I want to carry FE all the way to Wiwilí

The Nehemiah Center, through the Church Strengthening program (FE), is sharing biblical principles in order to develop healthier churches.  Recently, after a year of studies, a total of 13 churches from the Estelí and Ocotal regions, completed a set of workshops on the 8 indicators of a healthy church.

Miguel Castillo, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Estelí, summarizes his experience with the following words:

“From the start, when we were presented with the topics covered by FE, I said, ‘This is for us.’  Sometimes, as a pastor or leader, for lack of resources one doesn’t have access to training of this quality, but the church took advantage of the Nehemiah Center bringing us resources and it has been fulfilling for us.”

“I, as part of the leadership of my denomination in the northern zone, I want to bring these skills all the way to Wiwili.  I am sure that the pastors of that whole area will welcome it with open arms.  If the Nehemiah Center wants to send staff there, I will accompany them, or if they want to send me, I will go to share these workshops.”

What changes have you observed in your leadership team upon participating in these trainings?

 

Pastor Miguel: We were numb in the area of service.  The leaders felt comfortable with doing work only inside the church and there was little work done outside of the four walls, which should be the main range of action in the church.  It was difficult to mobilize the church.  I received a lot of excuses, but now we are seeing an awakening in the people – this has awakened many that were inactive before.

(Picture: Left, Pastor Miguel Castillo. Right, Pastor Henry Cruz -Program Facilitator) 

How did that awakening happen?

Pastor Miguel: At the beginning, when we made our diagnosis as a church, we realized that we had been wrong.  We agreed that we had a lot of problems, that we had paper-thin leadership, and that we had to make structural changes, including changes in our liturgy.  We felt discouraged.

The 13 leaders that participated in the workshop along with me listened to our brother in Christ, Henry Cruz (facilitator) explain that it was necessary to work as a team, that it was time to do something.  This helped me a lot because I felt that the congregation was leaving me to carry the burden on my shoulders, and I felt frustrated.  The leadership began to understand that they too should be doing, should be working.  The study of the 8 indicators has awakened an interest in the life of the church.

What actions have you taken in this vision of developing a healthier church?

Pastor Miguel: We have a leadership school every Thursday and now we are holding the workshops we have received.  We already have a written plan with goals, objectives, and activities that we are going to develop: restructuring the evangelism commission, searching for a music teacher to improve the area of liturgy, we are giving classes on homilitics and hermeneutics to strengthen the area of biblical exposition.  There is now a team doing follow-up with new converts, with visitors to the church, and with those who are being reconciled with the church.  We also want to have an area of counseling.  One of our objectives is to involve 90% of the membership in the work of the church according to the gifts the Lord has placed in them.

*Wiwilí, a town of Nueva Segovia department that borders Honduras, over 270 kilometers northeast of Managua.

Citizens of Heaven and Heart

Excerpt from the essay Los Evangelicos y la Transformación Integral

By Dr. Israel Ortiz

According to recent statistics, the number of evangelical Christians are steadily increasing in Central America and Mexico. The EFE news agency has reported that Guatemala is no longer a Catholic country but has seen a rise in the ranks of evangelical churches, tipping the scale in the favor of protestant evangelicals (8-14-2009).

Because of this, some boast that the rapid increase of evangelicals is a sign of God’s power. Others even dare to say that Guatemala is the new Jerusalem of America. But the reality is that this increasing presence has not impacted the social, economic, cultural, and political structures of society. Its influence has not been felt as it should. We must ask ourselves: why haven’t we affected the social structures of our communities, despite such rapid growth?

The challenge from Jesus to be salt – to prevent moral corruption in society – implies proclaiming the gospel and Christian values, which include all spheres of human life on earth. Unfortunately, there are some ways you could say that we have a negative balance when it comes to being salt and light to the nations.

A good example of comes from the arena of politics. In the past, when evangelical politicians gained enough popularity to ascend from the political margins to mainstream politics, they no longer attempted an evangelical influence over society. Conversely, the majority of evangelical politicians have gone unnoticed by state institutions. We are still waiting for a political evangelical presence that meets the standards of the gospel and has a true vision for the nation.

 In Antioch the name “Christian” was given to the disciples for the first time. They were a multiracial, multicultural group and were diverse socially, culturally, economically, and in their giftedness. This young church demonstrated the plentiful life of Jesus: It had an evangelizing spirit, a thirst for the Word, and a concern for social justice. It overflowed in worship, saw the value of living in community, engaged in teamwork, was full of the gifts of the Spirit, and had a missional vision for the world.

Today we must ask ourselves: Do our churches reflect the principles of the NT? What kind of church are we? Are our neighborhoods being impacted by our church? Is there outreach from the church into the community?

The church in the NT is a theological community as much as a social community. It has its origin in God but is also embodied in historical reality. These people of God came from Jerusalem or Thesalonica. Thus, we must consider ourselves citizens of Heaven and earth. We cannot be absent from the social reality in which we live.

It is imperative that as evangelical Christians we assume the role of catalysts – to contribute to the spiritual and social transformation of our countries. This involves analyzing our presence and position as Christians in our countries, rethinking our mission theology, and raising up new generations in the abundance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are called to be a generation that not only protests sin, but attempts to bring about the ethics and values of the Kingdom of God in our own societies.

Read the Essay "Los Evangélicos y la Transformación Integral (Click here)