Name – The name of the organization is International Leadership Training (abbreviated as ILT in this charter and elsewhere), a ministry of Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church (abbreviated as CEFC in this charter).
Purposes – The purposes of ILT shall include (but are not limited to):
- training current pastors and lay leaders for ministry throughout the world;
- developing next generation leaders for existing churches and church plants, alike
- helping to introduce and connect ILT’s contacts with Evangelical Free churches (or others who are like-minded) for support of all kinds and
- helping these churches affiliate with the Free church movement in their regions.
In this way, we hope to fulfill the Free Church vision of “multiplying healthy churches among all people”. The initial focus shall be on Slavic leaders and churches in the U.S. and abroad– with an ultimate goal of reaching restricted nations with the gospel of Christ.
Success Criteria – The success of the ILT in the U.S. will be evidenced by the development of strong Christian leaders and the establishment and/or growth of healthy slavic Evangelical churches, as shown by strong leadership and long term viability. Success outside of the U.S. will be evidenced by (a) nationals becoming better equipped to take active roles in ministry leadership and (b) the planting of Evangelical churches, with the support of healthy U.S. churches. The initial focus will be on Russian and Romanian-speaking peoples with the longer-term goal of expanding to restricted nations, including Muslim nations.
Organizational Structure – God’s purposes are at the heart of all ILT plans. The organizational structure of the ILT and its relationship to Cornerstone EFC is illustrated, in summary, in the attached Figure 1. Generally, ILT will operate under the oversight of the CEFC Elder Board, with CEFC’s Associate Pastor of Missions, Ion Cheptene, serving as ILT’s first Executive Director and the ILT Board of Directors serving in both advisory and supporting roles. The ILT Board shall initially consist of Pete Woods, Chairman; Jack Kennedy; John Ritland; Larisa Shevchenko; Janet Smith; Soman Varghese; and Cindy Gunderson.
Background – Today there are millions of immigrant families settling in North America, many of whom are Christians. Thousands of ethnic churches have been established, presenting unique challenges due to their ethnic diversity. These “challenges” include the needs for strong leadership and assistance in adapting to language and cultural differences. Practically, many of the ethnic youth are drawn away from these churches as these young people attempt to reconcile western, secular, lifestyles with values at family, ethnic, churches. As a result, churches with ethnic heritages often struggle for survival. This struggle is especially acute for those Slavic churches that originated at about the time of the flood of immigration following the fall of Communism in the early 1990’s.
CEFC has a vision for reaching out to as many of these ethnic churches as possible, in part because of the significant Russian and Romanian-speaking membership there. Over the past 15 years, Ion Cheptene has developed a network of Christian discipleship relationships throughout the U.S. and the world. Through the ILT, we hope to build on these relationships while providing access to leadership training, discipleship tools, partnerships with local EFCA churches and assistance in joining the EFCA, should that be an appropriate path.
Activities – The primary method of ILT ministry will be discipleship multiplication. This will take several forms: mentoring, leadership training (equipping) seminars, camp ministries and electronic relationships. The leadership training and camp ministries will require travel to sites around the country and overseas. The focus will be on developing next generation leaders for ethnic churches throughout the world. Supporting these ethnic churches and church plants will require the cooperation of EFCA regional superintendents/church planting missionaries as well as EFCA churches. Therefore, an important activity will be to develop relationships with EFCA leadership at the local, district, national and international levels.
Finances – An ILT budget shall be prepared on an annual basis with the goal of raising funds through donations from individuals, ethnic churches served by the ministry, and other interested organizations who view this as an effective mission outreach. A portion of funding will come from CEFC according to the ratio of time allocated to CEFC ministries.