Global Refugee Leadership Training
Vision
The Global Refugee Leadership Team partners with other missions and refugee organizations in the development of a global network to provide accessible biblical training to refugees who will become Christ-like servant-leaders and equip them to entrust what they have learned to succeeding generations of believers in Athens, in faith communities at strategic stations on the “refugee highway” and in their home countries.
Our dream is that God will use our small team to mentor committed believers in the basics of the Christian life and ministry and help equip them for an ongoing biblically-based ministry or wherever God leads them.
Need
Introducing the Refugee Highway
Hopelessness caused by war, violence, persecution, famine and economic despair has driven over 37 million people to make the desperate decision to flee from their homelands. (World Refugee Survey 2002, USCR) Those that are able set out for countries rumored to offer the hope of a normal life. There are some well-worn paths around the world that these refugees travel upon. 
Entrust's Global Refugee Leadership Training Team in Athens, Greece continues to focus on innovative ways to develop servant-leaders among the transient refugee population. After concentrating their efforts on a small group of key believers at the ARC (Athens Refugee Center) for several years, they were invited by the leadership of International Teams to help launch a six month Intensive Biblical Studies (IBS) course for Farsi-speaking refugees in 2003. The IBS course that began in April 2003 meet two evenings per week and included one hour of topical study and one hour of inductive Bible study.
The most crucial need among refugee Christians is for mature, balanced servant-leaders who are able to entrust biblical truth to succeeding generations of believers in such a way that spiritual multiplication will take place in refugee faith communities. Most existing ministries to refugees tend to focus on humanitarian needs and on evangelism. Much of the leadership training that takes place is dependent on missionaries to do the teaching, and many of the materials are arranged topically. As a result, refugee Christian leaders tend to be dependent on training programs that were designed for western cultural situations and on the continued supervision of western missionaries.
We have observed that many refugees who are selected to be “leaders” of faith communities tend to be spiritually immature, unable to teach the Scriptures effectively and prone to a dictatorial leadership style.
Our team has become increasingly aware of the need for solid, balanced refugee Christian leaders who are willing and able to serve the body of Christ by modeling godly character and entrusting teachable believers with the capacity to feed themselves and others from the Scriptures. We have also observed the awareness of this need on the part of several missionaries and Greek evangelical pastors in Athens and have begun pursuing ways to work together toward the goal of equipping refugee Christian leaders who are committed to a biblical philosophy of spiritual multiplication. We have also initiated a taskforce that is intended to enable Christians involved in refugee training to learn from one another’s experiences.
Solution
To accomplish this vision, the Global Refugee Leadership Training team will concentrate on the following strategic areas:
- Solicit and maintain a global network of prayer partners for the GRLT ministry.
- Mentor a handful of present and potential servant-leaders in the Athens refugee faith community and entrusting them with the spiritual maturity, biblical understanding and ministry skills and motivation necessary to pass on what they have learned to succeeding generations of refugee believers.
- Collaborate with like-minded mission organizations and churches to equip refugee Christian leaders in Athens and at other strategic locations on the "refugee highway".