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Many times we think that smaller churches are not able to participate or participate very little in missions. But in 2 Cor. 8 Paul uses the example of some of the poorest and smallest churches in Asia Minor to challenge the wealthier Corinthians. Such is the case of 2 of the 3 churches that we have mentored in Mexico City. Iglesia Cristiana Biblica and Familia de Vida are only 150 and 100 in attendance each, but what God has done through this process in these 2 churches has made other much larger and wealthier churches in Mexico sit up and take notice.

Both of these churches have a passion for making a difference, not only locally and in Mexico, but among the unreached as well. During this year and a half long process of mentoring their leaders through 6 modules, each one began in make paradigm shifts, make changes in their church, began to involve more and more people in the mission of the church. One of the paradigm shifts each made was to understand that the purpose of the church is to fulfill Christ’s mission on earth.

Therefore missions could not be a segmented department in the church it had to be the main purpose of which each member and each ministry is a part.

Today, almost all of their members are involved in different missional projects and are serving locally and globally at the same time. Some of the local missional projects that have been developed by their own members are: adopting a marginalized neighborhood, hospital ministry that takes care of dying patients, neighborhood children’s ministry, and an addiction ministry. Not only are their members involved in these local missional projects but they are also sponsoring the starting of 2 new churches in the least reached areas of Mexico, they are partnering with indigenous Bible translators translators to translate the New Testament in local languages of Mexico. Not only are they working locally and in Mexico, but they are also partnering with some of Connect Global’s missionaries in Central Asia and North Africa and planning on taking their first projects there next year!

The next to last step in the Global Focus Missional Process is their Global Celebration. Normally a missions conference is where a church stops it’s normal activities, and focuses in missions for a week or weekend, but not so in a Global Focus church. We teach that every Sunday we pray for missions and missionaries, we highlight what God is doing locally and around the world, missions is integrated into every single ministry of the church. So at the Global Celebration we celebrate what God has been doing all year in missions in our church, and where God wants to take us this next year.

Last week I had the awesome privilege of leading 2 Global Celebrations at the same time (at times I felt like I was doing a juggling act). But God moved in a great way in both of these congregations.

I wish you could have seen their opening nights when they welcomed each one of the missionaries, or the small groups as the members of the church listened intently on what God is doing around the world. I wish you could have seen the International Banquet as the people of each congregation prepared food from all around the world, and heard the questions the they asked for an hour and a half at missionary forum as they were intensely engaged in what God is doing around the world. Then when I preached on Sunday (4 times; twice at each church), I asked the congregation: “How many of you met and talked with a missionary personally?” almost the entire congregation raised their hands.

The objective of a Global Celebrations is not to raise money, but to personalize missions.

Then when the people were giving the opportunity to pledge above and beyond their tithes to missions is when the miracle took place. In Familia de Vida the church of 100, their first faith promise was almost $15,000 dollars and in Iglesia Cristiana Biblica the church of 150 theirs was over $25,000! (Both of the churches are in working class, poorer neighborhoods). But a bigger miracle took place in the evening services which is the “Life Commitment” service where the majority of the church pledges to take their first missions trip, and 38 surrendered to full time missions!

Preparing my anual report for the Global Focus board of directors, I was asked to list the churches that we have and are mentoring in Latin America and what the impact on these churches has been. It wasn’t until I actually made up a list that I realized how much Global Focus is impacting Latin American churches, and helping them to not only to mobilize their own people to reach locally, but that reach extends all the way across the globe to the unreached. I was shocked to see the list of over 300 churches that myself and our Global Focus Latin American team are have mentored, are currently mentoring and will be be mentoring in 2017, plus several major denominations! But the real test is what are these churches doing, how have they been impacted, and what is the impact they are now making?

I wish I go go down the list one by one and tell you individual stories of members of churches in Latin America that are now personally involved in missions locally and globally, but I will give you just a few short examples. A church in Venezuela has now the majority of their members serving in missional projects, and every year would baptize an average of 25-30, this last year they baptized over 200!

