Our Story
Formation and Early Ministry 2008 – 2012
In 2008, Dr. Daniel Sanchez was invited to meet with the leadership of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Havana Cuba to help that seminary establish a master’s degree in Missions. This led to elaboration of a plan whereby Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professors went to Havana over a two-year period and taught intensive courses enabling 15 of their professors to obtain their master’s degree. These professors were then able to start extensions of their seminary, which resulted in the increase of the student body from 68 to 800. This led the Missions Department of SWBTS to experience a paradigm shift from teaching students in seminaries abroad to enabling their professors to elevate their academic level.
When other seminaries in Latin America heard about the Cuban project, they started writing SWBTS asking for similar projects. The requests were so many that in 2010, Dr. Brent Ray was invited to come to SWBTS to help establish and lead what was then called Global Theological Innovation. Due to the fact that the seminaries in the different countries were operating in isolation and struggling to keep their doors open, Dr. Brent Ray and Daniel Sanchez came up with the idea of enabling the formation of a Consortium for Theological Education that would include Baptist seminaries from Latin America and Spain.
Maturing 2013 – 2022
Shortly afterwards, Dr. David Mahfouz was enlisted as a champion along with the church he pastored in Warren Texas. Together, they worked in strengthening theological education in Portugal. The ministry they were involved with expanded and resulted in the training up of theological leaders and the launching of a church planting movement. Encouraged by the success the team saw, Mahfouz partnered with other projects in Central Asia, Latin America and Europe. He became an important member of the team, sharing the vision of GTI and letting other churches know how they can be involved.
The ministry continued to grow and our name changed from Global Theological Innovation to Global Leadership Development in order to accommodate our focus on global leadership training and development. The Consortium for Theological Education in Latin America and Spain also saw tremendous growth with every partner school seeing a growth in their student populations. More than 500 seminary faculty were able to be trained and receive formal theological training through the partnership that was established at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Consortium grew indigenously and by the end of 2020, encompassed every country in Latin America. More so, what was exciting to everyone involved was that finally, local leaders were able to take responsibility, working together with their brothers and sisters in different countries.
Expansion 2023 – Present
Soon after, we started developing consortiums in other parts of the world. In 2023, to accommodate our growth and expanded global reach, we formed a non-profit organization called Global Theological Ministries, a 501c3 behind GLD. We formalized our ambassador and envoy program, established our board of directors and improved our capabilities. Today, we are active in nearly every continent and in close to 100 countries.