Leadership 2000

By Richard Shakarian

Let's take our nations. In America we have our sights on 1,000 chapters! How are we going to do this? We need to become one in vision, heart, and understanding… and the devil won't like it!

The way we are going to do this is by the use of good training. We are offering training through Leadership 2000 Training Seminars. We are teaching men what God has revealed about our chapters and how to reach our own city.

A Leadership 2000 Training Seminar is a must for all chapter officers and members. After our last training meeting, one of the men asked for prayer. The anointing was so strong that what followed was like a heavenly explosion. It was an awesome display of heavenly power. The room looked like a Benny Hinn meeting!

Everyone who has sat in on the training of the trainers is excited and most say, "I see it… it's really the vision intensified!" Since we have trained the trainers, several new chapters have started and 20 other new chapters are planned to begin in the next 60 days!

Don’t be left out of the new wave which is about to sweep America. What about your nation? This training is for all memberships of the Fellowship, who are ministering everywhere the FGBMFI is active.

To get a teaching team in your area of the U.S.A. for this all day (8 a.m. - 5 p.m.) training of Leadership 2000, or to see how this training could come to your nation,

"Contact us right away. Leadership 2000 will be required for all leaders, so let's set an early date... and let's see a multiplication of the Fellowship in your area."

Nathan Smith, Field Rep: The training was excellent. It was right on target. The materials were wonderful, and the leadership was perfect. The strong anointing really drove home the fact that we are at the right point and at the right time. God's timing is now.

Ron Gue: In contrast to previous leadership seminars, this was lean, trim, slim, and very very focused. I think it was an excellent presentation. I am convinced this is a spark that is going to light the fire. It is brilliant to be empowering individuals with training and the anointing of the Fellowship to be able to take it out into the streets I think it is right on.

Paul Lobascio: The meeting was organized and well thought out. Though I am not an officer yet, I believe that after this meeting I will be starting a chapter. Very close to my house there is a small Denny's restaurant that has a back room where we can meeting with a few people and start right up.

Omatshola Dafetha: God has spoken to me here about the vision of the Fellowship in a clear and precise manner. I now know more about the mechanics of running a meeting. We are excited about starting a new luncheon chapter in Redondo Beach, an area where there are a lot of young executives and young professionals. We already have about 15 people on our list. We believe this is the dawn of a new era for the FGBMFI.

Art Sharpe: It was absolutely worth the time and effort to come here. If I can take the fire and put it into the other people our chapter, we will go forward.

Paul Brazil: Time management was excellent. What I liked best was the openness from the leadership. There was a beautiful sense of love for the members present. There was opportunity given for those who wanted to say something.

Rey Soto: Muy Bueno! The best part was the unity of Spirit and the open and transparent quality of the teaching.

Roger McKinney: As far as I am concerned, the whole meeting was great. It was very enlightening, especially in the area of starting chapters. It has always been difficult to get ten men together. The idea of "getting two men together for a luncheon or breakfast" is absolutely wonderful. I know that we will have at least six chapters started out of this training session.

Jim Fitch: The meeting went very well on Saturday. The curriculum was good and the anointing of the presence of God was there. The people were attentive and were fed "God stuff". More was done than I thought would be possible, and I received more than I expected. I was encouraged by the attention given to the input by Richard Shakarian, and was impressed by the new way he is thinking. I sense a change in his heart.

One of the wives: God spoke to me. He told me this is destiny. He said that He is imparting destiny.

Richard Shakarian: The first thing I noticed is that a large percentage of those attending were younger.

One participant: This meeting has enriched my faith and encouraged me to reach out to the lost.

Another participant: The anointing is really heavy. Everybody is flowing in one accord – in unity.

Bill Grant: The meeting gave me a fresh look at the global nature and goals of the Fellowship. They increased my desire to go to the nations with the Good News.

Paul Brazil: The seminar was excellent in giving everyone an overview on how to be a more efficient member and/or officer of the Fellowship, both on the local level and on the international.

We could clearly see God's anointing on Brother Richard Shakarian as we watched the video from Nicaragua and Honduras, which showed God's Spirit working through Richard as he ministered to the people. Many were saved. It is the anointing that has breaks the yoke.

Fire Conference in Munich, Germany

Richard Shakarian: I have felt in my heart for more than a year that Europe needed encouragement and a greater degree of direction. So I called this fire conference; people came from all over the world. We had approximately 300 people from 32 nations of the world there. I think we were all surprised because no one anticipated this tremendous response. It shows the depth of hunger inside the leadership of our men to come from Israel, Russia, Poland, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Africa, Central America, and Scandinavia.

