The Idea of Partnering Churches

Ronal & Ismelda Montilla and their two oldest children arrived at the edge of town. The Venezuelan Baptist representative dropped them off, prayed over them, and left. They had no church to go to, no place to stay, no support from their home church, and no prospects of success. Ronal had been an engineer in Caracas and lived an affluent life attending a large Baptist church. Yet, God called him and his wife to sell their possessions, leave their home, and travel to a remote community in the Andes Mountains and plant a new church where none existed.

                Members of their home church were stunned by this radical decision and even became angry with the Montillas. Their pastor not only refused to financially support them. He would not even pray over them as they left. They were totally alone in following God. Nine years later, there is a vibrant church in this community called Mucuchies (Moo-Ka-Chee-Us). The weather is cold and the setting is rural, but the grand vistas of the mountains surrounding this community are indescribably beautiful. This town possesses a typical Catholic Church at the city square, but it is a barren place spiritually. There are typical problems with teenage pregnancies, drug usage, and alcoholism. No one faithfully taught the Scriptures with integrity until Ronal started ministering there.

God has blessed this gospel seed. The strengths of this church are its fervent prayer work and its constant efforts at evangelizing souls. Mucuchies is not the only target for church planting. Pastor Ronal has already made progress in starting new Bible study groups in three adjacent communities with an eye on a fourth.

In 2003, William Burton, met with me in my first year of pastoring in East Tennessee and challenged me to join him on a brief mission trip to the Andes mountains in Venezuela. A church planting movement was occurring in the various communities lining the lengthy winding road between two large anchoring cities: Valera and Merida. William had married a Venezuelan woman and had planted multiple Spanish speaking congregations in East Tennessee and had become heavily involved in this new work of the Lord in the Andes. He wanted me to see this and to consider the possibility of partnering with one of these churches. Seven years and five trips later, I believe the Lord is leading us as a congregation at Southside to truly do this.

In researching the cultural dynamics and ministry goals of such an international working relationship, I led this year's team to Mucuchies for our longest mission trip yet. The 10 day journey was taxing on everyone's health, but it was rewarding in impact. We saw 115 people make professions of faith in Christ with the congregation ready to do follow up. Our job on this trip was to be available to do what was needed to spread the seed of the gospel message. This included going house to house in the community and store to store along the main avenues and explaining the gospel message via the Evangecube tool.

We were consistently reminded that our very presence enabled members of the church to enter homes they otherwise might not have been able to get to. We divided into small teams each day and walked around the areas plotted out by Pastor Ronal. We also were involved in athletics (basketball and soccer) and public outreach meetings. The latter consisted of lining up two flatbed trucks next to each other to form a stage next to a public bus stop, wiring a couple of lights over it, and hooking up a public address system for broadcasting voices. People walked by and stopped to hear the music and preaching. One fellow even stopped while driving by on his motorcycle to hear the message. We also endured two interruptions while William was preaching. One fellow started his truck near the stage and revved the engine. Then, a drunk guy walked up to the stage and made a little commotion. None of that stopped the Holy Spirit from using the message and bringing people to Christ.

For our part, we agreed as a church to send teams to Mucuchies on a consistent basis (hopefully each year) to help them do various evangelistic outreaches in and around this community and to assist with some of the follow up. We would also pray for this congregation and in the future consider helping financially support new pastors for new churches. Pastor Ronal agreed to commit his congregation, Iglesia Bautista El Sembrador, to diligently pray for Southside Church and to send teams of people from Venezuela to Clayton, NC, in order to work with us to evangelize and start Spanish speaking churches in Johnston County. That is the start of our partnership.

The people of El Sembrador currently meet on the top floor of a member's house, but they have purchased property at the entrance of a new subdivision. Their location and building plans are remarkably similar to what we presently enjoy at Southside. Even as we visited this property, one of the church members who had been negligent in church attendance and who had, by his own admission, become increasingly fleshly in lifestyle drove up in his cab and renewed his commitment to Christ on the spot. Matt McGhee led a church service in his house that night praying over his family.

At this time, I am praying for more godly men to help lead this church with Pastor Ronal. He has two solid guys to help him lead the congregation. I am praying for ten. Join me in praying for eight more spiritually strong men who will bolster the maturity of this church. At this point, Pastor Ronal asked us to plan for two trips next year in the second half of June. One group will be involved in medical outreach in some remote communities. The next group will do more follow up for the first group. Our teams need to be streamlined. We only need 6-10 people for an 8 day trip. Pray about being part of one of these teams. The Venezuelan Baptist Convention will be sending some leaders to Southside this fall to connect directly with our congregation and to examine the potential fields of harvest of the swelling Hispanic population in our county.

Out of Our Comfort Zones

The Venezuela Mission

Something that really stood out to me on this trip was greed. We, as Americans, take so much for granted from things as simple as flushing toilet paper and long hot showers to heating and a nice house. We generally expect to get things free, whereas in Venezuela many of the people don't get anything for free. So, when they heard that God offered us His Son, as a way to Himself, a FREE gift, not requiring anything of us, some of them didn't even think twice before accepting it. There were many, of course, that rejected it, but that's to be expected anywhere. So, needless to say I saw my greed more clearly than before!