ILU - How Christian Professionals Can Reach Leaders At Work

www.cremministry.org

Transcript

Vision For A Lasting Church

SPEAKER_03 0:58

As we continue to trust God to reach everyone in the country and make sure that a vital church is planted to be able to conserve the fruit going forward. So allow me to now move to the next um section. And

Marketplace Impact For Christ

SPEAKER_03 1:14

this section is about impacting the marketplace for Christ. I will go ahead and share my screen. And so majority of the members of Krem are professionals. And so the whole idea of impacting the marketplace for Christ, I believe, is a subject that is of great interest to you. Okay.

Zacchaeus And Reaching Leaders

SPEAKER_03 1:46

And so I'd like us to start in Luke chapter 19. We're going to read from verse 1 to 10 as we answer the question why should we reach leaders? Why should we reach leaders? So in Luke 19:10, we get to read about one of Jesus' outreach missions, uh, so to speak. Okay. And so it says in verse number one that Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. And a man there by the name of Zacchaeus, he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. And when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter. If I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. So, why should we reach leaders? It is very clear from this story that Zacchaeus was a leader in this society. He was a tax collector. Maybe if it was in our day, we know which organization he would be working for. Okay. And with the different opinions that Kenyans have about the question of taxes, you can be sure that maybe he was not a very popular person in the community. He was channel by many. But Jesus passes by this day and takes note of him. And it is clear that Zacchaeus, God had was working in Zacchaeus' heart, God had prepared him. And Jesus says, I'm going to come to your house today. And that day Zacchaeus confesses his sins. And he becomes a child of God. He gets into God's kingdom. And, you know, right there he talks about how he is going to correct his ways. And, you know, he talks about giving away half of his possessions to the poor. You can imagine just how many families were impacted by this, the action of this one man coming to Christ on that particular day.

Four Reasons Leaders Matter

SPEAKER_03 4:42

So maybe four quick reasons why it is critical that we reach leaders. Number one is that leaders are the most influential people in society. But yet, as we know, they are among the least reached. And we know that the number one unriched people groups, they tend to be in the frontier areas, the areas that are difficult to reach. In our country, that would be places like northeastern Kenya, northern Kenya, some parts of the coast province, you know, um, those are the number one and rich people groups in very difficult places to reach. But guess who then who is then guess who is the number two least rich people group? The number two group is leaders. Okay. And for many of them, it is largely because of the same reasons. It is difficult to reach them. Some of them you have to secure an appointment way way in advance to be before you meet with them. Many of them live in gated communities with very high walls. It is not as easy to get across to them. They are difficult to reach. In the field of myssiology, we actually say that, you know, leaders are the next most least rich people group after the people in the frontier areas. Yet, the paradox in this is that next to every leader who doesn't know Christ typically is another professional who works with them. And they spend time together Monday to Friday doing professional work. But many times, many believers don't bridge that gap between they that believe and those that don't yet believe. And so leaders remain enriched. Most influential people in society, yet among the least reached. But the second reason that we must all seriously think about and why we should take seriously the issue of reaching our fellow professionals, reaching leaders, is because we know that when you change a leader, you can impact a community and you can transform a nation. A third reason from the kingdom building perspective is the unique contribution that leaders make to the work of kingdom building. Leaders are able to contribute leadership. Leaders are able to contribute influence, leaders are able to contribute finances, leaders are able to contribute expertise. One of the reasons Krem has continued being sustainable as a ministry for many years is because of the involvement of professionals who come with their leadership. They come with their influence, they come with their expertise, they come with their finances. And you ask yourself, how would it look like for the body of Christ if we had many more professionals engaged in the work of the kingdom?