I believe every nation of Europe was represented. During that time there was a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit. People wept before the Lord and repented and cleansed their lives so that they could receive a greater anointing from the Lord. Nations came to commit themselves to God. At the end of Saturday night's meeting, we had a time of victorious prayer for each of the nations, giving the birth of a vision, claiming the nation for Jesus.

Ron Weinbender: The most important part of the conference was that every person who came left extremely inspired by what they could see was happening in the Fellowship. The men and women have a new zeal and a new fire. It brought an awesome unity and a wonderful spiritual release in each individual that was a part of this weekend.

Blair Scott: Even before we ever started the meeting, you could feel the rising expectation and the power of the Holy Spirit ready to minister. People were healed. One man came to the meeting instead of going to the hospital. The Lord healed him and the pain is gone.

One exciting thing that happened for the Europeans was to see the group from Poland. The Fellowship has been trying to reach out to Poland for many years, and now they saw a team of people from Poland that were very highly committed to the Fellowship, with several established chapters, a real solid member of the FGBMFI Nations.

Ron Weinbender: Israel was another nation that was deeply affected. There had been some confusion between one or two of the leaders, but here we saw them get into the mainstream of the Fellowship. It was a healing experience.

Richard Shakarian: We were hosted by Ulrich Von Schnurbein and Roland Benz, and the team of men who put the conference together. I congratulate them. What a wonderful time for people of 32 nations to really get well acquainted with each other. Once again, the teams from Honduras and Belgium stole the show.

When they came to the podium to give their reports and tell what God is doing and what they are planning for outreaches in our nations, it seemed like everybody ran forward to take their pictures. It was incredible. The flash bulbs were flashing as the young people began to take their rightful place in this FGBMFI.

International Director's Meeting, London, England

January 29, 2000

Warp Speed Ahead

The International Directors from all parts of the world gathered for a bi-annual International Director's Meeting in London. This was led by our International President, Richard Shakarian, John Carrette, Executive Vice President, Kwabena Darko, International Secretary, and Tom Leding, International Treasurer. After introductions and a welcome by John Walker of the U.K., Richard Shakarian spoke of a new direction which has been given to the Fellowship. He shared God's plan for reaching an entire nation at a time.

For 50 years the Fellowship has followed the vision by reaching one or a few people at a time. This will continue through individual efforts in chapters, but now there is a positive new plan going on within the Fellowship, and that is to literally take nations for the Lord Jesus Christ. The first example that we have seen of this is the outreach in Nicaragua in 1998. Since that outreach started, over 200,000 people have made a commitment to the Lord Jesus. Our men are still bringing individuals to the Lord, but are now focusing on taking the nations. God is calling us to come up to a higher lever.

Latin America

Latin America is the number one growth area for the Fellowship in the world. This report was given by Humberto Arguello of Hondruas, Jaime Sol of El Salvador, Kiki Morales for the youth of Latin America, and John Carrette from Guatemala.

Some nations like Nicaragua are growing at the rate of 50% or more in less than a year's time. Their major problems are that they don't have enough people to open chapters fast enough and that the buildings where they are having their chapter meetings are too small. John Carrette mentioned how even churches are filling up with people they have not seen in many years, having renewed their commitment to God through the FGBMFI. The men of Nicaragua are determined that every place in Nicaragua – whether it be a crossroad, a village, a town, a city, or just a few homes – shall hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. Every month they are targeting one of their states or provinces. As a result, they believe that in the next two years, it will be possible that one million people will have come to Christ in Nicaragua alone.

Youth Explosion!

The star of the show were the young people from Honduras and Belgium. Kiki Morales, the International Director of Honduras and Joel Lagrand gave a report on touching the youth on two continents. Joel reported on their rally in Belgium, where 1200 young people gathered and many accepted the Lord. For Belgium, it was an absolute spiritual breakthrough!

Africa

The men from Africa shared about their recent convention in Lagos, Nigeria, for West Africa. "The Big One' with 30,000 at the stadium each night of the Convention. They experienced a 25% membership growth in one year, and now have over 15,000 due-paying members in addition to the thousands of Ladies' of the Fellowship, and the work beginning among the young people. No hotel in the nation is big enough to hold their conventions, so "The Big One" was held in a large stadium so that the 30,000 people who attended could get together and praise the Lord.

