In his book he shares an incredible campaign that he led in 2002 called “Sunrise Africa.” How Bekele led this campaign is indeed a model of Leading With Questions!
This was a vision of incredible magnitude to reach 50 million people with the gospel in 50 major cities in 50 days in 23 countries in Africa. The cities stretched from Cape Town, South Africa, to Asmara, Eritrea, and from Windhoek, Namibia, to Port Louis, Mauritius. The rallying cry of the vision, which became known as “Operation Sunrise Africa” or simply “Operation Sunrise,” was simple: Help accelerate evangelism, discipleship and missions in Southern and Eastern Africa through a 50-50-50 strategy.
The vision of Operation Sunrise Africa was inspired by a Bible verse: “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.” Malachi 4:2
How Bekele led this effort is so contrary to how most leaders would carry out their Vision. Most would develop a detailed plan of what they would want everyone to do and then would pull together groups of people to tell them exactly what they would need to do if they wanted to be involved in this campaign.
But this is not what Bekele did! Instead Bekele led with questions at every level. In his book, Bekele shares 3 sets of questions that he used to lead this campaign that resulted in giving ownership to all involved:
The participants deliberated in small groups on the content of the conference and answered five questions — questions designed to help participants not only understand, refine and own the vision but also commit themselves and their resources toward its fulfillment.
Here are the 5 questions:
Through small group discussions and reflections at the plenary sessions, the participants suggested additional ideas and strategies, developed guiding principles for partnerships, identified possible challenges as well as preventive measures, and committed to mobilize necessary resources from their organizations and cities. Answering those five questions became a common practice in all the subsequent planning meetings in every country and city.
At the end of the conference, everyone felt a great excitement, unity and commitment to do whatever necessary to implement the vision in all the cities.
Leaders and organizations with similar interests or emphases formed a task force and developed their own plans and budgets. To help guide their planning process, task forces were given a template with 10 questions:
During the campaign, about half a million Christians were trained and mobilized, and as mentioned earlier, 10,000 people helped give leadership to 2,000 task forces. Over 250 executive outreach dinners and luncheons were organized to reach professionals, diplomats, and business and government executives. Over 400 leaders from Africa and around the world participated as speakers at those events. More than 2,000 people and multiple churches from outside Africa got involved,56 including the United States, Canada, South Korea, Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and several European countries. The Jesus Film Project from the United States provided language translations, film prints, DVDs and equipment necessary to show the “JESUS” film. They raised more than $8 million with about 70 percent raised locally from the cities. God promised the Israelites through the prophet Malachi, “The Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.” God fulfilled this promise as well. Generous partners, primarily from the United States, brought their financial offerings in righteousness and partnered in various cities.
The amazing campaign of the 50 days came to an end on August 19, 2002, and Bekele and his team started gathering reports. In almost every aspect they had surpassed our goals. For example, they had hoped to reach 50 million people with the gospel, but our follow-up reports totaled 64.5 million people, with 1.72 million people praying to invite Jesus into their life. Several cities not included in the original list of 50 joined the campaign, and our teams showed the “JESUS” film more than 8,000 times. In some of the cities, they saw decision rates ranging from 50 percent (in Zomba, Malawi) to 86 percent (in Eldoret, Kenya). Truly, the harvest was ripe in Africa. In addition to numerical results, they received hundreds of stories of faith and courage, sacrificial giving, leadership development, and the power of unity. Many lives were changed, and Christians became effective in sharing the gospel because they were trained.
Although you might never be leading a campaign to transform an entire continent, the multiple examples of how Bekele led with questions at every level of Operation Sunrise Africa can be used by all of us to give ownership to everyone involved at every level of your organization!
Bekele Shanko is the Vice President for Global Church Movements for Cru. Bekele also serves as President of the Global Alliance for Church Multiplication (GACX), a global network of church-planting organizations, which he helped to launch in 2011 and is also the President of the Global Academy for Transformational Leadership (GATL), which he founded in 2008.
What I have shared here is just a small part of the incredible story of Bekele’s life – which he shares in his book, “Never Alone – from Ethiopian Village to Global Leader.” Click HERE to order you book today!
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