I want to share about the next phase for us in Extreme
Nazarene Ministries, and my new job, beginning this September, as Mobilization
Manager for the South America Region.
We want to see the church planting movement expand to all of
South America.
Our vision is Acts 1:8:
“And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
In Peru, we mainly worked in rural areas where there were no
churches, using the 40/40 method. You are hopefully a little familiar with the
40/40 method, because I was a 40/40. The term 40/40 comes from Extreme Peru,
where we sent out 40 North American, young, single missionaries with 40
Peruvian young, single missionaries. We go out two by two, just the way Jesus
sent out the seventy-two in Luke 10. These missionary pairs live together,
minister together, and bring differing cultural and social perspectives to the
table.
Through Extreme South America (XSA) we will continue to use
the 40/40 model, pairing up 80 North Americans with 80 South Americans, working
together in teams to plant sixteen churches. This time around, instead of going
to small towns, they are going to the large urban cities of South America—cities
with a population of at least 250,000—where they will together plant a church
of hundreds of people using the Master’s Plan strategy. [In the coming weeks I
will be sharing more on this blog about the Master’s Plan and my experience in
Cali, Colombia.]
Where do I fit in with all of this? My official job title is
SAM Mobilization Manager. That sounds almost boring, but to me, it is pretty
exciting.
Do you know that RIGHT NOW, there are young people in their
churches all over South America who have a call to missions, and just don’t
know HOW TO GO. I have already shared that I believe that God is still a God who transforms lives. Well I believe that our amazing God is still a God who
CALLS people. He calls people to “go and make disciples.” That commission was
given over two thousand years ago, but right now, TWO BILLION people in our
world have never heard the gospel. “And how can they believe in the One of whom
they have not heard?” (Romans 10:14)
For the first time in South America, a mobilization team will
exist to seek out these young believers who have a call to go, and help deploy
them to fulfill that call in their home country.
I am essentially a
recruiter. But I have to seek these future missionaries out, help them discern
their call, qualify them through an application process, work with local church
leadership to interview them, help them raise support to go, teach local
churches how to give to support their missionary, and send them out.
THAT is my job.
And the second phase of church planting gets me really
excited. Because, these 40/40s begin in their Jerusalem. They stay in their home country, but leave their
families and lives behind to go to a different city to plant the church. During
the two years of church planting, they will also be studying theology and
missions courses online through the South American seminary system.
After two years, they will have an opportunity to go somewhere
a little further from home, i.e. Samaria,
where they will plant another church in another large urban area in another
country of South America. After four years of online study they will complete a
Bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies (Missions) and have completed all
requirements for ordination in the Church of the Nazarene.
We will have raised up
an ARMY of North AND South American missionaries who are EDUCATED, EQUIPPED,
and EXPERIENCED to send out TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
Isn’t that exciting? God is still a God who transforms lives,
and He is still a God who calls people!
And we get to be a part
of that.
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