June 12, 2024 • 23 mins
What if you could spark a spiritual revolution amidst political and economic upheaval? Join us as we unpack the incredible story of the Christian Missionary Alliance's transformative work in Lima, Peru during the 1970s. Drawing from the insightful Spanish book "Mission in the City," which has been translated for our listeners, we reveal how prayer, faith, and a strategic use of media like radio played pivotal roles in penetrating households and reaching diverse communities. Discover the key principles that fueled an evangelistic and church growth movement that not only transformed lives but also captured global attention.
In another poignant chapter, we delve into the essential elements needed for revitalizing and growing church communities today. We stress the power of unity, financial support, and teamwork while offering practical steps like training lay leaders and utilizing media for outreach. Additionally, we share a deeply personal story of coping with a third cancer diagnosis, highlighting the role of faith and purpose in adversity. Tune in for a compelling narrative that challenges us to dream big, work collectively, and spread hope even in the face of life's most daunting challenges.
In another poignant chapter, we delve into the essential elements needed for revitalizing and growing church communities today. We stress the power of unity, financial support, and teamwork while offering practical steps like training lay leaders and utilizing media for outreach. Additionally, we share a deeply personal story of coping with a third cancer diagnosis, highlighting the role of faith and purpose in adversity. Tune in for a compelling narrative that challenges us to dream big, work collectively, and spread hope even in the face of life's most daunting challenges.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
W. Austin Gardner (00:01):
Well, this is Austin Gardner, welcoming you
to the World Evangelism Podcast,and I am going to do something
a little bit unusual today.
I have been, you know, doing Iwas doing some things about
prayer, and then we, you knowI've been doing about a book and
about a country and amissionary, and I'm still going
(00:23):
to do that, but I didn't feellike I had enough time to
dedicate to things like I wouldhave liked to, and so today I'm
going to just do one deep diveinto something I think that will
revolutionize your life, exciteyou and motivate you At least
it did that for me and this is astory of the work of the
(00:43):
Christian Mystery Alliance inthe city of Lima, peru, and they
have massive influence in Lima.
They have built extremely largechurches.
God has used them greatly.
Rg Letourneau was like a donorto them.
A special donor gave millionsof dollars.
He was the mover of men andmountains and long before, I
(01:09):
think, most anyone else wastalking about it, anyway, he was
living on 10% and giving away90%.
By the grace of God, todaythere are lots of different
people that have taken up thatsame focus.
Now, what I'll share with youtoday comes out of a book that's
in Spanish and I havetranslated things to give you
(01:29):
today to go through differentpoints.
The name of the book translatedis Mission in the City Focus on
Movement, focusing on themovement of God.
In other words, it was Lima,encountering with God.
It's a 70-page long PDF andI've enjoyed it very much, and
(01:52):
there are great truths to belearned in this book, and so I
want to challenge you as we kindof go through some of the
things, because this will.
They even worked at usingtransferable principles.
A couple of missionaries gotextremely burdened to reach the
city and they were doing thisway back in the 1970s.
(02:15):
It was a time of turmoil in thecountry.
It was a time when there was amilitary government.
They even used that to helpthem get things going.
Time when there was a militarygovernment, they even used that
to help them get things going,and it was all God moving and
doing different things together,and so there are principles
that can be taken out of thisthat can apply to wherever
(02:37):
you're working in the world, andthese men had a heart to do
something great for God.
So Lima's encounter with God wasan intensive evangelistic
movement and church growthmovement in the city of Lima,
peru, led by the missionaries ofthe Christian Missionary
(03:02):
Alliance.
Now that's a great group whenyou consider they were formed.
It was one of the most excitingthings that were formed because
it was an alliance of businesspeople who would come in and
financially back the ministryand lay people who would get
behind the ministry and Godcalled people that would do the
ministry.
So I think from the verybeginning of it it was an
(03:25):
extremely great idea andmovement.
In 16 years they literally sawthe city of Lima transformed.
It got so much attention thatpeople all over the world were
asking what is happening in Lima?
How is this happening?
I heard about it the first timein Arequipa and some of the
(03:48):
things I heard I'm not even surewere true, but it was told me
that they were runningevangelistic campaigns one week
and then discipleship next week,and then evangelistic campaign
the next week, for two solidyears with only one night a week
off.
They were working hard and Godused them to reach professional
(04:08):
and business people.
These people were in a time ofpolitical and economic change.
It had shaken up their worldand they were ready to listen.
So the Christian MysteryAlliance was seeing many people
in the middle and upper middleclasses seek spiritual answers
and get saved and lives bechanged.
(04:29):
The social upheaval and Ibelieve in my ministry that had
much to do with it.
