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On February 8th, DAI launched a new website, la.daintl.org, focused on leadership development in Latin America. The new site features information in Spanish designed specifically for the DAI audience in Latin America. Senior Consultant for Latin America, David Johnson, has high hopes for the new site:

“If studies on the growth of Internet use in Latin America as noted in both the Miami Herald and the New York times in 2009 are anywhere near accurate, then the launch of the Spanish DAI website in January of 2010 is none too early. An on-line Spanish presence is key to giving interested parties quick and easy access to information about DAI and an understanding how those tools might benefit their own ministries. My prayer is that this site will broaden the awareness of tools available to organizations and individuals in the Christian Hispanic community throughout the region and that the Lord would use DAI to impact and strengthen the fast growing Latin American church in its global role of furthering God’s kingdom.”

Please pray for the effectiveness of this new website as DAI works to grow kingdom leaders in Latin America.

The Lausanne Movement and Christianity Today International are partnering to start the conversation in advance of the 2010 meeting of The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. In a recent communication, Christianity Today Editor-in-Chief David Neff wrote:

The idea began as a series of magazine articles that (by nature of CTI’s cultural location) would start pre-Cape Town discussion primarily in North America.  But as the Lausanne and CTI teams began to discuss the possibilities, it turned into a much more ambitious project that will not only take advantage of CTI’s print magazine and website, but will interactively coordinate comments on CTI and Lausanne web pages, produce relevant videos, publish online responses from Christian leaders, and distribute advance copy of the main essays and responses to over 60 Christian publications outside North America.

The conversation has already started with DAI UK board member Dr. Christopher J.H. Wright and his article Whole Gospel, Whole Church, Whole World. We invite you to read Dr. Wright’s article and join the conversation as we move toward this important event.

The Leadership Working Group for the Lausanne Movement met last month in Seoul, Korea along with many others, to plan for the 2010 Lausanne Congress. The topic was a paper titled Defining Christ-like Leadership and Describing Best Practices in Leadership Development submitted by DAI President Jane Overstreet. The paper is based on a 2008 leadership study completed by more than 1000 Christian leaders in 5 languages.

The research reveals a great deal about the current state of leadership in the global body of Christ, shedding light on the shape of Christ-like leadership, why leaders fail, and how to better prepare leaders for their calling. Among other things, the survey shows the critical need for leadership training in the areas of integrity and servant leadership.

The Leadership Working Group is currently editing the paper for presentation at the 2010 Congress. Pray that the information presented at the 2010 Congress will help those attending to take strategic action so that our common goal may be fulfilled: The Whole Church taking the Whole Gospel to the Whole World.

In February 2009, DAI became an Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). ECFA is an accreditation agency dedicated to ensuring that Christian ministries apply high standards of financial accountability. Their members consist of leading Christian nonprofit organizations that faithfully demonstrate compliance with ECFA’s established standards for financial accountability, fund-raising and board governance. This means that DAI is committed to openly, truthfully, responsibly, and accurately handling financial contributions. It is encouraging to have an independent source confirm that we have managed well the resources that God has provided.

Click here to view our membership profile on the ECFA website.