Voices of the Global Church

Holding Up Half the Sky: A Biblical Case for Women Leading and Teaching in the Church. By Rev. Assoc. Professor Graham Joseph Hill.

Women have played significant roles in ministry and leadership throughout the history of the church and the pages of the Bible. Today, women make up more than half the church, and do much of the mission, ministry, and discipleship in the life of the church. But women have often been held back from ministry roles. Graham Joseph Hill outlines the biblical vision for women in ministry and leadership. He offers a biblical and passionate call for women to be released to teach, to lead, to preach, to serve, to pastor, and to minister in every area of the church. The Bible paints a radical vision of women, empowered and emboldened for full ministry participation in Christ's church. The biblical vision for women and for their role as teachers, witnesses, disciplers, and leaders transforms not only personal lives, but also the church and the world. This book offers a biblical case for women teaching and leading in the church. Hill then explores practical ways that we can empower and release more female leaders in the church, and ways that we can amplify the voices and honor the gifts of women in the way Jesus intended. Together women and men can revitalize the church and renew the world.

"Hide This in Your Heart" sermon (Ps.119:11 and 2 Tim.3:14-16) - by Graham Joseph Hill

Hiding God's Word in your heart restores your spiritual passion.

Memorizing the Bible has been proven to be an essential, life-giving practice for spiritual growth. Those who memorize passages from the Bible can point to how it's given them greater assurance of God's love and a deeper understanding of how to follow Jesus.

This sermon goes with the book by Graham Joseph Hill and Michael Frost. "Hide This in Your Heart: Memorizing Scripture for Kingdom Impact." NavPress, 2020.

Buy the book here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hide-this-in-your-heart-michael-frost/1136591162

Or buy the book here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Hide-This-is-Your-Heart-Michael-Frost/9781641582049

See a webinar on how to memorize the Bible, here: https://grahamjosephhill.com/bible-memory-challenge/

#HideThisInYourHeart #BibleMemoryChallenge

Samson Sohail and Graham Joseph Hill talk about serving God in Pakistan. The Global Church Project podcast episode #163. On www.TheGlobalChurchProject.com

Samson Sohail is executive director of the United Council of Churches in Islamabad, Pakistan. He leads a vibrant church, committed to peace and reconciliation and the Gospel, and to share the love of Jesus with the people of Pakistan.

James Pender and Graham Joseph Hill discuss ministries transforming and empowering the lives of people affected by Leprosy. The Global Church Project episode #161. On www.TheGlobalChurchProject.com

James Pender is the Programmes and Advocacy Officer - Asia at The Leprosy Mission England and Wales, having formerly held the position of Development and Natural Resource Management Advisor for the Church of Bangladesh Social Development Programme. James was immersed in mission work in Bangladesh for nine years.

James said: "Leprosy is a disease of poverty and there is widespread poverty across Bangladesh with more than half of the population living on less than US$1 a day.

"Leprosy breeds in squalid conditions and there is a rising number of new cases in Bangladesh. If left untreated, the disease causes nerve damage which leads to disability.

"I've met leprosy-affected people in Bangladesh that have attempted suicide as they have felt so dejected by not only facing the stigma that still surrounds leprosy, but the desperate situation of not being able to work and feed their families."

The Leprosy Mission is an international Christian development organisation that diagnoses, treats and offers specialist care, including reconstructive surgery, to leprosy patients. Their aim is to transform and empower the lives of people affected by leprosy.

Leprosy is a disease of poverty and as well as providing healthcare, the Leprosy Mission offers rehabilitation, education, vocational training, small business loans, housing and fresh water supplies and sanitation to tens of thousands of people each year. The Leprosy Mission provides a springboard to restored health, self-sufficiency and renewed hope. Their services are provided regardless of religion or ethnicity, promoting equality and social justice. See: https://www.leprosymission.org.uk

Vladimir Ubeivolc and Graham Joseph Hill discuss "The Missio Dei & Transforming Moldovan Society: Confronting Poverty, Corruption, & Human Trafficking, & Offering Hope." The Global Church Project episode #160. On www.TheGlobalChurchProject.com

Vladimir Ubeivolc is a pastor, author, theologian, and social activist. His father was a member of the Communist Party in the USSR and his mother was an evangelical Christian. Vladimir became a Christian at the age of 22 and later graduated with a Bachelor of Theology from Saint-Petersburg Christian University. He then earned an MA from TCM International Institute for Biblical Studies and a PhD from the University of Wales. He taught different disciplines in various colleges and universities in post-Soviet countries. Vladimir is an ordained pastor. Being a social activist and reflective practitioner, he has led a number of NGOs and platforms in Moldova and other Eastern European countries. Together with his wife Yulia they raise their daughter, Anna.