When a country's in trouble andthere's a lot of bad things
going on, people from differentsocial levels begin to begin
interested in spiritual thingsand they want to know what can
happen, who can help them,what's the answer for their
(04:50):
lives.
Now, the Christian MissionaryAlliance was very smart.
They took advantage ofcommunications, so they went on
the Radio of the Pacific,because they finally had
permission to do that, because asort of religious freedom had
come into Peru and they wereable to reach a wider audience
(05:15):
and penetrate into thehouseholds.
Now here's something I'd liketo say to you about using the
media radio, television, evensocial media and the internet
and that is that when people aresometimes ashamed to leave
their homes and be seen going toan evangelical church that
would preach the gospel, they'rea little bit afraid to do that,
(05:37):
but they are interested andthey would if we could get over
the wall of their house and intotheir home in privacy where
they could study it on their own.
There are people who wouldnever be publicly associated
with you that might listen.
So they use the radio to getthat message out.
I know that in Adikipa my son,chris, had started a television
(05:59):
station and I used thattelevision station to preach as
much as anybody and I foundpeople knew me all over the city
that would never have come toour church.
So as they began working andreaching out, they began to
reach people from all differentlevels socially, all different
kind of social and economicbackgrounds were coming and
(06:19):
getting the gospel.
Because, you see, people wereopenly seeking spiritual
guidance, because it was a timeof upheaval, a time of
uncertainty.
The government was in trouble.
The United States is kind ofgetting to that point.
There are things going so wrong.
It's probably a good thing thatwould get people excited.
But now the Christian MysteryAlliance had in mind that they
(06:42):
would work together and so theywould tell you that what
contributed?
This is right out of their book,the book that was written, as I
told you, mission in the City,by Miguel Angel Palomino.
Miguel Angel Palomino, miguelAngel, michael Angel Palomino,
(07:04):
and he wrote this book and hesaid it was that there was
prayer and faith expecting Godto move, there was church unity,
there was teamwork and also theresources had been provided for
them to do the ministry.
Now, you know, I think we couldwork on that.
I think some of you you know Ithink we could work on that.
(07:26):
I think some of you you know wemight ought to be a little
better about praying andbelieving God and expecting him
to work, and maybe we ought toquit fighting among ourselves so
much.
Sometimes some churches can beso nitpicking, fussing and
fighting and we almost hate ourbrother in Christ, which is
totally not who we arebiblically and teamwork.
We're so independent infighting that we want the lead
(07:48):
and we want all the honor, andthen those that have the money
could give we could see God dosomething, palomino says.
Now let me explain something toyou.
They face great trials andsatanic attacks.
The media harassed them.
Even other evangelical leaderswere criticizing them for the
work they were doing trying toreach the city of Lima.
(08:10):
Now they started.
By the way, can I tell you thateven today their church is run,
one in 2000.
They have I mean they havemassive buildings and in very
visible positions and manypeople are attending their
churches.
But no matter how many trialscame their way, these
missionaries stood the test.
(08:31):
They could be harassed andcriticized and canceled, but
they stood the test in trustingin God and they continued doing
the evangelistic work that Godhad called them to do.
Now they openly stated we'renot going to use canned
techniques or principles fromchurch growth schools.
We're not just reading booksabout how to grow churches.
We are working hard and this iswhat they worked on.
(08:56):
Prayer.
There was a great deal ofprayer effort put into their
work.
As they would try to reach intothe city and start different
churches.
They organized into cell groupsthat would meet all over the
city praying and studying theBible and evangelizing in their
area.
They spent a long time trainingpeople how to win people to
Jesus Christ.
(09:16):
They spent a long time trainingpeople how to be counselors and
to share the gospel atinvitation times.
They spent time training peoplehow to do the music so the
musicians would be ready andthey would be able to get the
job done there as they wereworking.
And then they helped all thebelievers learn how to share
their testimony about what Godwas doing in their lives.
(09:38):
Now, that's something we couldreproduce, isn't it?
That's something that we couldput into place wherever we are.
So train people in your ministry.
Be careful to be training soulwinners and counselors and
musicians and teaching peoplehow to give their testimony.
Be careful to maybe start cellgroups where people are praying
(09:59):
and evangelizing within reach ofyour church.
Then they welcome people fromall socioeconomic backgrounds.
And Peru, like any other partof the world, is just eat up
with racism and socialism andclassism.
But the gospel changes that andour churches ought to be
(10:20):
reaching every nationality,every ethnicity that's in our
community.
They ought to be a part of ourchurch.
Now these men, as they madetheir plan, knew that one of the
biggest needs was going to bebiblical instruction.
