GLEF 2021 Invitation

Hello everyone! Good morning NJ! Good morning Boon and Moscow!

Welcome to GLEF (Global Leadership Empowerment Forum) 2021. We are happy to be here to have the fourth GLEF 2021. From February 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked over the last year and a half. Everyone expected that it would go away soon. Some people thought it was a joke that there was the coronavirus. But it was just beginning.

It began to spread from China to Asia, Europe, North American, South America, Oceania, Africa and reached every corner of the world. Towns, cities, and even countries began to close down because of death tolls. Beyond the devasting loss of life, the pandemic also had devasting effects our lives. Much more we can say about it, but one thing is sure that we cannot shake hands or hug others freely. During those two years, people were fearful, frustrated and even upset about the situation. People are like angry cats ready to scratch.

But we are quite different. Why? Because we studied the Bible and have learned God’s sovereignty. Yesterday we heard the Massage from Ehrfurcht Kosters. God is the ruler of history. Isaiah 6:3 says, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The whole earth is full of God’s glory because we study the Bible.

In Bonn UBF, everyone, beginning from JBF to Senior leaders, began to study the entire New Testament, including one of the most challenging books, “A History of Western Philosophy and Theology.” There were leadership conferences every few months in Bonn UBF.

In NJ UBF, all coworkers were assigned each book of the New Testament and factual studies. Every Saturday, RURP members reviewed IBS factual studies and raised them as Bible study teachers and messengers. Women missionary-coworkers studied “A History of Western Philosophy and Theology,” too.

I cannot describe all the work, coworkers have done. In this way, we overcame the pandemic. Apostle John says in 1 John 5:5, “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” We did not become the victim of the situation but victors in Jesus Christ.

During the pandemic last year, we had GLEF 2020. We studied the Old Testament, and especially learned Nehemiah’s leadership. This year we will study Mark’s gospel and want to learn about the leadership of Jesus. For this, we divided Mark’s gospel into five lessons, and five next-generation leaders, Joel Park, Maria Chang, Sam Hong, Peter Ryu, and Samuel Abraham Chang, will deliver the messages.

Leadership: What is it? Someone says that leadership is the potential to influence the behavior of others. Some others say that leadership can persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically and motivate them towards goals. But what is Jesus’ leadership? One theologian says that Jesus’ leadership is humility, sacrifice, compassion, love, discipline, mission-focused, evangelism, servitude, etc. He says, well. But Mark says the leadership of Jesus in this way, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

It is the secret way of Jesus’ leadership: genuinely great people are servants. Late Dr. Samuel Lee cleaned up a smelling bathroom and picked up garbage in the church all the time. Every gospel teaches us the servantship of Jesus. When we serve others, we can overcome our sinful nature and our selflessness and find great joy and happiness in our hearts. We can offer our bodies and talents to God to serve others. So the fruit we seek in laying down ourselves is in others. To serve others, however, is not easy. It does not come naturally.

We have to learn from Jesus from the bottom of our hearts. We need the heart of Jesus. During the first Babylonian captivity, there was Prophets Daniel and Ezekiel. During the Babylonian captivity, everything was dark to the people of Israel. They lost their own country and their family members scattered and had to live in the foreign land.

The people’s hearts were like a heart of stone. If our hearts become like stone, we will die. But God promised them to give a new heart and a new spirit. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Through GLEF 2021, may all of us have a new heart and a new spirit through learning Jesus’ leadership, primarily through Jesus’ servantship, and practice our shepherd life based on Jesus’ servantship.

In the first GLEF 2018, we focused on professionalism through inductive bible study and question making because they are the bedrock of our ministry. In the second GLEF 2019, we focused on discipleship training and message training. Last year we had studied the entire Old Testament.

Through studying the book of Nehemiah and listened to its messages, we had learned how to rebuild the broken spiritual walls of our time. This year we are going back to the first year of GLEF, studying Mark’s gospel. But there are differences. In 2018, we concentrated on Jesus’ discipleship.

This year, however, we want to focus on Jesus’ leadership and continue to learn the leadership of Jesus, developing resources, and establishing the Global Leadership Foundation through working with other churches and diverse organizations. May God bless GLEF 2021 and help us to learn Jesus’ leadership through servantship.