For many years, Vladimir Ubeivolc and his wife Yulia led Beginning of Life NGO in Moldova; which runs two programmes. One is focused on preparing children and youth for a better future through educational and training course and the other programme helps people who have suffered from different types of social injustice, such as single motherhood, human trafficking, domestic violence, and poverty.

Vladimir has taught Ethics and Missiology in different colleges and universities in Moldova and Russia, leading and speaking in conferences in almost all countries from the former Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In 2014, together with his colleagues, he launched Studio of Innovative Leadership, which focused on teaching and promoting social transformation from a holistic theological and missiological perspective.

Vladimir is author of numerous of articles on holistic mission, human trafficking, and social justice, and co-author and co-editor of a few books. His book Rethinking Missio Dei Among Evangelical Churches in an Eastern European Orthodox Context was published through Langham in 2016.

Rhiannon Lloyd and Graham Joseph Hill discuss how Jesus offers forgiveness, repentance, healing, and peace after conflict and war. Jesus's church can demonstrate redeemed ethnicity, radical reconciliation, and the new humanity in Christ (Rhiannon has spent the last 30 years leading healing, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation initiatives in Africa and other parts of the world). The Global Church Project episode #159. On www.TheGlobalChurchProject.com

Dr. Rhiannon Lloyd, a former Doctor of Medicine and Psychiatry, has been in full time Christian work since 1985 ministering extensively in cross-cultural situations. She spent many years teaching courses for Christian workers and ministering to people with deep emotional wounds. Since 1994, she has pioneered a reconciliation ministry in Rwanda, working initially with African Enterprise. She has spoken to thousands of church leaders leading them to a place of healing at the cross and facilitating reconciliation between the ethnic groups. Healing and reconciliation teams have now been formed in many other countries. She lives in Wales, and her ministry is called "Healing the Nations". For more information see www.healingthenations.co.uk

In the early 1990s, Rhiannon Lloyd felt God calling her out of her own experience of conflict and suffering to go to Rwanda to help in the work of peacemaking after the genocide. She left her home in tears, with great fear, and with feelings of inadequacy. But God used her faith and her willingness to surrender to him and go, and over the last 30 years she's led thousands of churches and communities through peace and reconciliation workshops and processes in many of the most war-torn countries of the world. Never underestimate how God can use you when you surrender everything to him and follow his call.

In this interview, Rhiannon shares her insights into forgiveness, justice, repentance, peacemaking, and reconciliation, and into ways to bring healing and unity after serious conflicts and devastating wars and division.

Christian Jeyachandran and Graham Joseph Hill talk about what it means to follow Jesus in mission. How do we hear God's call to mission, step out in faith, and follow him wherever he leads? The Global Church Project episode #158. On www.TheGlobalChurchProject.com

Christine Jeyachandran serves with SIM in Peru, along with her husband David and their three children. Having learnt the local language, they work among University Students, teaching English, sharing about Jesus, discipling, and encouraging them as they follow Jesus. Christine and David feel that this is an incredibly strategic work which can impact the future leaders of Peru.

Gil Odendaal and Graham Joseph Hill talk about empowering the church to serve the most vulnerable in both the Global South and North. They discuss the shape of integral mission and credible witness, the need to take up our cross and follow Jesus, and how Christians can respond to issues to do with refugees and asylum seekers, racism and conflict, and consumerism. The churches of the Global South teach Western Christians about the realm of the spirit, about integral mission, and about truly being the priesthood of all believers. The Global Church Project episode #157. On www.TheGlobalChurchProject.com

From directing global initiatives for Saddleback Church to building innovative programs for other reputable global ministries, Gil Odendaal has dedicated more than 30 years to empowering the church around the world to seamlessly integrate word and deed ministries that transform communities, especially through health related initiatives.