Not just tell them how to getsaved, not just get them in
church, but teach them basicBible truths, teach them about
(10:43):
personal evangelism, teach themthe doctrine of the Holy Spirit,
teach them the truth of thegospel that they would be able
to share them.
I really love one of the otherthings they did.
They were really big on usingthe radio and homes.
So get out into the homes,start cell groups and reach out.
(11:03):
They had Bible classes on theradio so they could reach more
people.
We could do that.
We could.
I have a friend named Robertcanfield who has a ministry
called uh, taking the light andthey are working at getting
radio programming in differentplaces around the world and the
church that he's out of.
(11:23):
They have a whole ministry todo that.
We should be doing that.
We should be doing that on webpages and social media.
We should be working on that.
They worked as a team.
They realized that there'salmost a turf war between
pastors, like this is my areaand this is my area, and don't
(11:44):
you cross my border lines andthose are my people, and don't
you talk to my people andthere's a competition and don't
get messing with it.
But they decided that wasn'tworking.
They decided that they wouldchange from that model to a
cooperative approach, and so notonly did they have in mind to
(12:04):
do great things in the city ofLima, which is today a city of
well over 10 million people, butthey wanted to reach out into
the other areas of the city ofLima, start a lot of churches.
I'm pretty sure that withinthat 16 years, they started 26
churches all over Lima, and theystarted them with big money and
(12:25):
big groups of people.
We ought to consider that whenthey were starting churches,
they looked for key locationsthat gave them visibility and
accessibility to attractnewcomers and expand their reach
.
Now they had RG, letourneau andother ways of getting money.
They were also teaching theirpeople to give and to
(12:46):
participate because theybelieved in having a
self-sustaining, self-supportingchurch, sustaining
self-supporting church.
Even the churches that had moremoney were taking out of their
offering and raising money tohelp the other churches that had
less money, so they could geton their feet, so both churches
could help other churches.
What are we going to do?
That's not about building myministry, but about building the
(13:10):
kingdom and getting the gospelof Jesus Christ out to the world
.
It's really exciting.
In 1974, this group of peopleworking so intensely in Lima
held 21 evangelistic campaignsoutside of Lima and other parts
of the country and had 661decisions for Christ.
Now they found a great problemin their churches, a problem, I
(13:34):
think, that might exist in ourchurches.
They found that their churchesweren't ready to assimilate the
newly converted.
It's not hard for churches toform little cliques.
You know there's a rich guy inthe church, or key people in the
church, or old families in thechurch, or groups of people, and
(13:55):
so everybody kind of you knowthere's two or three little pods
of people that are in a churchand new people come in and they
can't find a way to fit in, andthe older church members don't
want anybody else working intheir ministry and it becomes a
problem.
And so they realized that theyhad to stop what they were doing
(14:16):
and train their people on howto assimilate new converts, how
to get new converts into thechurch and keep them in their
church.
So I want to challenge you Imean I've gone over quite a few
things and I will come back andfinish some of that in a minute
but I want to review with youwhat we've talked about.
(14:37):
We ought to be trying to reachour city and the world with the
gospel.
We ought to realize that peopleare hungry and looking for
answers about where they can goand what they can do.
We ought to see what we can doto use the radio or television
(14:57):
or what we can do to use theinternet or whatever to get our
gospel message out.
We ought to realize that we'reto reach every class of people.
We ought to realize that God isalready preparing hearts that
are hungry to hear the gospelmessage, and we ought to build
ministries of prayer, seeking topray and find the will of God
and God's power.
That's our goal.
(15:20):
We need God to work.
We need God's power.
We need God to move.
We need to wait on God.
We need to expect God to dogreat things.
We need to quit fightingamongst ourselves, and for many
of the friends I've grown upwith, that's almost an
impossibility.
We seem to enjoy findingsomething we disagree with so we
(15:41):
can shoot at each other.
We've got to stop that.
We've got to work as a team andwe've got to get together the
financial money to take care ofthings, and we have people that
can give.
Let's do it.
We've got to know that thedevil's always going to be
attacking us and when he shootsat our brother, we got to stand
with our brother.
We got to stand together.
The media might come after us.
(16:03):
Social media might come afterus.
Criticism might come from otherpreachers, but let's continue
to try to reach with the peoplewith the gospel.
Let's trust God and stand inthe face of trials and let's be
praying and working together.
Let's work at training people.
What's your church right now?
(16:23):
Right now, right now, whatplans have you got to train lay
leaders?
Are you teaching people how towin souls?
Are you teaching people how tobe counselors?
Are you training new musicians?
Are you teaching people how toshare their testimony?
Are you giving Bibleinstruction outside of what you
preach in the pulpit?
