A New Global Partnership for Urban Transformation

The launch of the Global Partnership for Urban Transformation (GPUT) to support and multiply indigenous, national movements dedicated to church planting and urban transformation worldwide.

GPUT leaders from the US, Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, Ethiopia, and the Caribbean share a meal at the GPUT conference in Manila

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The majority of the world’s population, 4.2 billion as of 2018, makes their home in dense urban centers. However, the necessary people-centered systems and infrastructure to support this rapid urban growth are not keeping up with demand. This leaves a huge number of people at risk, especially vulnerable populations. In these urban centers, with much suffering and very few ministers, Servant Partners sought to call teams to live, serve and minister among the urban poor. Even as these teams were sent out, SP also continued to pray and look for signs of how God might be moving to respond to the poor beyond its current ministry models and capacity.

Stanley & Amarfry Philippe (Iglesia Comunidad Multicultural, Dominican Republic) sign the GPUT Covenant of Partnership

As Servant Partners’ work expanded across the globe, staff encountered ministries that received similar calls to minister in the urban poor centers within their own countries. The rise of the church in Asia, Africa, and Latin America has led to the multiplication of new missions organizations that are not only reaching their own urban contexts but also sending people out to other nations. The international partnerships Servant Partners began to develop prompted the reimagining of its sense of mission.

International Director, Henry Williams, one of the key leaders in developing global partnerships, reflects on this process in the following way,

“The Lord developed these relationships with national movement partners

organically. Then we began to connect the dots that Jesus was revealing a new strategy of catalyzing transformation. God was inviting us to join in the work of growing Jesus movements led by indigenous leaders, alongside our long-term strategy of establishing individual incarnational ministry sites led by those we sent as ministers to live in urban poor communities.”

The Lord is moving powerfully through indigenously-led national movements. For the

past decade, Servant Partners has partnered with a growing national movement in

South Asia. This women-led movement is exploding with thousands of women from

Hindu and Muslim backgrounds participating in small Jesus-focused home fellowships

and self-help groups. Miraculously, God has grown this movement from 7 house

churches in 2017 to 592 of these fellowship groups in 2025. Of the 6,000 members

involved in this ministry, 4,800 are newly baptized believers.

GPUT leaders share a jeepney ride during Global Council 2024 in Manila, the Philippines, [front] Phillip Ndoro (Siervos Socios Internacionales, México), [left] Ema Silva Smith (SP Philippines), [back left] Lisa Engdahl (SP-USA), [right] Stanley Philippe (ICM, Dominican Republic)

Several years ago, a number of these national movement leaders agreed to a process of gathering to prayerfully discern God’s direction for their collective partnership. At the end of the time, everyone agreed that God was calling them to launch a new organization whose mission was to see movements dedicated to church planting and urban transformation emerge in every nation.

Three years of dialogue and visioning culminated in a gathering in Manila in October 2024, where leaders from seven nations inaugurated the Global Partnership for Urban Transformation (GPUT), a covenantal partnership dedicated to multiplying national movements in urban marginalized communities. Leaders from the United States, Mexico, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, South Asia, Columbia and Ethiopia all confirmed God’s calling and invitation to this new work. GPUT, initially nested in Servant Partners National Movement Department, will become a new independent organization to serve as an umbrella for multiplying and strengthening international movements among the poor.

The launch of the Global Partnership for Urban Transformation (GPUT) is a huge step

forward in Servant Partners’ global mission to reach people in marginalized

communities. It is a testament to God’s faithfulness in uniting diverse ministries to learn from each other, and empowering them to work together in Jesus’ name. The

development of this growing partnership is a clear sign that God is moving the global

church to transform urban poor communities with His love and power.