Rise of Global Cities
Cities around the world continue to be on the rise. For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s people live in cities. They hold such economic and political power, yet also contain vast inequality and diversity. As we’ve worked alongside global non-profits, mission agencies, and churches, one of the common issues we faced was the lack of local leaders from professional workplace backgrounds that could support, consult, or even help lead many ministry efforts in global cities like Jakarta, Shanghai, Nairobi, and more. So we began to ask ourselves, what type of individual could spur the greatest impact towards God’s global mission in reaching the lost and poor, while at the same time influence the workplace, the city, and be self-sustainable?
Cohort, Community, and Learning
The answer was in the future. At Resource Global, we are committed to resourcing and releasing the next generation of Christian leaders and professionals within an interconnected network for Gospel movements in major global cities. Many of the young working professional leaders in Jakarta, Chicago, and other global cities are continuing to thirst for a greater understanding and purpose in how to take their work, experiences, passions, and the gospel to new frontiers in their city and industries. Our ultimate hope is that we are able to resource these leaders in the short-term and long-term, so that they can be released to restore the brokenness and needs of their neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, and cities.
How do we expect to invest and resource these individuals? Well, our vision starts with establishing yearlong cohorts of 12-15 hand-selected individuals in our global cities. Throughout the year, they will be taught through a leadership curriculum with prominent workplace and ministry leaders on topics like identity, faith and work, and global missions. Each cohort member will also be paired with a mentor in the same industry, so that they can walk alongside and give guidance in the areas of faith, work, and ministry. And to continue with global learning, each year we host a Global Cohort Gathering (GCG) that brings together all the cohorts to spend intentional time learning from global leaders and from their global peers. At the end, we challenge each cohort member to create a Gospel Action Plan, which maps out their next steps of how they will impact their city and beyond.
Impacting Culture and Cities
Why do we invest in these individuals? One assumption in global missions is that as Americans we have to invest by ourselves. But when you look at the giftedness and positions of these young leaders, they have the potential to be the future investors, future elders, and future entrepreneurs. They have the potential to create fair-pay jobs and justice-filled industries, to give and partner with churches, the poor, and global missions. They have the potential to understand the cultures, corruptions, languages, and difficult dynamics of ministry that we as Westerners will take decades to understand. And when Western money and giving decreases towards world missions, these young leaders have the potential to carry on the torch in the majority world and in the most unreached areas of the world. If we properly train, resource, and walk alongside these future leaders their potential to impact the world with the gospel is endless.
The reality is that the future of global missions does not rely on us but it relies on future global Christian workplace leaders. Our hope is to invest our time, resources, network of teachers, and mentors so that these future workplace leaders can take Gospel-centered risks in their spheres of influence. And one day, we hope that by creating a network of future leaders sharing and teaching one another across the world, we can see sustainable Gospel impact grow 30, 60, and even 100 times for the Kingdom of God.
Resource Global Team