BY GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION NETWORK

Fundamentals for National Transformation

DISCOVER HOW THE NATIONS HAVE BEEN CHANGED BY THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE

Welcome to our Course

Dear friends,

It is a great privilege to serve you in this experience between the Global Transformation Network and the countries of your region or continent. Since we started in 2012, we have trained people in various parts of the world, including Colombia, Brazil, the Philippines and several republics in Central Asia, but we have never done training with a strategic focus on the 7 spheres using the 5 Signs &Stages/Levels (the 7M-5S strategy). It is a great joy to start a partnership with you; we hope it will last and that God will use it to generate leadership development behind the scenes in the Body of Christ in the various regions of the world.

My heart is inspired seeing the quality of men and women—people like you—that God is raising up to be mentoring leaders around the world and creating a network of influence in the 7 spheres of influence. God has brought us together here in Singapore to take another step towards serving in the formation of this leadership in the Pacific region.

We pray that these days together will be transformative for all of us and filled with the presence of the Spirit. We ask that God find us individually and collectively. This work cannot be done in the flesh, so we commit ourselves to prayer, coming to you in humility and dependence on the Spirit.

We are arriving with joyful expectations. We come with a heart and vision to serve you. I trust you will see this in our hearts. Please join us in praying as we spend our days together that God does indeed fulfill his purposes among us.

Confident in his wondrous love,

Dr. Mark Beliles

Mark Beliles

man holding his chin facing laptop computer

It may surprise the reader but there has never been an example in history where simply a large number of Christians, mega-churches, and so-called “revivals” has completely transformed a nation. An exhaustive study of countries around the world over the two millennia of Christianity confirms that only when such growth also includes an intentional strategy to train and place networked teams of leaders in the most influential institutions of culture does Christianity bring significant change in nations.

So many books and courses are available that do a great job at explaining the importance of prayer, evangelism and planting churches. To bring full transformation and reformation to a nation, we must first transform the beliefs of the people of a nation. This will occur as we preach the gospel, as Jesus commanded, and then teach believers how to live out the truth of the Bible in their everyday life. 2 Chronicles 7:14 reveals to us the importance of repentance and prayer for the transforming of nations. This is obviously where all godly change must begin. No permanent positive change will occur without a heart change first occurring in the citizens of a nation.

But after God changes the hearts of men, what then? When men are changed, their families, businesses, schools, churches, neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, and nations should also change. But this does not always happen today. True revival and awakening will have impact on these areas of culture and their institutions. Second Corinthians 3:17 says that “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” This is true for both men and nations. As the gospel goes into a man’s heart, he is changed. He is not perfect, but a new source of authority is established for determining decisions and values for the future. Likewise, as the gospel is infused in the life of nation, the potential for change comes. But for that to really happen, a strategy must be in place.

I, Mark, have been traveling in over 70 nations and working with leaders since the 1980s and have proven the reality of these observations. This course will seek to build on these and focus on those other tasks that are much too often ignored and de-emphasized by the modern church, but faithfully accomplished by the historic church. We will look at the fundamental best-practices that were followed by the historical church to significantly transform culture. In the Great Commission found at the end of the Gospels Jesus made it clear that evangelism and church had a purpose: to “go . . .and make disciples of all the nations,” by “teaching them to observe all that [He] commanded” (Matthew 28:19). To disciple a nation it is best to break it down to its most essential parts. Besides the church, there are at least six other major areas of influence in culture:

Family
Education
Health
Business
Government
Arts/media/entertainment.

Earlier writers and thinkers such as the Dutchman Abraham Kuyper over a century ago spoke of these “domains” or “spheres” of authority and jurisdiction (and Francis Schaeffer, Loren Cunningham, Bill Bright and others have used similar terms and lists in the 1980s). I, Mark Beliles, and Stephen McDowell began teaching about these 7 areas and were the first in recent times to publish books on the reformation of all these 7 areas (with a brief overview of many nations in history where Christianity did bring major change). Since their books emerged around 1990 onward, many people today now teach this way. Popular speakers and books in recent years (such as C. Peter Wagner, Lance Wallnau and Johnny Enlow) have called these the seven “spheres” of culture (or call them “gates” or ‘pillars”).