Why, because of so many people involved in “outside the walls” missional projects in their own Jerusalem. Another church in El Salvador, over 100 members of their church have now started missional projects in the local schools, reaching thousands of young people, another group from the church started a ministry reaching the local prostitutes for Christ! But the impact of Global Focus is not only felt locally in their Jerusalem, but among the unreached as well. In the last 3 Global Celebrations we have had in the last month, over 70 people surrendered to full time missions. These churches are now sending out their own missionaries to some of the most difficult areas to reach with the Gospel of Christ. The churches of Venezuela have sent a family to one of the most closed countries in the entire world. Mexican and Salvadorian churches have sent field units to work with the refugee’s in the Middle East, and are seeing the Church planted where their was not church. Peruvian churches are now sending workers to North Africa, and Central Asia. Another group of Venezuelan churches we mentor were able to send workers to West Africa, one of those workers just had an Evangelistic meeting in which 20 mslms came to faith in Christ! The churches that we are mentoring are not just reaching out into their own local communities, and counties but they have taken the command of Christ to make disciples of all nations very seriously. These churches partnering with Connect Global have been able to send out 46 new units to unreached peoples!

How can you be involved and help?

We ask you to take seriously praying for our ministry, and for Latin American workers who are serving in dark areas of the world. But there is a tangible way you can help as well; We are hosting our yearly Global Focus Intensive Training in San Salvador at Miramonte Baptist Church, and have dozens of pastor from all over Latin America who are purchasing their own airline tickets to attend.

We try to help them with a scholarship for food and housing of $150.00 each for the week. We are lacking about 40 scholarship still, and if you could prayerfully consider helping to sponcer a Latin American pastor. If you can help with one scholarship or several, it will greatly impact churches in Latin America and thus impact the reaching of unreached people groups, and we can expedite the impact we are already seeing.

After all of the events, we met again on Sunday to finish off our Global Celebration to challenge the church to give it’s first Faith Promise Missions Offering. Vida Nueva is a church of about 250, and for their first Faith Promise they have nearly $50,000.00 for Global Missions! But what is even more exciting is that on Sunday evening when we took up the “Life Commitment” cards, we had nearly 80% of the church say they were going to take their first missions trip this next year, and 24 surrounded their lives to full time cross cultural missions!

Why does something like this happen in Peru and other parts of Latin America? Several reasons; Vida Nueva is now totally focused on God’s Mission which includes Jerusalem (Arequipa) but also Ends of the Earth.

Now missions is not a program or committee of the church, it is their main focus of everything they do. So now almost everyone is involved in one way or another in missions! Another reason is that missions is now personal. They personally know missionaries, they have stayed with them in their homes, they have eaten with them, talked with them, prayed with them. So the natural response of a church totally focused on God’s Mission, and missions in now very personal is that they give more liberally and even sacrificially. That is what Connect Global – Global Focus is doing in 11 countries in Latin America! That is why we believe that the Global Focus Missional Process will help us see an even greater movement of God by Latin American churches to the nations, and specifically to unreached people groups!

Vida Nueva (New Life) already had a great foundation, Steve and Debbie Douglas had started the church and built a tremendous foundation, then turned the church over to their Peruvian son in law, Paul. We began mentoring Vida Nueva about a year and a half ago in the Global Focus Missional Process.

We were able to teach the seminar to all of their leadership, then pastor Paul taught it to the church over an extended period of time. So the entire church had a great basis for understanding their local church’s role, and their own personal involvement in God’s Local – Global Mission. We also helped them develop their mission statement:

“Vida Nueva exists to see Jesus Christ to be known, followed, and glorified in Arequipa, and in all of the ethnic groups of Peru and the world.”

We helped them to integrate missions into every single one of their church ministries, and develop their Global Teams. What was the result of a year and a half long mentorship with Vida Nueva? On Wednesday hundreds of people came to the Missional Fair that looked like a professional exposition at a trade show in a convention center where they showcased not only their local and national missions projects, but had missionaries from Morocco, Turkey, India and Germany! They had traditional Peruvian and Indian dancing (yes they are a baptist church….) Then for the service, the church was packed and people were standing all over the back of the auditorium for the opening of their Global Celebration.

People celebrated Peruvian style as all of the 15 missionaries and missional projects entered the church with horns, confetti, balloons, and signs. The praise band led us in congregational worship that emphasized God’s hear for the nations, and the young people challenged us with a drama about Christ being taken from Peru to the nations. They asked me to bring a short missional challenge (and I almost complied with the request for “short”). God moved, and people responded.