Are you using the radio andother ways to get the message
(16:44):
out?
Are you working as a team?
Are you trying to start otherchurches?
What's going on?
So the Christian MysteryAlliance said that these were
the transferable principles thatevery church could use that
allowed them to reach anattendance of thousands,
multiplied thousands, in variouschurches in 16 years Commitment
(17:09):
.
You got to be sold out Now ifthey really did two years of
revival and discipleship work.
You got to know that SacrificePay the price to get the gospel
out.
Concentrate your efforts, workas a team.
This is one of the mostpowerful ones, they said.
Be willing to change.
You see, only a crazy persondoes the same thing over and
(17:36):
over and expects a differentresult.
The way we've been reaching outfor people, the way we've been
being maybe ugly about things,maybe the way we have been
preaching grace to bring them inand law to change them instead
of letting God change themwhatever, we have got to be
willing to adapt biblicalmethods.
We got to mobilize thebelievers.
(17:59):
We got to get everybodyinvolved and everybody working,
and we got to start morechurches.
Now, one of the things they didthat's pretty hard to transfer,
to replicate unless we can get ahold of money is they made sure
(18:19):
that their buildings were invisible locations.
Now that's a problem because ittakes a lot of money to get on
the main avenue In Lima.
They're on two or three of themost prominent streets in the
city.
You drive right by theirbuilding.
But we can do something aboutthat.
If we will get the good kind ofsigns up put signs around the
(18:39):
city telling them where we are,if we will advertise, if we will
give out literature, if we'llput up posters, if we'll put up
banners that cross the street,if we will use the radio and
television, we can makeourselves much more visible.
So, whatever we need to do, weneed to stretch ourselves and go
(19:00):
beyond what we're going to goand what we've been doing.
One of the exciting things wasthat dozens of people testified
that they did not get savedbecause of the messages they
heard, but by the acts of lovethat they received from other
believers in their home.
The other believers are goinginto people's homes where there
(19:20):
were needs, a death in thefamily, somebody sick, somebody
with some kind of need, and theywere there to help them.
We have got to get our peopleout loving and helping other
people and being a blessing tothem.
The author of the book Missionin the City his name, is Miguel
(19:41):
Angel Palomino.
He said that he did his ownsurvey and found that less than
10% of the teenagers and youngpeople attending the youth
meetings had come to church aschildren, meaning they had
gotten saved as teenagers.
They'd been reached when theywere teenagers.
We need to be out on the streetmore looking for those people.
(20:02):
I am convinced that peoplebetween the ages of 15 and 25
are the people God will most useto help you do a lot of the
work in a church and to continuegrowing.
And then one of the main thingsthat they emphasize and I've
tried to share all of it withyou is academic training and the
training of leaders.
We have to have, like we have,the Peru Bible College.
(20:25):
We have to have that.
We have to be training ourpeople to know the Word of God
and to be able to preach theWord of God.
Now I read this book and I justthought I'd share it with you
today.
Isn't it time to dream aboutreaching our city?
Isn't it time to dream aboutGod doing something big with us?
Isn't it time to dream aboutGod doing something big with us?
(20:50):
Isn't it time to get a hold ofthe fact that God just might let
us see something big happen?
Let's stop being the loneranger.
Let's stop being the guy whowon't work with anybody else.
Let's stop being so focused onour own name, our own self, that
we would work with others.
All of my life, most everypreacher and missionary I've
(21:10):
ever known, is focused on thecorner of Elm and Maple, their
church, their location.
Missionaries don't like thatwhen they're raised in support,
but as soon as they go to thefield, they become just like
that.
It's my country, my city, mychurch, and nothing else seems
to matter.
Yeah, I'll take on somemysteries, but that's my church
doing that, and so it's alwaysabout me and my and so on.
(21:38):
Well, I hope that, uh, I tellyou what, uh, I love to try to
make available to some of youthat speak Spanish at least,
this PDF that can be found onthe internet Mission in the City
, lima, al Encuentro con Dios,and maybe you could get that,
and I would just love to see youget more involved and let's see
what we can do.
I hope that what I'm doing ishelping you and I want to
(21:59):
challenge you to share what youwould and you know here.
If you're on YouTube, I'm tryingto get it clear.
There it is.
There's the book FulfillingMarriage.
I so wish you'd help me praythat God would make it useful.
If you haven't gotten a copy,get a copy If you have gotten a
copy, and would give me arecommendation.
(22:21):
Whatever you think the value ofit is one star to five stars on
Amazon I would reallyappreciate it and I would like
to ask you to think about areyou called a checklist,
something you can get in thehands of young missionaries?
And right now the new book frompain to praise is just about to
(22:41):
come out.