Reports given:

There were reports given about the Airlift outreaches, outreaches being done with the Godmobile, and assets now being pledged to the Fellowship.

London Chapter

There was a chapter meeting held Thursday night preceding the International Director's Meeting in the center of London, where approximately 220 people enjoyed a tremendous banquet. This represented the leadership throughout the London area, including the man running for Lord Mayor of London. The guest speaker was Richard Shakarian. Those who came were inspired and sensed a newness being established within the ranks of the Fellowship.

There was a tremendous spirit of worship at this meeting. Some people received the Lord Jesus as their Savior. There were people there from many different walks of life, including very high levels in London.

South England

Following the London meeting, Peter Spreckley, who is the International Director from the UK, Richard Shakarian and Ron Weinbender went to southern England. Peter had set up a meeting every night for three nights, with special events during the day. It was all wonderful. On the first night we went to a chapter meeting. A young man by the name of Greg Davies had been elected as chapter president. Previously the meetings were held in a smoke-filled tavern. Greg didn't think it was a proper place for a chapter meeting, so as soon as he was elected president, he joined the Yacht Club, even though he didn't have a yacht, and moved the chapter into the Yacht Club. It was the most incredible place. That chapter is going great guns. There were almost 100 people present at that meeting. That night a 24-year-old man, a graduating engineering student, received the Lord as his Savior. During one of the days we had a meeting with 24 men. It was all of the business leaders in a certain small community.

Later Peter Spreckley received a letter from one of the men who had attended that luncheon. He indicated that he had been impacted more by that meeting than any meeting in years.

During the day we did a television program. There was a man who had a television operation in Southern Spain, and he's opened up a production facility on the Isle of White, one of the Islands off the southern coast of England. He had Richard come in for an interview. Of course, he was extremely excited when he saw the 1999 Highlights of the Fellowship because that included some of the bilingual footage from Spanish to English, which he can easily broadcast. So, he is in the process of developing a new program including our 1999 Highlights, which he will be broadcasting in Southern Spain. So, it was a divine appointment to be able to meet this man. He will certainly help us in the country of Spain and throughout that part of the world through his television program.

We would like to extend a special thank you to the people who prepared the event in England -- Rodney Radcliff and his team there, Ulrich Sutter, Peter Spreckley, Graham, and Paul.

How Desperate Are You for God?

Revival isn't a game of chance. There are specific conditions that must be met if you want to experience a visitation of the Holy Spirit.

By Tommy Tenney

Charles Dickens opened his famous book A Tale of Two Cities with the statement, "It was the best of times--it was the worst of times." He was referring to the period of history immediately preceding and including the French Revolution. But his statement is equally applicable to the current day.

In many ways, it is both the "best of times" and the "worst of times" for the body of Christ. Why do I say this? Because some churches are experiencing tremendous growth and a tangible sense of God's presence, while others are experiencing a decline in attendance and an absence of awesomeness.

It is not always possible to determine why God brings revival in one place and not another. We can't definitively predict His movement any more than we can accurately predict the movement of the wind. But we can observe where the wind has blown hard and often before, and then plant ourselves in a likely place.

In doing so, we must be aware that God's logic is often in conflict with man's reasoning. That's because His perspective, unlike ours, is eternal.

We can't just say, "Well, sometimes He visits, and sometimes He doesn't." We need to permanently relinquish the "gambler's concept" that revival is hit-or-miss--maybe we'll get it, maybe we won't. Revival is very predictable as long as the conditions are met.

The Bible has an equation for how to bring the presence of God daily into our lives, our churches and our homes. God promises, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chr. 7:14). Humility plus prayer plus repentance--which are all the result of faith and hunger for God--equals revival.

Perhaps we can more adequately assess the potential for revival if we use these three principles as a determining factor:

1. God is more disposed to move on admitted emptiness (a sign of humility) than on presumed fullness. It is easier for Him to "break out" in a church that admits its emptiness than for Him to "break through" in a church that presumes its fullness. The former is aware of its need for Him; the latter is satisfied with what it has.

2. Faith and hunger can hasten a move of God. The opposite is also true: Unbelief and complacency, or self-satisfaction, can hinder it.

3. Repentance ranks higher in heaven than reputation.

The fires of revival ignite when the spark of God lands in the dry tinderbox of hungry, open hearts marked by true repentance.