As soon as you walked on to the property the smell of cotton candy and other carnaval foods filled the air, tents, streamers, bands playing, hundreds of people walking from tent to tent going to different booths. No, this was not the church carnaval, or even their version of a fall festival, this was their church’s Global Celebration. Under each tent was represented the booths of nearly 30 different missional projects that Oasis de Gracia (Oasis of Grace Church – part of the Sovereign Grace movement) has developed in their local area of Santa Ana, in El Salvador, in Latin America, and around the world.

They had come together to celebrate what God has done over the last year in their church in missions, and to project where God wants to lead them..

The Wednesday pm service began with over 600 people present (the church averages 500 on Sunday AM) and you could feel the excitement in the air as they were praising God in song, they were ready to receive all of their missionaries. It was my honor to speak on the subject of “A church that joins in with what God is doing around the world”. During the rest of the week, many home fellowships were done so that the people could spend time personally with their missionaries, and learn how they could pray for them, and how they could get involved personally with them.

Then we had special meetings where men got to spend time and hear personally from the missionaries, and the woman had a “missionary tea” time with all of the lady missionaries. Their international banquet is done very professionally with foods from 24 different countries, and almost everyone came dressed in clothing from other countries. Then they had traditional dances from Morocco and Germany done by the young people of the church. I wish you could have been part of this experience, it was so obvious that the people were extremely engaged in all of the activities.

What happened on Sunday was not just the results of the missions personalization done that week, but the result of a church that now every week prays for missions and missionaries and every ministry is aligned to the missional declaration of their church. Missions is no longer a once a year event, but now is the focus of every Sunday service: When we gave the challenge was give to renew their Faith Promise Commitment they exceeded their faith promise from last year substantially by committing to over $73,000.00 to missions! (To put things in context, in El Salvador most professionals make less than $1,000.00 a month, people without a degree would make even less than half of that).

On Sunday evening in our “Life Commitment Service” we ask people to make specific life desicions as to their personal involvement in missions. For example to individually pray for specific missionaries, to go on their first missions trip, but what was amazing was that we had 20 individuals expressed that God had called them to devote the rest of their lives to full time cross cultural missions!

What is different at Oasis of Grace now? Now missions is no longer a department of the church, it is their primary purpose for existence as the church of Jesus Christ. Missions is no longer a committee of a few dedicated people, but something that almost the entire church is involved in either locally or globally. Missions is no longer a once a year focus, but now is the weekly focus in every one of the public services, and in all of their small groups.

They have implemented a structure of Global Teams that seeks to involve the church in missional projects either in their own Jerusalem or all the way to Ends of the Earth. Some might look at that and think,”that is very innovative”. When in all actuality it is not just innovate, in reality it is “intentional”. Most churches are like people, after time we grow more self absorbed and self interested. If it where not for intencional voices that challenge us to break our own selfish tendencies and live intentionally the life of Jesus which is a life dedicated to others. The same is true in the life of a church, after time we focus on our own selves, within our own 4 walls. Many times it takes an outside voice to come along side us and intentionally teach us how to make His Mission – Our Mission. That is what Global Focus is all about, and we are now seeing it lived out daily within churches all over Latin America.

Two years ago pastor Luiggi and a couple of his leaders attended a Enfoque Global (Global Focus) training that I did at our home church FBCW, they caught a vision of what God could do in their own congregations. Even though they doubted some of the numbers and results that we talked about, they thought if God could do just half of that, we would be happy. Over the last year and a half I have had the opportunity to mentor their church; Primera Iglesia Bautista (the Hispanic ministry of FBC) of Woodbridge, VA. This is a congregation of about 300 Hispanics from varias parts of Latin America. Up until that point they had just a handful of leaders that were doing everything in the church. After they learned, and put into practice the Global Focus Missional Process in their church, God began to add to those that were participating. For their first every Global Celebration, literally over half of the congregation personally participated in the preparation of this huge event!.

We started the Global Celebration on Thursday pm. Almost the entire congregation was present for the opening service, they were ready, they received the missionaries with cheers, balloons, signs, and most of all with Latin American enthusiasm!