The Leader Impact Cycle

SPEAKER_03 7:29

But finally, as professionals, the marketplace is our mission because we spend most of our week there. And so in LIDA in life ministry, we have a department that we call Leader Impact. And so that is the marketplace ministry of Life Ministry Kenya. And our mission is to help leaders grow personally, professionally, and spiritually for increasing impact in their spheres of influence. When you look at that circle, it talks about those three spheres: the professional, the personal, the spiritual. So if you're growing in all of those areas intentionally, and if those areas are integrated, that is when impact is multiplied. I have a video here which we will not have the time to watch. But I'll just say that we work with an impact cycle that goes through four steps. For us to be able to effectively engage the marketplace, the starting point usually is uh uh envisioning believers in the marketplace regarding the fact that the marketplace is their mission field. And once we have a good number of um leaders who have caught the vision, we then take them through trainings. We've developed tools and trainings on how to be able to share your faith in the workplace, how to make disciples in the workplace, how to have kingdom impact for Christ in the workplace. So once we have a good number of people that are trained, we then run events, uh outreach events where these Christian professionals invite their friends who don't yet know Christ to a place where they can get to hear the gospel uh shared in the marketplace setting. And then we run groups. And these groups provide a platform for evangelism, they are a great place for leaders to grow personally, professionally, and spiritually for increasing impact. But these leaders, these groups also serve the purpose of evangelism. So they are unique groups where and believers are welcome. And what we have found is that for many professionals, when they find an environment with fellow professionals whom they respect and whom they trust, they find that to be a safe space for them to explore the relevance of faith in their personal and professional lives.

Kevin On Faith At Work

SPEAKER_03 9:50

So I'm going to stop here and invite my friend Kevin Kinusu. So Kevin is on the what we call the City Team for Leader Impact. Um, Kevin leads one of the um organizations that is working in the um bioenergy sector. You will correct me if I got that wrong. And so he's a professional in that sector, and he's part of the team that is giving leadership to Leader Impact in Nairobi. So he's going to share with us just his experience uh as a professional who's seeking to impact at the marketplace for Christ and how uh Leader Impact has been a platform that has enabled him to be able to have an impact uh for Christ.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Over to you, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Thank you so much, uh Robert. And also I want to acknowledge the my Vice Chancellor, uh Professor Tim, uh for giving me also the opportunity to serve at ILU. Uh I have always wanted to uh live a meaningful and purposeful life. And just in the context of Krem, I was just trying to uh remember when was the last time I actually did high school ministry, given the testimony that was given by Isaac in the beginning. And then I remembered that uh the last time uh I organized or I was part of a high school ministry was in 2013. In 2013, me together with my wife are married to one wife, we are blessed with two children, and we are all born again and love to serve God. So me and my wife, together with a couple of uh our friends uh from the university, we organized for a mission uh in uh gateway girls, and of course, it was a great word of God to realize that the young girls in high school are really looking uh uh the chance to find people who they can look up to who are seemingly