. Get pumped and pray that God will use your skills to spread the gospel with those who have no access to it.