I'd like to also ask you topray for me.
I am working on a book aboutdealing with cancer.
When you get the call that youhave cancer again for the third
time and you begin to wonderabout what's going to happen
with you.
I'm trying to share steps abouthow to deal with the news of
cancer, so I'm trying to write.
(23:02):
I wish you'd pray that Godwould use the time that I'm
writing to be a blessing toother people.
I just want to help.
I want to use whatever life Ihave left to bring honor to the
name and glory to the name ofthe Lord Jesus Christ.
So help me spread the wordabout the World Evangelism
Podcast, if you will.
Thank you so much for allyou're doing and I pray God
(23:24):
blesses you wherever you are.
Thank you so much.
Well, this is Austin Gardner, welcoming you
to the World Evangelism Podcast,and I am going to do something
a little bit unusual today.
I have been, you know, doing Iwas doing some things about
prayer, and then we, you knowI've been doing about a book and
about a country and amissionary, and I'm still going
(00:23):
to do that, but I didn't feellike I had enough time to
dedicate to things like I wouldhave liked to, and so today I'm
going to just do one deep diveinto something I think that will
revolutionize your life, exciteyou and motivate you At least
it did that for me and this is astory of the work of the
(00:43):
Christian Mystery Alliance inthe city of Lima, peru, and they
have massive influence in Lima.
They have built extremely largechurches.
God has used them greatly.
Rg Letourneau was like a donorto them.
A special donor gave millionsof dollars.
He was the mover of men andmountains and long before, I
(01:09):
think, most anyone else wastalking about it, anyway, he was
living on 10% and giving away90%.
By the grace of God, todaythere are lots of different
people that have taken up thatsame focus.
Now, what I'll share with youtoday comes out of a book that's
in Spanish and I havetranslated things to give you
(01:29):
today to go through differentpoints.
The name of the book translatedis Mission in the City Focus on
Movement, focusing on themovement of God.
In other words, it was Lima,encountering with God.
It's a 70-page long PDF andI've enjoyed it very much, and
(01:52):
there are great truths to belearned in this book, and so I
want to challenge you as we kindof go through some of the
things, because this will.
They even worked at usingtransferable principles.
A couple of missionaries gotextremely burdened to reach the
city and they were doing thisway back in the 1970s.
(02:15):
It was a time of turmoil in thecountry.
It was a time when there was amilitary government.
They even used that to helpthem get things going.
Time when there was a militarygovernment, they even used that
to help them get things going,and it was all God moving and
doing different things together,and so there are principles
that can be taken out of thisthat can apply to wherever
(02:37):
you're working in the world, andthese men had a heart to do
something great for God.
So Lima's encounter with God wasan intensive evangelistic
movement and church growthmovement in the city of Lima,
peru, led by the missionaries ofthe Christian Missionary
(03:02):
Alliance.
Now that's a great group whenyou consider they were formed.
It was one of the most excitingthings that were formed because
it was an alliance of businesspeople who would come in and
financially back the ministryand lay people who would get
behind the ministry and Godcalled people that would do the
ministry.
So I think from the verybeginning of it it was an
(03:25):
extremely great idea andmovement.
In 16 years they literally sawthe city of Lima transformed.
It got so much attention thatpeople all over the world were
asking what is happening in Lima?
How is this happening?
I heard about it the first timein Arequipa and some of the
(03:48):
things I heard I'm not even surewere true, but it was told me
that they were runningevangelistic campaigns one week
and then discipleship next week,and then evangelistic campaign
the next week, for two solidyears with only one night a week
off.
They were working hard and Godused them to reach professional
(04:08):
and business people.
These people were in a time ofpolitical and economic change.
It had shaken up their worldand they were ready to listen.
So the Christian MysteryAlliance was seeing many people
in the middle and upper middleclasses seek spiritual answers
and get saved and lives bechanged.
(04:29):
The social upheaval and Ibelieve in my ministry that had
much to do with it.
When a country's in trouble andthere's a lot of bad things
going on, people from differentsocial levels begin to begin
interested in spiritual thingsand they want to know what can
happen, who can help them,what's the answer for their
(04:50):
lives.
Now, the Christian MissionaryAlliance was very smart.
They took advantage ofcommunications, so they went on
the Radio of the Pacific,because they finally had
permission to do that, because asort of religious freedom had
come into Peru and they wereable to reach a wider audience
(05:15):
and penetrate into thehouseholds.
Now here's something I'd liketo say to you about using the
media radio, television, evensocial media and the internet
and that is that when people aresometimes ashamed to leave
their homes and be seen going toan evangelical church that
would preach the gospel, they'rea little bit afraid to do that,
(05:37):
but they are interested andthey would if we could get over
the wall of their house and intotheir home in privacy where
they could study it on their own.