The missionaries were overwhelmed as they felt the emotion of the moment of how this church was honoring them and their calling. I was able to finish out the evening preaching on the subject of “Events and Circumstances change, but God’s Mission never changes.” On Friday evening the entire church divided up to spend time listening to each missionary in home fellowships. They were supposed to last only 2 hours, but most lasted at least 3 hours, because the people had so many questions they asked the missionaries. On Saturday we had different events where each missionary spent time with the teenagers and children of the church. Then in the evening we had they International Banquet and then the missionary forum, where each missionary was able to tell their own story of how they went from siting in the pews to serving on the field. After I spoke, we had the “Life Commitment” service where hundreds of people responded to not only pray for missions, but to personally go this next year on a their first missions trip.

On Sunday we all came together to celebrate all God had done that week, and I was able to challenge them to give sacrificially to their Faith Promise. The largest missions offering they had reviewed to that date was $15,000.00.

So the leaders had set a goal of $38,000.00, but they did not tell the congregation, they wanted to see what God had been doing in that year and a half long process of mentoring, and what God had been doing in their lives that week. We we totaled the commitment cards, the pastor and the leaders wept as they realized what God had done in the lives of their people. They had committed over $116,000.00 for their first Faith Promise Missions Offering. The majority committed to giving this offering month above and beyond their own tithe, one family even donated their car to be sold!

Results like this do not happen in a vacuum. Some might think that it is because of the very organized Missions Fair, or the promotional material or some might even think it happened because of pressure to give. But the truth is that this happened because of a missional process that engages the entire congregation and every ministry of the church to align around the overarching purpose of the church: God’s Mission. When missions is personalized, then people participate and give sacrificially.

“God is doing something in my heart that He has never done before, I am thinking and considering going to unreached people groups for the first time in my life…” ” I feel God calling me to His Mission in Southeast Asia”…” “Now I understand why God saved me from a life of drug addiction, in order to start a missional project right here in Lima working with drug addicts and leading them to Jesus…” “I want to take my first missions trip to Central Asia…”

These are some of the several quotes by leaders of the 2 churches I mentored this weekend in Lima, Peru. I spent 20 hours teaching the leadership of Bible Baptist and Bread of Life Church through the 2nd and 3rd modules of Global Focus. These churches are in the process of aligning their churches around the original purpose of the church; His Mission, local and global.

And now start to build a structure that intentionally and strategically tries to reach their own Jerusalem all the way to the Ends of the Earth. Both pastors are thrilled as they see their own leaders as the lights started to come on and start to think of how they can live missionally locally and around the world. They have realized that their own local church is in reality a missions force for the Kingdom of God!

Not only did I spend time teaching and mentoring these 2 churches, I was also able to meet with David and Elizabeth Flynn from the Center for Missions Mobilization, and the Latin American Perspectives course

We had a great time discussing mobilization strategies and were very enthused to see not only the churches in Lima participation in missions, but their pastors! They were also able to meet several of Connect Global’s future candidates to the unreached. One is called to Southeast Asia, one to the Middle East, and 2 to Central Asia. Please pray for these future candidates as they prepare themselves, and God prepares their church to send them to the field. Latin America is truly an emerging missions force, and Global Focus is helping churches embrace that reality!

Last week I wrote about our Latin American Facilitators meeting in San Salvador. We are now multiplying our efforts to mobilize Latin American churches and sending Latin American missionaries to the unreached.

One of our Latin American Facilitators is Josue Villanueva, who served in Turkey on a one year project, and is now missions pastor of Oasis de Gracia Church in Santa Ana, El Salvador.He was able to last week meet with the denominational leader of one of the largest denominations in Nicaragua, the Assemblies of God. They asked him to come and explain the Global Focus Missional Process to their pastors.

They gave him several hours to teach, and afterwards they said, “This is exactly what we have been looking for!” Immediately 5 pastors invited him to come and teach the seminar, and start mentoring their churches. He as able to go and teach the leadership of those churches this past week. One of the countries that I personally have always wanted to work in was Nicaragua, but God never opened the for me personally.

But I am so excited that one of our facilitators is not only working in Nicaragua, but in one of the largest evangelical denominations their. Please pray for Josue as he mentors them, and for the churches, as they mobilize their own people locally and globally to the nations.