Gospel Unity: The Relational Nature of the European Leadership Forum
In Philippians, Paul exhorts believers to set aside their differences and pursue unity in their “partnership in the Gospel.” (1) Over the past 15 years, the European Leadership Forum (the Forum) has brought together hundreds of Evangelical leaders from over 40 countries at its annual conference and year-round events in pursuit of this Gospel unity.
The Forum attempts to minimize the conflict and divisions caused by denominational or cultural differences by grounding the Forum content in core biblical principles and by pointing participants toward a united vision of re-evangelizing Europe and renewing the biblical church. Out of this conference has come a partnership movement – an estimated 850 events, seminars, and speaking engagements occur throughout the year in participants’ home countries as a result of connections formed at the Forum annual meeting.
The European Leadership Forum came out of a desire to cultivate relationships. In 1999, after completing his PhD and then spending 3 years as COO of an investment firm, Greg Pritchard began teaching at colleges and universities across Europe. Within a matter of months, Greg met two Christian counsellors who had been in ministry for over a decade and were wrestling with the same challenges in the midst of a secular culture. Even though these two leaders lived only two hours apart, they had never met each other. Greg was struck by this: “They couldn’t help each other. They couldn’t share best practices. They couldn’t encourage each other.” (2)
“The Forum seeks to create a place to foster life-long friendships, regional ministry partnerships and continent-wide collaboration
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Greg realized that the problem of isolation for ministry leaders was pervasive across Europe. Greg brought this problem to Nick Nedelchev, then president of the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA), and asked if the EEA could start Europe-wide networks for leaders to connect with others in their area of specialty. Nedelchev agreed with Greg that such networks were necessary and asked him, “Could you help us do this? Could you start an annual conference with networks to unite and train leaders?” In response in 2002, Greg gathered a group of European leaders to plan and host an apologetics network for over 100 apologists from 20 countries.
The leadership team Greg brought together for this conference had a strong sense afterwards that the Lord had used the apologetics network in a powerful way, and expanded it into an annual meeting with multiple networks to train leaders in different callings. The Forum annual meeting has now grown to 28 networks and will host over 740 hand-picked leaders from 50 countries in May 2017.
The Forum seeks to create a place to foster the life-long friendships, regional ministry partnerships, and continent-wide collaboration necessary to work towards the vision of re-evangelizing Europe and renewing the biblical church. The networks allow participants to learn from and connect with others in their field to be trained, supported and encouraged in their ministry calling. Participants have the opportunity to receive formal mentoring from an experienced leader. Through casual conversations with other leaders, participants receive a broadened perspective on the powerful ways in which God is working through other ministries, organizations and churches across Europe.
A commitment to sacrifice is a crucial part of the Forum’s collaborative nature. Network leaders and speakers volunteer their time and resources throughout the year and pay their own conference and travel costs in order to train and mentor others at the Forum. In this way, leaders come to the Forum both to receive encouragement and to serve the body of Christ. This posture of service does not end after the Forum annual meeting. All participants are expected to share what they have gained with their churches and ministries.
The impact of the relationships built at the Forum extends far beyond the annual meeting. According to research at the 2016 Forum, participants form an average of 7.4 new significant relationships as a result of the Forum.(3) These relationships increase collaborative ministry efforts across Europe. Because of their involvement in the Forum, 84.9% of Forum participants say that they plan to connect with other participants to build new ministry partnerships.(4) Many Forum leaders travel and provide unpaid speaking events, training, and mentoring to other leaders from the Forum and their communities throughout the year.
Finally, five National Forums modelled on the European Leadership Forum have replicated this concept in order to provide contextualized training and networking opportunities to even more participants in their native country and language. One of these Forums, the Russian-language Eastern European Leadership Forum, has over 600 participants with network tracks unique to their cultural context.
God is working through the relationships formed at the Forum to encourage European Evangelicals and to reach nonbelievers with the good news of the Gospel.
Katrina Kessler serves as a research assistant for the Forum of Christian Leaders, sponsor of the European Leadership Forum. Katrina earned her Master’s in Intercultural Studies from Wheaton College and currently lives in Wheaton, Illinois.
1 Philippians 1:5.
2 Pritchard, Greg. “European Leadership Forum Vision and Strategy.” 25 May 2013. FOCL Online. <http://foclonline.org/interview/european-leadership-forums-vision-and-strategy>.
3 An independent research firm, Dialogues in Action, conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the Forum in 2016.
4 Research by Dialogues in Action.
The European Leadership Forum is sponsored by the Forum of Christian Leaders. To learn more about the European Leadership Forum, visit their website at euroleadership.org. To access their resources year-round, visit foclonline.com.