Often as we meet people and tell them we are missionaries they want to know what we do. There is an assumption that missionaries work in churches, perhaps as pastors or teachers, and sometimes that is true of some missionary groups. I am often asked, "Do you have a church here that you pastor?"
In light of that, it occurred to me to give a brief synopsis of our strategy and what we actually do here...and speaking of strategy...that is a big part of my particular job. My responsibility is to develop a strategy for reaching the areas of Costa Rica that don't have evangelical churches and to secure, deploy, and supervise personnel to accomplish the task.
The short answer of what we are trying to do is this: We are trying to plant Christian churches. Now that's a very simple statement for an involved process. Involved in the word "Christian" is the concept of Christ being the center and head of the church, salvation through Christ alone, through the grace of God. It implies doctrine, worship, evangelism, and fellowship.
Ok, so much for the theological and ecclesiastical stuff, as important as that is. How do we go about it? Good question. I'm glad you asked.
Below is a picture of a little town called Naranjo. It could be any town in Costa Rica. Our process is this: We locate an area or town where there is no evangelical church. (Notice I didn't say Baptist, although that's what we are without apology. But we do recognize that there are other churches that have correct doctrine.) We will "scout" the town, or do recon work to find out if there are believers there. At times there are Christians who have no church and no other believers with whom to fellowship.
Should we find such believers, we offer to begin a Bible study in their home. If they agree, we begin and encourage them to invite neighbors and friends. Our hope is that the group will evolve into a church with trained local people serving as leaders.
Another, and more common method, is to take a group of volunteers from the U. S. into an area and do a door-to-door scripture distribution, giving each home a copy of the gospel of John with key passages marked. We ask people if they would be interested in a home Bible study, and then follow-up with those who agree. Our desire is that the studies will lead to the people becoming Christians and then witnessing to neighbors and friends. We train potential leaders with the view of them taking over and leading Bible studies and reaching out to surrounding areas, neighborhoods, and even towns. Ideally, the group will organize itself into a church eventually.
As International Missionary Board missionaries, we do not serve as pastors. We see our task as trainers, catalysts, and mentors. We believe that the national Christians can do a better job than we can at reaching their own people. Our hope is that through planting churches that have a "DNA" of evangelism and missions, those churches will multiply themselves many times over and the country will be reached much faster than a few missionaries could do it by trying to start and oversee each church that is begun....not the least of the reasons is that it seems to jibe with the New Testament method.
