While in the Philippines last week, the leaders asked me to spend the majority of my teaching sessions casting vision for church planting. No problem. Who doesn't like talking about something they love?
In the Philippines a church of 90 - 100 people would be considered a large church. In their minds, our church is a mega-church. The result is that most of the church planters don't have many models or examples of churches that have really grown. One of primary goals was to challenge them to think big and inspire them to dream.
For what it's worth, I believe that every church planter ought to go into his first service with a dream to reach his city. Just like Ezekiel renamed Jerusalem The Lord is There, every city can be renamed. We've got to identify the needs of our city, then pray, preach, and love people until those needs have been given a new name.
These guys have the stuff. They don't all have internet access or libraries. What they do have are the intangibles.
Faith
Determination
The willingness to risk
They will probably make about fifteen to twenty dollars a week. They will also give most of it right back to Jesus and His church.
The picture above was a picture I took last Thursday with all the church planters. The two guys in the blue shirts to my left are Bong and Jason. The guy toward the right end in the red shirt is Noel. They are all young men planting brand new churches. All three of them will have their first service in April.
They are some of my unsung heroes.
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