doing well in their professional growth and love the Lord, for them to believe that it is possible to, you know, love the Lord, walk right and stay satisfied. But uh as life would have it, I mean, it was not possible for us to continue organizing for these missions, you know, uh because uh people are growing their professional ladder, people are getting busy. I was working for an international organization, then traveling, you know, every other week outside the country. And this really brought some bit of you know uh guilt, you know, uh in me because ever since I uh got born again, I've always been out in missions through my primary school life, high school life, and also my campus life, of course, working uh underlife ministry Kenya. So I felt at some point in 2013, 2014, 2015 that I'm really not doing enough with what the Lord has put in my heart. I'm not sharing, you know, um, yeah, sure. Let me probably get closer to the hope everyone can hear now. So I felt I felt like I'm really not pissing up with uh a meaningful and purposeful life, which is you know, uh sharing this place and the space of Jesus Christ in my life as I, you know, live my family life and my career life. So this is where uh leader impact and of course involvement with the leadership, leader strategy with life ministry came in to fill the gap. In 2018, uh I was challenged to be part of uh the leader impact movement, you know, and uh one of the things that really is very clear and very true is that an average Kenyan, an average Kenyan today spends between two to five hours in church per week. But the same Kenyan, average Kenyan, spends 40 to 50 hours a week at work, either in their business, in their employed environment, and all that. So with Leader Impact, it actually became apparent and very clear to me that as a believer and a person who loves sharing the gospel, the Lord has actually given me a platform which has more time bandwidth for gospel sharing than what I traditionally believed or thought was the platform to share the gospel. Because I linked my outreach and evangelism to, you know, uh uh to my home local church. Uh I fellowship at Gospel Centers International Kittengela, and I serve as a deacon in charge of fellowships in my church. So I realized with Little Impact that God has actually given me a platform, 40 to 50 hours a day, a week, to share the gospel. But the big question was how do I do this? Because you cannot get into the office and say, uh, colleagues, uh, praise the Lord. Uh, this morning uh I have a word for you. It feels weird. Some people feel like their space has been infringed upon, it brings tension to relationships. So one of the things that I've learned under Leader Impact is how to share the gospel. In the 40 to 50 hours I spend in the marketplace, there's a training that we go through, it's called Venture, and that enables you as a marketplace leader in whatever capacity you are in. Currently, I'm managing director for Africa Bioenergy Programs Limited. We are operating in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. And we are supporting, you know, over 24,000 uh households, uh, supporting them with access to biodigester clean cooking energy as a solution. So depend it does not matter which level you are in, with the training from Venture, I'm able to convert my day-to-day conversations into meaningful and intentional relationships that draw people to be curious about my faith. And that is one of the best gifts and one of the best opportunities that God has given me through Leader Impact. Because I'm now, I don't have any excuse that there's no time to share the gospel because I'm busy in the work. The dichotomy of being a professional and a minister is now gone because God has actually brought it very clear that the place where He has planted me, you know, as a leader in the renewable energy sector, is actually my field for harvest.