There are people who wouldnever be publicly associated
with you that might listen.
So they use the radio to getthat message out.
I know that in Adikipa my son,chris, had started a television
(05:59):
station and I used thattelevision station to preach as
much as anybody and I foundpeople knew me all over the city
that would never have come toour church.
So as they began working andreaching out, they began to
reach people from all differentlevels socially, all different
kind of social and economicbackgrounds were coming and
(06:19):
getting the gospel.
Because, you see, people wereopenly seeking spiritual
guidance, because it was a timeof upheaval, a time of
uncertainty.
The government was in trouble.
The United States is kind ofgetting to that point.
There are things going so wrong.
It's probably a good thing thatwould get people excited.
But now the Christian MysteryAlliance had in mind that they
(06:42):
would work together and so theywould tell you that what
contributed?
This is right out of their book,the book that was written, as I
told you, mission in the City,by Miguel Angel Palomino.
Miguel Angel Palomino, miguelAngel, michael Angel Palomino,
(07:04):
and he wrote this book and hesaid it was that there was
prayer and faith expecting Godto move, there was church unity,
there was teamwork and also theresources had been provided for
them to do the ministry.
Now, you know, I think we couldwork on that.
I think some of you you know Ithink we could work on that.
(07:26):
I think some of you you know wemight ought to be a little
better about praying andbelieving God and expecting him
to work, and maybe we ought toquit fighting among ourselves so
much.
Sometimes some churches can beso nitpicking, fussing and
fighting and we almost hate ourbrother in Christ, which is
totally not who we arebiblically and teamwork.
We're so independent infighting that we want the lead
(07:48):
and we want all the honor, andthen those that have the money
could give we could see God dosomething, palomino says.
Now let me explain something toyou.
They face great trials andsatanic attacks.
The media harassed them.
Even other evangelical leaderswere criticizing them for the
work they were doing trying toreach the city of Lima.
(08:10):
Now they started.
By the way, can I tell you thateven today their church is run,
one in 2000.
They have I mean they havemassive buildings and in very
visible positions and manypeople are attending their
churches.
But no matter how many trialscame their way, these
missionaries stood the test.
(08:31):
They could be harassed andcriticized and canceled, but
they stood the test in trustingin God and they continued doing
the evangelistic work that Godhad called them to do.
Now they openly stated we'renot going to use canned
techniques or principles fromchurch growth schools.
We're not just reading booksabout how to grow churches.
We are working hard and this iswhat they worked on.
(08:56):
Prayer.
There was a great deal ofprayer effort put into their
work.
As they would try to reach intothe city and start different
churches.
They organized into cell groupsthat would meet all over the
city praying and studying theBible and evangelizing in their
area.
They spent a long time trainingpeople how to win people to
Jesus Christ.
(09:16):
They spent a long time trainingpeople how to be counselors and
to share the gospel atinvitation times.
They spent time training peoplehow to do the music so the
musicians would be ready andthey would be able to get the
job done there as they wereworking.
And then they helped all thebelievers learn how to share
their testimony about what Godwas doing in their lives.
(09:38):
Now, that's something we couldreproduce, isn't it?
That's something that we couldput into place wherever we are.
So train people in your ministry.
Be careful to be training soulwinners and counselors and
musicians and teaching peoplehow to give their testimony.
Be careful to maybe start cellgroups where people are praying
(09:59):
and evangelizing within reach ofyour church.
Then they welcome people fromall socioeconomic backgrounds.
And Peru, like any other partof the world, is just eat up
with racism and socialism andclassism.
But the gospel changes that andour churches ought to be
(10:20):
reaching every nationality,every ethnicity that's in our
community.
They ought to be a part of ourchurch.
Now these men, as they madetheir plan, knew that one of the
biggest needs was going to bebiblical instruction.
Not just tell them how to getsaved, not just get them in
church, but teach them basicBible truths, teach them about
(10:43):
personal evangelism, teach themthe doctrine of the Holy Spirit,
teach them the truth of thegospel that they would be able
to share them.
I really love one of the otherthings they did.
They were really big on usingthe radio and homes.
So get out into the homes,start cell groups and reach out.
(11:03):
They had Bible classes on theradio so they could reach more
people.
We could do that.
We could.
I have a friend named Robertcanfield who has a ministry
called uh, taking the light andthey are working at getting
radio programming in differentplaces around the world and the
church that he's out of.
(11:23):
They have a whole ministry todo that.
We should be doing that.
We should be doing that on webpages and social media.
We should be working on that.