Gil Odendaal is the author of Standing with the Vulnerable: A Curriculum for Transforming Lives and Communities (IVP, 2016). He is the Executive Director of Gil Odendaal Consultancy. Prior to this he was the Senior Vice President Integral Mission at World Relief. Gil seeks to empower the church to serve the most vulnerable in both the Global South and North. Whether that church consists of 2 Christ-followers gathering in a basement in a restricted access country or a church of 20,000 in an open Christian country - the goal is the same - to serve them so that that their gospel proclamation has social consequences as they call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And their social involvement has evangelistic consequences as they bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. Prior to serving with World Relief, Gil served as Global Director for PEACE Implementation with Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California and as Global Director for the HIV/AIDS Initiative under Kay Warren, assisting and facilitating the deployment of more than 10,000 short term missionaries.

Oscar Muriu and Graham Joseph Hill discuss Oscar's passion for raising up a legacy of African leaders for the church of Christ worldwide. They also discuss what the West can learn from African innovations in church planting, leadership development, prayer and discipleship, and much more. They discuss what the churches of the Global North and the Global South can learn from each other, and how they can partner together for God's mission and harvest. The Global Church Project episode #156.

Pastor Oscar dedicated his life to Christ in 1983, and has served as the Senior Pastor of the Nairobi Chapel since 1991. In that time he has seen the Church grow from a mere 20 people, to over 3,000 people. Pastor Oscar leads a church planting movement of 90 churches, the bulk of which are in Kenya; but others around Africa include Rwanda, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Liberia, and Ethiopia. His present target is to plant 300 churches; with 210 of them in Kenya; 60 in the rest of Africa (one in each capital city of Africa); and 30 off the continent of Africa in the gateway cities of the world (London, Delhi, Sydney, Hong Kong, Chicago and others). His personal mission is to raise up a legacy of African leaders for the Church of Christ worldwide.

All this began around 30 years ago, when a young pastor Oscar accepted the call to an aging, declining church of 26 people that was close to shutting its doors. Look at it today! Follow God's call! You never know how God will use you if you surrender fully to him. Oscar is an example of a person fully surrendered to God: a humble and visionary leader, committed to pouring his life into the next generation of pastors, leaders and church planters.

Tony Campolo and Graham Joseph Hill discuss Red Letter Christianity, and the transforming power of humility, self-sacrifice, and love. The Global Church Project episode #155. On www.TheGlobalChurchProject.com

Tony Campolo is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University and a former faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. For 40 years, he led the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, an organization which he founded to create and support programs serving needy communities. More recently, Dr. Campolo has provided leadership for the progressive Christian movement, Red Letter Christians as well as, for the Campolo Center for Ministry, a program which provides support to those the church has called to full-time ministry. He has written more than 35 books and can be found blogging regularly on tonycampolo.org and redletterchristians.org. Tony and his wife Peggy live near Philadelphia and have two children and four grandchildren.

In November 2012, Tony Campolo received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Youth Worker's Convention. The wording on the award is: "Award of Lifetime Achievement is proudly presented to Tony Campolo who has defined and courageously pioneered what is means to encourage, care and lead students, possessing the qualities that inspire us and provoke us to continue the journey into the future with boldness and confidence. As a result of Tony's life of ministry and leadership he has left a legacy of encouragement and hope to youth workers and students everywhere." (Biography taken from www.tonycampolo.org).

About Red Letter Christians (from www.redletterchristians.org):

Staying true to the foundation of combining Jesus and justice, Red Letter Christians mobilizes individuals into a movement of believers who live out Jesus' counter-cultural teachings.

The goal of Red Letter Christians is simple: To take Jesus seriously by endeavoring to live out His radical, counter-cultural teachings as set forth in Scripture, and especially embracing the lifestyle prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount.

By calling ourselves Red Letter Christians, we refer to the fact that in many Bibles the words of Jesus are printed in red. What we are asserting, therefore, is that we have committed ourselves first and foremost to doing what Jesus said. Jesus calls us away from the consumerist values that dominate contemporary America. Instead, he calls us to meet the needs of the poor. He also calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications in terms of war and capital punishment. After all, when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he probably means we shouldn't kill them.