Pastor Jose, God bless him, pastor's 3 churches in three small towns there with no leaders to help him. "Solo yo, solo yo" was his response when I recently asked him if God had raised up any leaders to help him in the church. That translates into, "Only me, only me" in English. There are a few who help out with this or that, but none who can teach or who have Biblical wisdom to help carry the load. We often complain about the lack of leaders in our churches here in the States. Listen, if your church has at least one, you have more than Pastor Jose! My heart goes out to him just sitting here, writing this post. Wouldn't God send someone to help him? Well, we think he is calling us to do that.
The great need as we see it for the churches in Esperanza, Pierda Gorda and Burruco, is DISCIPLESHIP! I'm sorry if that wasn't too original and fancy, but it is the truth. The often quoted great commission of Matthew 28:19-20 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (emphasis added).” 5, 10, 15 years from now or whenever God calls us home or to another place, we hope to look back and see that our time was faithfully spent doing the work of the Lord in making disciples, and teaching them. We believe that a biblical disciple will be one who can disciple others.
Another way of stating our primary goal is: to "train trainers, and disciple disciplers" in accordance with 2 Timothy 2:2. It reads, "and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." It is our vision, that through the faithful, fervent teaching of God's Word (Mat. 28:20), the demonstration of the Word lived out in our lives (1 Tim. 4:12), our loving servant hood towards the people (Gal. 6:2), and our sharing of the Word to others outside the church (Acts 8:4) will produce the effects of 2 Tim. 2:2- disciples who can disciple others. When we pull out, it is our hope that like the Apostle Paul, we can have helped in establishing elders in the church that no longer need us. Of course, we realize this is of the Spirit, and can only be done in His power.
And I dare not forget prayer as well. A retired missionary once said, the reason we need to come up with so many methods and strategies is because we don't pray enough. I agree! Guys, there is power in the Word! There is power in love and serving! There is power in character! And there is power in prayer!
Our ministry will be to work alongside Pastor Jose (under his leadership as our Pastor) and will be specifically to the church, because like I have been explaining (mostly in part 1) this is where we feel God is leading us. Specific ministries with orphans, hospitals, clothing the needy, etc., are all great and can be Christ-honoring, but will not be the center of our ministry and work. In focusing our attention to any one of those things I just mentioned, or on anything other than the church as a whole, would be sin (for us)- it would be to go against what we feel the Holy Spirit is leading us to do, and it would mean not utilizing my spiritual gifts to the fullest, which primarily involve teaching and evangelism. Ephesians 4:11-12 tells us to use our spiritual gifts for the work of ministry; for building up the body of Christ. I do not think it strange that what God has revealed to both Celia and me as the need he wants us to help fulfill-discipleship within the church-is what we are best equipped to do by the Holy Spirit! However, it is my expectation, that our work will lead us to work with the orphans, within the hospitals, and the poor; and God-willing, to partner with other ministries or missionaries in the area who are doing this.
No comments:
Post a Comment