Growth Giving And Fruitfulness

SPEAKER_01 17:05

So there are three things that I've personally gained being part of leader impact. Number one is growth, because leader impact is not just about you being, you know, sent to preach the gospel, but the beginning of it is the cycle that Malusi was alluding to. How can I, as a leader, first of all, grow? Because if I don't grow, then I don't build value to transmit to others. And the growth dimensions are personally have built very meaningful relationships while in leader impact. I've met very, you know, uh uh uh impactful, you know, leaders like you know, Dr. Nelson Kourier, who is a very, you know, impactful leader in the insurance sector and has lived, you know, a legacy of you know being a leader of integrity and transforming very many people in the insurance, insurance sector. I've met you know, leaders like uh Justice Musinga, who is the president of the High Court, and you know, just sitting at his feet and learning from him. So uh personally have built very good, meaningful relationships. And this is a big gap to many leaders because leaders want to network and they want to meet with peers who can, you know, give them peer advice and you know, point them to opportunities. But as believers in the marketplace, sometimes you look around and we don't know where to find believers who share the same values as us. No, being part of Leader Impact enables me, you know, when I turn to my left, I see a leader who loves the Lord, who is uh, you know, an established leader, living a life of integrity and has opened up their life for me to interact with them and for us to learn between uh to learn to learn uh you know from each other. So personally, building meaningful relationships has been a big gift for me. Number two, of course, professionally, we are challenged. All our outreach events and our visioning events are events that are professionally uh organized, and we get to hear a professional business talk. So I've really grown uh apart from now the up-close mentorship from other leaders, as I've mentioned. You know, and of course, one of the biggest opportunities I got, I've always wanted to teach, you know, and it's truly the impact and my link with like Ministry Kenya that I got the opportunity to now, you know, be part of the faculty of international leadership university, which I'm really grateful to God about because I love teaching. And uh this opportunity has come, and now I'm growing my profession beyond just being a renewable and sustainability expert. I can also uh uh venture into the academic world and do what I'm passionate about. The second thing that uh as a leader I've uh I've experienced uh under the leader impact is what I call giving. You know, uh knowing that giving to the Lord is very, very broad as a leader or as a marketplace leader, because expertise in the kingdom of God is a ministry tool. Leadership and the influence that we have, linking people opening doors is a ministry tool. And most of us who are believers in the marketplace and probably have been limited, our minds are limited to just the probably the Sunday service ministry. We don't know that we have four critical ministry tools that we can use. I've opened my office for Life Ministry, Kenya, you know, interns from different countries from South Africa. I think there was a mission that came to Kenya, and they came to my office to learn about the renewable energy sector and how we support communities and our model of working. And there are some master students who are, you know, looking at, you know, using that as their case study in their in their dissertations. So the leadership that we have is actually a ministry tool that can be used to serve others, and the finances that we have can also be used as ministry tools. And I think I've I've gotten an opportunity to give purposefully and meaningfully and of course see the fruitfulness that comes with that, given my leadership, my influence, my expertise, and my finances. And the last thing is uh being fruitful. I think we all want to see results, and leaders are people who want to see results. I've seen fruitfulness in my ministry, you know, even in the marketplace. Currently, I have the privilege to serve as the Leader Impact Next uh patron. Leader Impact Next is the arm of Leader Impact that looks at young professionals. Uh we started with one visioning event, an event where we invited young professionals in the marketplace who are believers and we want to plug in into active engagement in sharing the gospel. And from that, we managed, by the grace of God, to have 36 young professionals who are saying, I'm willing to be part of the leader impact movement and share the gospel in the marketplace. And for me, that is religious because that is fruitfulness. Today, we have five active young professional leader impact groups. And these are not just groups that meet, you know, to socialize and feel warm, but they are groups that are intentional about doing outreach events to reach out to other leaders in the marketplace. Remember, we want to optimize the 40 to 50 hours that all of us who are professionals have with the harvest. You know, and we want to encourage all believers who are in the marketplace, that the Sunday and Saturday ministry is not enough with the urgency that is there for the harvest. And that is what really excites me about Leader Impact, that I'm able to grow, I'm able to give, you know, uh meaningfully and purposefully, and I'm able to be fruitful, even as a marketplace leader. And that guilt of I'm not doing enough has been lifted because God has opened my eyes. That as a marketplace leader, I have the most open, reliable, you know, and you know, and uh available pulpit and podium to share the gospel and the tools and the skills and the materials and the modules to help us as marketplace leaders to use the same are there and available with life ministry. And once you go through the different trainings, it's so easy because we also understand that it's not uh by our strength, but it is by the power and the uh ability that the Holy Spirit gives us, and he already has done the conversations with the people for us, it's just to go and uh you know uh proclaim what he has already started speaking to the hearts of the leaders. I think Buddha said I want to stop there because of time and hopefully that has uh uh brought in a picture of uh the opportunity that God has provided through life ministry Kenya under the leader impact uh movement.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

