The need for biblical church planting is tremendous all over Mexico. The city of Guadalajara, home to over 6 million people, is religiously steeped in the traditions of Catholicism. There are few evangelical Christian churches in the city in comparison with the overall population.

Guadalajara is a very diverse city in every way. People from all over the country end up in this large city all the time looking for economic opportunities. It is a strategic, central location to establish a beachhead for the Gospel. Making disciples of Christ in Guadalajara will certainly have an impact on the rest of Mexico. The best method for reaching this city for Christ and ensuring that there will be long term, lasting fruit, is by church planting. The local church is God’s ordained instrument for reaching the world with the Gospel.

Itinerant evangelistic ministries, although when preaching a Biblical Gospel they are helpful and have their place, often fail when it comes to long term impact. The Gospel is often preached, the Holy Spirit moves and draws souls to Christ, but the evangelist leaves and they soon scatter as sheep without a Shepherd. Thus the real fruit is almost completely lost, especially in areas and countries where there are very few Biblical churches teaching sound doctrine. Only by pouring ourselves out in specific people, evangelizing them and also discipling them, and establishing them into Biblical fellowships that serve as ideal spiritual environments for maturing believers into effective disciples of Christ, will we see the real fruit that glorifies Christ the most and impacts Mexico for the glory of the Lord. Church planting is the most practical and effective way for fulfilling the Great Commission.

The Great Commission is not to just preach the Gospel to everyone everywhere (it includes that) but it also consists of discipling those who respond to the preaching of the Word in faith. This can be seen by harmonizing the account of the imperative of the Great Commission of Mark with Matthew:

And he said unto them, ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.’ (Mark 16:15-16)

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.’ (Matthew 28:18-20)

As the apostles obeyed this Great Commission and put it into practice in the book of Acts, immediately upon receiving the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill the humanly impossible task before them, they planted churches everywhere. In fact, they wasted no time. A church was planted on the very first day upon the coming of the Holy Spirit in His fullness on the day of Pentecost. The model set before us in the book of Acts includes:

1. Devoted prayer and waiting upon God for His blessing and direction.
2. Receiving power through the promised Holy Spirit to fulfill the mission.
3. Evangelism through the verbal proclamation of the Gospel.
4. Conversions through the ministry of Spirit-empowered evangelism.
5. Baptism and incorporation of the converts into the assembly of believers.
6. Establishment of the believers into the covenant community of a local fellowship.
7. Continual discipleship of the believers into maturity by observing the means of grace.

These steps can be confirmed by reading Acts 1-2. The Biblical model of missions is the establishment of local churches as God’s ordained instrument to reach the world. As these steps become a reality, and God raises up leaders from among those being discipled who are gifted with a proclamation ministry (Ephesians 4:8-12), the process begins all over again and the work multiplies. As one local church grows and matures, and God raises up laborers from its midst, the church expands its territory and more churches get planted, saturating entire regions with the Gospel. This is the model of the book of Acts.

The apostle Paul followed this same model. Everywhere he went, his first priority was to evangelize and establish local churches. As soon as someone would get converted under his ministry, he would labor to incorporate them into a local body of believers who had likewise come to faith in Christ and immediately begin to teach and disciple them more profoundly. Over time, God would gift and raise up leaders from among the people who would be able to oversee the flock of God, and the work in each city would become entirely autonomous (not dependant on any outside support). Paul would then be free to move on to the next city and do the same thing all over again, thereby saturating the known world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Our burden is to be as Biblical as possible in our mission and vision. Therefore, in obedience to the Great Commission, we will labor toward establishing a fellowship of baptized believers in the city of Guadalajara who are committed to obeying the commands of Jesus Christ and to being a part of a community of faith. A Biblical church is not just any people meeting together in the name of Jesus. There are certain guidelines outlined in the Scriptures that must be followed before something can be considered a church in Biblical terms:

-         There must be truly converted people who belong to Jesus Christ. (This is a given.)

-         These converted people must be baptized and incorporated into the fellowship of a local body of believers. (Acts 2:41)

-         There must be a certain number of converted persons meeting together. (At least 3 persons or families? –This point is not clearly defined in Scripture, although there is clearly the principle of community in Scripture. Regardless of the exact number and variety of persons, there must be enough to form a community of faith, even a small one.)

-         They must be committed to meeting together, generally speaking, on a weekly basis (or more) for the purpose of worshipping God (Acts 2:47), receiving Biblical teaching, exercising spiritual gifts, praying together, exhorting one another, taking the Lord’s Supper (as often as desired), and to fellowship. (Acts 2:42)

-         They see their gathering as an expression of the body of Christ on earth and there is commitment to the group as a local church congregation. (Acts 2:47, 11:26, 14:27, 16:5, 1 Corinthians 11:18, Hebrews 10:25)

While there are certainly other characteristics of a flourishing healthy church (such as a plurality of pastors/elders, the ministry of deacons where necessary, organization of members, community outreach, mercy ministries, sending missionaries, etc.) it seems like the characteristics above identify the core basics of a Biblical church. Therefore it is our goal to establish a congregation that has all of the above qualities. 

We realize that churches don’t just get planted by accident. There has to be the deliberate focus to plant a Biblical church and all activities must focus on laboring toward that goal. Here’s some of our generalized strategies:

- To pray earnestly that God would save sinners. We can no more save sinners and plant a church than we can raise Lazarus from the dead. This is His work, and we are totally dependant on Him.

- To launch forth in an aggressive evangelistic thrust around the city and be engaged in deliberate evangelistic activity 5 days per week. This will be done through open air proclamation of the Gospel in the busy city center, through personal witnessing, leading evangelistic Bible studies, distributing tracts and literature, and other evangelistic activities.

- To invite all receptive and responsive people to a weekly meeting in our home where they can come to hear the Word of God and be taught more thoroughly. In this weekly meeting, we will sing hymns and teach from the Bible and have a time of fellowship afterwards.

- Upon gathering some persons together in the weekly meeting on a regular basis, and upon them being converted and baptized, to teach them Biblical principles of the church as a covenant community and to see them committed to the local assembly, which will continue to meet together.

- To continue in the process of prayer, evangelism, and Bible teaching until a solid local body of believers is raised up and established and the Lord continues to add to their number.

If the Lord is pleased to perform such miraculous works and move in our midst by His power and grace to establish a local congregation, there are numerous possibilities from there which would depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit, the size and resources of the congregation, and many other factors. When a solid group of believers is established in a local congregation, further vision and ministry options can be prayed over and initiated from there. Ideally, our ultimate goal is not just a little local body of believers, but a flourishing church that explodes into the community, city and country around them. A church planting movement is ideal.

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