Capitol Ministries

Local Government | CM 2019 15 "For the past year I have had the privilege of leading a Local Government Ministries (LGM) Bible study to elected leaders in greater Sacramento, CA. We have been studying Oaks in Office which contains 52 Bible studies that Ralph has taught to national leaders in Washington, D.C. It has been a great journey! I have seen much spiritual maturation and a Christian worldview form and develop in the lives of these leaders as we plumb the depths of God's Word together. I also have the privilege of training future local government ministry leaders and helping them through the certification process. Our vision and prayer is to see God raise up thousands of LGM leaders nationwide." Dr. Dan DeShong Director of Leader Certification Local Government Ministries T omorrow's leaders of the United States are working today in the city halls and county chambers of small- town America. at is what studies show and that is why we are committed to creating discipleship ministries to lo- cal leaders all across America. rough 2019 we worked to establish an efficient meth- odolog y to enable us to effectively create discipleship min- istries to city and county council members, mayors, judges, and other local elected and appointed leaders in the 40,000 incorporated municipalities of the U.S. at technological ability has now been accomplished. is year we also developed a database of the 500,000 elected local government leaders in the U.S. that is continu- ally being updated. Using this resource, Governor Rick Perry will invite America's local leaders to receive the same Bible studies at the same time they are delivered to White House Cabinet, Senate, and House members in our ongoing D.C. Bible studies which he sponsors. e first exemplar Local Government Ministries (LGM) Bible study was created this year by Dr. Dan DeShong, LGM Director for Sacramento, CA, who is still leading that study to several commissioners from different governments. A second study was created and is being led to local lead- ers by Keith Hill, LGM ministry leader in Austin, TX. Dr. DeShong, a retired business owner who has served in lead- ership positions for a number of ministries, said public ser- vants were surprised to learn how much the Bible had to say about immigration, parenting, racism, deficit spending, and other contemporary issues. e Bible study groups consist of elected leaders from different communities to avoid having a quorum of one elected body which, in some cases, could violate open meetings laws. e retired pastors and lay leaders who will lead LGM will be found in local churches through a partnership we forged this year with the church marketing department of Faith- life—makers of Logos Bible Soware which has six million users world-wide. We also began work with Faithlife to cre- ate a series of online training videos for ministry leaders. We believe this growth in our infrastructure, along with our new budding partnership with Faithlife will prove to be effective in terms of long-term ministry growth, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Political and faith leaders in Europe have already caught the LGM vision. is year, 40 ministry leaders were trained on how to create and sustain local government ministries in Ukrainian provinces and work is underway to establish local ministries in other nations. Local government ministries "… Faith comes om hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." R o m a n s 1 0 : 1 7

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