Uh Kevin, you're now muted.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

No, I'm not on mute. Can you hear me now?

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Yes, yes, we can hear you, Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah, I was just saying that we um I'm challenging all professionals that if you felt like Saturday and Sunday are not enough, you know, to go for those missions and outreach, and sometimes you know, getting time from work is a barrier to ministry. Just remember that God has given you a pulpit and a harvest right where you are from Monday to Friday, 40 to 50 hours a week to share the gospel. And if you don't uh know where to start, Leader Impact movement has materials, you know, uh trainings and uh and tools that can help you do just that. God bless you.

unknown 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:50

Okay. Uh thank you very much, uh brother Kevin, for sharing. I think that makes it very clear what uh Leader Impact does and how we can serve you as we partner together to impact the marketplace for

ILU Programs And How To Start

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Christ. As we bring our sharing to the end, we have our final colleague from International Leadership University, our brother Tumaini, who will just come and let us know, those of us that may be keen to take advantage of the opportunities at International Leadership University regarding where you can start. And so would like to now invite Tumaini to share. And once Tumaini is done, we'll be back to you, Brother Isaac, so that you can then guide us through the QA and we can take the meeting towards a close. So over to you, Tumaini.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

Okay, thank you so much, uh Mr. Balusi. And uh good evening to everyone on uh the platform. It's a great opportunity to be part of you this evening. My name is uh Tumaini Suji. I serve uh with the International Leadership University in the Program Information Office. And uh this evening I'm here representing our Deputy Vice Chancellor Advancement, Dr. Uh Beatrice Martin Jenga. Uh as a as a division and uh specifically in the program information office, what we do is uh inform uh our prospects what we offer as international leadership university. So as international leadership university, we offer we have three schools. Uh our first school is uh the School of Uh Theology and Christian Ministry. Under this school, we offer different programs from uh certificate level to PhD level. That's in our theological studies. So we have a certificate in theology, a diploma in theology, a bachelor in theology, a master in biblical and theological studies, and a master of programs are offered uh online too. So one only comes to campus during the orientation time, that is when one comes to get his or her systems uh sorted out. That's the library, and everything that you'll be using for your studies. Under the other school, we have in International Leadership University, we have the School of Uh Leadership and Governance. Uh, under this school, we have uh quite a lot. So we have uh from the certificate level to the PhD level. So at certificate, it is leadership studies. Then at a diploma, we have a diploma in leadership. Then when you get to the bachelor's level, we have a bachelor of leadership and management. And uh now when we get to the master's level, it is uh more uh spread out because now we have a master of leadership studies, but now under leadership studies we have different concentration areas, which are uh under the master's level, we have uh management being a concentration area, then we have uh organizational leadership being another concentration area, and being a Christian institution, we also have Christian ministry being a uh concentration area. So those are the three concentration areas for the master's level of study. Then at the PhD level of study, that is a PhD in leadership, we have four concentration areas, one being uh public governance again, one being another being uh uh corporate leadership, then we have also Christian ministry, and finally we have educational leadership. So we've had all we have we have these programs running again online. So you can do the program uh from the comfort of your home. That is, you can access your library from the comfort of your home. You don't have to come to ILU. The only time we shall require you at ILU is during the orientation time, which is mandatory. That's when you come to get your system sorted out, especially for our online students. That's your classes, because you'll also bring your you'll also be doing your exams online. Then our final school, we have the school of uh education and social sciences. This school has a lot, it has our ICT programs. We have three ICT programs, which is uh we have uh we have information, a certificate in information technology, we have a certificate in data science and machine learning and AI, and finally, you have a certificate in uh cybersecurity and digital forensics. Those are the ICT programs we have. Then we also have one environmental course under the same school. We have a certificate in climate change, sustainability, and environmental, the CSG program. All these programs can be done online. Uh, under the same school, we have the certificate in counseling, we have a diploma in counseling tool. Then at bachelor's level, we have a bachelor of arts in counseling psychology. Uh, we have a master's tool of counseling, so we have counseling up to the master's level. If we had it, it would have been our third PhD, but we have it up to the master's level. All these programs are, yes, we have fee which is paid for one to do these programs. But one thing with ILU is uh we try to help our students. Uh we know the times are also not easy. So we help our students uh in uh having a flexible mode of payment. So one can pay his or her fee in installments, up to three installments. So to get started with us, even in any academic program, you can get uh you can pay your fee in three installments, or you can do one payment or one or one payment at once. So any of the three works for us. All these programs are offered online or physically, depending on what works for you. We want to be as flexible as possible so that we can also meet your needs. So we cooperate from our side, and you also we believe at the end of the day, once uh uh we start up the program with you, we've had quite a number of our students join the program and uh recommend others to come and join ILU, come and join ILU to pursue their studies. So as you study with ILU, you can also recommend others to come over. We give you a discount of 9%. So even if you have not joined us, but you know someone who wants to pursue any of our programs, you can recommend them to ILU. Under token of appreciation, we give back of 9% so that you're able to. It's just a token of appreciation showing that uh you've recruited a student to us. So generally, that is what we do as ILU in uh the program information office, and we are open for any event. In case you have an event and you believe our programs are going to be of value or would like us to be known outside here, you can just give us a call. I'll be sharing our contact down here. Um, we are available anytime you give a call, we schedule all to our calendars. And uh, yes, we I believe we shall be interacting more. And I would like to give a special thank you to Mr. Robert Balusi and uh seen our vice chancellor here for Team Kiruhi. I'm very grateful for this opportunity to be part of this and just share what we offer as

Final Thanks And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 31:55

ILU. Thank you and have a blessed evening.