Something funny was happening in Argentina. At least that is what the spreadsheet said. It seems that as part of EQUIP’s Million Leaders Mandate, the leaders trained in these programs were “multiplying” at an unbelievable rate, and the evangelism impact these leaders were having on their churches, businesses, and communities was growing exponentially. But nothing funny was happening in the way of advertising or national media attention. It was just that the leaders were being trained and trained, in incredible numbers, and evangelism was simply a welcome side benefit.
The hypothesis that undergirded our early actions in ministry was that if we trained leaders, they would evangelize. This has been largely borne out in our experience in over a hundred countries, and is the basis for everything we do in leadership development training around the world.
A Leadership Development Model That Has Been Proven Around the World
EQUIP was birthed from a simple idea back in 1996, which is still our underlying philosophy today: that leadership and evangelism are inextricably linked. One hundred percent of our mission is leadership development, which includes one hundred percent evangelism, because they are actually the same. We had the goal to train one million leaders, which we achieved shortly after our inception, and we have since trained millions more using the same techniques and materials, translated into dozens of languages and used in over a hundred countries. Beyond Success has trained over 565,000 roundtable tables in more than a hundred nations, all self-sustaining movements with no foreign leadership of any kind.
We have gained incredible insight from training such a large number of leaders and equipping them for evangelism, so we thought we would share a few things we have learned.
Ownership is better than importation. Wherever there was national ownership of the program and its design, as opposed to something brought in from outside, the results were exponentially better and more impactful. It is the leaders who come from EQUIP’s training programs who are sharing the Gospel the most.
Small group meetings scale better than large gatherings. Roundtables of six to eight people that continue to meet in multiple places throughout a nation have more impact and longevity than any big meeting or stadium event could ever hope to achieve.
Evangelism is an overflow of integrity and trusted relationships. In every country where we have done training, the leaders who saw the greatest impact of people coming to faith around them were the ones who were the most trustworthy, and that began with establishing their personal integrity.
A person’s example will always speak louder than their words. This is actually why EQUIP’s tagline could be a leadership development tagline, an evangelism tagline, or even a personal tagline, because these were never separate items to begin with.
How an Argentinean Awakening Ignited New Movements of Evangelism Across the Globe
What happened in Argentina was not unique. In fact, it is a small piece of why we have seen these movements of evangelism take place in many nations around the world. Some leaders got trained, and the impact they were having in their churches, businesses, and communities was so profound that it began to spread to other nations in ways we could never have imagined or hoped for when we started out in Argentina. This happened simply because a movement was underway of people living life differently, and it got the attention of not only other nations but other denominations as well, who wanted this to happen in their nations too. It is the same kind of phenomenon Dr. Maxwell has been talking about for years now, except we have seen it happen in the countries we have trained through EQUIP, and we get to facilitate that exponential outreach to other nations by training their leaders. You can’t really “train” evangelism, but you can train leaders who have such an impact that people are unavoidably drawn to them and their message. What has happened is that we now get to help facilitate this new awakening for Christ that is breaking out all around the world.
This is exactly what Scripture speaks of in 2 Timothy 2:2, when Paul tells Timothy to entrust what he had been taught to “reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” In many ways, this is the verse that started us on this journey, because we realized that this was basically what we were being asked to do: to both teach and entrust to others who would be reliable and able to teach still others. It is why we are so passionate about doing what we do. We believe it is a tremendous opportunity to encourage and train people in the ways we know make the most difference, and we are thrilled to have the chance to influence lives and communities far beyond what we could ever hope to do alone.
Four Simple Principles That Have Helped Guide Our Process
- Start with leaders and influence crowds. Influence is the byproduct of leadership, and crowds are just the byproduct of influence, but crowds do not replace leaders.
- Design everything with replication in mind. We always design things to get something into someone’s hands to help them have an impact, and we know we have succeeded when something is no longer in our hands.
- Ownership is key. Countries with the biggest impact tend to be the ones where leaders took something and made it uniquely their own.
- And finally, measure in decades, not quarters. Having a decade-long impact is the goal for most things we do, because it helps us all keep longer-term goals and vision.
An Invitation to Be a Part of Something Bigger
What happened in Argentina started as just a local initiative, but it grew in ways beyond what we ever thought possible, not because we did anything differently than other countries, but because we decided to try something new and then let it spread into other nations so they could do the same. The same opportunity is open to any congregation that wants to have not only a local impact, but begin to reach out to other communities around the world. That is why we are so excited to invite you to begin influencing your community and world by starting with leaders, not just crowds, and with influence, not just following. If you would like to be a part of what God is doing in Argentina and around the world, you can begin today by visiting iequip.org and learning more about how EQUIP can help your congregation influence the communities around you and multiply your impact.