They worked as a team.
They realized that there'salmost a turf war between
pastors, like this is my areaand this is my area, and don't
(11:44):
you cross my border lines andthose are my people, and don't
you talk to my people andthere's a competition and don't
get messing with it.
But they decided that wasn'tworking.
They decided that they wouldchange from that model to a
cooperative approach, and so notonly did they have in mind to
(12:04):
do great things in the city ofLima, which is today a city of
well over 10 million people, butthey wanted to reach out into
the other areas of the city ofLima, start a lot of churches.
I'm pretty sure that withinthat 16 years, they started 26
churches all over Lima, and theystarted them with big money and
(12:25):
big groups of people.
We ought to consider that whenthey were starting churches,
they looked for key locationsthat gave them visibility and
accessibility to attractnewcomers and expand their reach
.
Now they had RG, letourneau andother ways of getting money.
They were also teaching theirpeople to give and to
(12:46):
participate because theybelieved in having a
self-sustaining, self-supportingchurch, sustaining
self-supporting church.
Even the churches that had moremoney were taking out of their
offering and raising money tohelp the other churches that had
less money, so they could geton their feet, so both churches
could help other churches.
What are we going to do?
That's not about building myministry, but about building the
(13:10):
kingdom and getting the gospelof Jesus Christ out to the world
.
It's really exciting.
In 1974, this group of peopleworking so intensely in Lima
held 21 evangelistic campaignsoutside of Lima and other parts
of the country and had 661decisions for Christ.
Now they found a great problemin their churches, a problem, I
(13:34):
think, that might exist in ourchurches.
They found that their churchesweren't ready to assimilate the
newly converted.
It's not hard for churches toform little cliques.
You know there's a rich guy inthe church, or key people in the
church, or old families in thechurch, or groups of people, and
(13:55):
so everybody kind of you knowthere's two or three little pods
of people that are in a churchand new people come in and they
can't find a way to fit in, andthe older church members don't
want anybody else working intheir ministry and it becomes a
problem.
And so they realized that theyhad to stop what they were doing
(14:16):
and train their people on howto assimilate new converts, how
to get new converts into thechurch and keep them in their
church.
So I want to challenge you Imean I've gone over quite a few
things and I will come back andfinish some of that in a minute
but I want to review with youwhat we've talked about.
(14:37):
We ought to be trying to reachour city and the world with the
gospel.
We ought to realize that peopleare hungry and looking for
answers about where they can goand what they can do.
We ought to see what we can doto use the radio or television
(14:57):
or what we can do to use theinternet or whatever to get our
gospel message out.
We ought to realize that we'reto reach every class of people.
We ought to realize that God isalready preparing hearts that
are hungry to hear the gospelmessage, and we ought to build
ministries of prayer, seeking topray and find the will of God
and God's power.
That's our goal.
(15:20):
We need God to work.
We need God's power.
We need God to move.
We need to wait on God.
We need to expect God to dogreat things.
We need to quit fightingamongst ourselves, and for many
of the friends I've grown upwith, that's almost an
impossibility.
We seem to enjoy findingsomething we disagree with so we
(15:41):
can shoot at each other.
We've got to stop that.
We've got to work as a team andwe've got to get together the
financial money to take care ofthings, and we have people that
can give.
Let's do it.
We've got to know that thedevil's always going to be
attacking us and when he shootsat our brother, we got to stand
with our brother.
We got to stand together.
The media might come after us.
(16:03):
Social media might come afterus.
Criticism might come from otherpreachers, but let's continue
to try to reach with the peoplewith the gospel.
Let's trust God and stand inthe face of trials and let's be
praying and working together.
Let's work at training people.
What's your church right now?
(16:23):
Right now, right now, whatplans have you got to train lay
leaders?
Are you teaching people how towin souls?
Are you teaching people how tobe counselors?
Are you training new musicians?
Are you teaching people how toshare their testimony?
Are you giving Bibleinstruction outside of what you
preach in the pulpit?
Are you using the radio andother ways to get the message
(16:44):
out?
Are you working as a team?
Are you trying to start otherchurches?
What's going on?
So the Christian MysteryAlliance said that these were
the transferable principles thatevery church could use that
allowed them to reach anattendance of thousands,
multiplied thousands, in variouschurches in 16 years Commitment
(17:09):
.
You got to be sold out Now ifthey really did two years of
revival and discipleship work.
You got to know that SacrificePay the price to get the gospel
out.
Concentrate your efforts, workas a team.
This is one of the mostpowerful ones, they said.
Be willing to change.
You see, only a crazy persondoes the same thing over and
(17:36):
over and expects a differentresult.
