Saturday, August 14, 2010

A Snapshot from Venezuela

By Mike Gunderson

On the way to preach in one of the churches in Valencia, Venezuela, I had the privilege of worshipping with the Emanuel EFC, also in Valencia. On the surface, the church is not highly impressive, and there were only about 50 people in the first of two services.

I should have known that there was more beneath the surface, though, when I saw their church vision statement painted above the platform:

Una iglesia discipular, celular y misionera
(A discipling, cellular and missionary church)

It has a nice ring, doesn't it?

Pastor Abdy with his children & Mike
As I spent more time with the lead pastor of this church, Adby Perera and his wife, Paola, I understood that there is a lot more to Emanuel Free than meets the eye.

This church of around 150 members has 40 people in its music ministry -- and 15 of those are trained to lead worship! Every Sunday they send out at least one team to help lead worship in church plants and smaller churches in the community.

Abdy's church has a ministry called "volunteer missions training." Trainees receive basic training in preaching and evangelism, and they preach, evangelize, and do street theatre in public squares. If the police come, they disband (although, thankfully, most of the persecution in Venezuela today is mild and subtle).

The volunteer missions training is VERY hands on. Pastor Abdy shared, "I don't like cold-call evangelism, but I like what it produces in the 'missionaries' that go out." On five Saturdays during April and May 2010, Emanuel Free preached and shared in different public squares... and 48 people came to Christ!

The same training is being used in a number of churches and there are many new Christian converts. A once bi-vocational pastor started the program a few years ago, and today ten house churches have been born out of it. Now, he's a vocational pastor and just finished his "licenciatura" (bachelor’s equivalent). (Good thing he is qualified now!!)

Conference -- Missionaries & Pastors
We heard similar stories from other pastors, too, although with a curious twist to the story... No one really knows how many new churches there are in the association! They know that the number of official churches has dwindled (a story for another time), but the number of unofficial churches has grown dramatically in the last half decade or so. Praise the Lord! Some spoke of 80 unofficial churches and church plants, others of 100, and still others spoke of numbers over 120.

The number is not the most important thing. What is exciting is something that we see in church-planting movements around the world (not just in Venezuela) -- the movement becomes decentralized and growth grows beyond control.
  • There is a growing number of house churches led by bi-vocational pastors.
  • The ADIEL of Venezuela is now offering an accredited bachelor degree program in a local church-based training format.
  • And we were thrilled to see that they have two missionary families in India and two families in the process of being sent to Europe.
So many exciting things!

We all left Venezuela very encouraged by what God is doing through our Venezuelan brothers and sisters. We are proud of the faithful missionaries who God has used and continues to use for His glory in Venezuela.