The way we've been reaching outfor people, the way we've been
being maybe ugly about things,maybe the way we have been
preaching grace to bring them inand law to change them instead
of letting God change themwhatever, we have got to be
willing to adapt biblicalmethods.
We got to mobilize thebelievers.
(17:59):
We got to get everybodyinvolved and everybody working,
and we got to start morechurches.
Now, one of the things they didthat's pretty hard to transfer,
to replicate unless we can get ahold of money is they made sure
(18:19):
that their buildings were invisible locations.
Now that's a problem because ittakes a lot of money to get on
the main avenue In Lima.
They're on two or three of themost prominent streets in the
city.
You drive right by theirbuilding.
But we can do something aboutthat.
If we will get the good kind ofsigns up put signs around the
(18:39):
city telling them where we are,if we will advertise, if we will
give out literature, if we'llput up posters, if we'll put up
banners that cross the street,if we will use the radio and
television, we can makeourselves much more visible.
So, whatever we need to do, weneed to stretch ourselves and go
(19:00):
beyond what we're going to goand what we've been doing.
One of the exciting things wasthat dozens of people testified
that they did not get savedbecause of the messages they
heard, but by the acts of lovethat they received from other
believers in their home.
The other believers are goinginto people's homes where there
(19:20):
were needs, a death in thefamily, somebody sick, somebody
with some kind of need, and theywere there to help them.
We have got to get our peopleout loving and helping other
people and being a blessing tothem.
The author of the book Missionin the City his name, is Miguel
(19:41):
Angel Palomino.
He said that he did his ownsurvey and found that less than
10% of the teenagers and youngpeople attending the youth
meetings had come to church aschildren, meaning they had
gotten saved as teenagers.
They'd been reached when theywere teenagers.
We need to be out on the streetmore looking for those people.
(20:02):
I am convinced that peoplebetween the ages of 15 and 25
are the people God will most useto help you do a lot of the
work in a church and to continuegrowing.
And then one of the main thingsthat they emphasize and I've
tried to share all of it withyou is academic training and the
training of leaders.
We have to have, like we have,the Peru Bible College.
(20:25):
We have to have that.
We have to be training ourpeople to know the Word of God
and to be able to preach theWord of God.
Now I read this book and I justthought I'd share it with you
today.
Isn't it time to dream aboutreaching our city?
Isn't it time to dream aboutGod doing something big with us?
Isn't it time to dream aboutGod doing something big with us?
(20:50):
Isn't it time to get a hold ofthe fact that God just might let
us see something big happen?
Let's stop being the loneranger.
Let's stop being the guy whowon't work with anybody else.
Let's stop being so focused onour own name, our own self, that
we would work with others.
All of my life, most everypreacher and missionary I've
(21:10):
ever known, is focused on thecorner of Elm and Maple, their
church, their location.
Missionaries don't like thatwhen they're raised in support,
but as soon as they go to thefield, they become just like
that.
It's my country, my city, mychurch, and nothing else seems
to matter.
Yeah, I'll take on somemysteries, but that's my church
doing that, and so it's alwaysabout me and my and so on.
(21:38):
Well, I hope that, uh, I tellyou what, uh, I love to try to
make available to some of youthat speak Spanish at least,
this PDF that can be found onthe internet Mission in the City
, lima, al Encuentro con Dios,and maybe you could get that,
and I would just love to see youget more involved and let's see
what we can do.
I hope that what I'm doing ishelping you and I want to
(21:59):
challenge you to share what youwould and you know here.
If you're on YouTube, I'm tryingto get it clear.
There it is.
There's the book FulfillingMarriage.
I so wish you'd help me praythat God would make it useful.
If you haven't gotten a copy,get a copy If you have gotten a
copy, and would give me arecommendation.
(22:21):
Whatever you think the value ofit is one star to five stars on
Amazon I would reallyappreciate it and I would like
to ask you to think about areyou called a checklist,
something you can get in thehands of young missionaries?
And right now the new book frompain to praise is just about to
(22:41):
come out.
I'd like to also ask you topray for me.
I am working on a book aboutdealing with cancer.
When you get the call that youhave cancer again for the third
time and you begin to wonderabout what's going to happen
with you.
I'm trying to share steps abouthow to deal with the news of
cancer, so I'm trying to write.
(23:02):
I wish you'd pray that Godwould use the time that I'm
writing to be a blessing toother people.
I just want to help.
I want to use whatever life Ihave left to bring honor to the
name and glory to the name ofthe Lord Jesus Christ.
So help me spread the wordabout the World Evangelism
Podcast, if you will.
Thank you so much for allyou're doing and I pray God
(23:24):
blesses you wherever you are.
Thank you so much.
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