The First Bible and The Fishing Net
The fishing net is a metaphor for training workers in accordance with 2 Timothy 2:2 where Paul instructed young Timothy:
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others (NIV 1984).
In order for the harvest to be conserved, thousands of trained workers, both clergy and especially laypeople, are needed. In our part of the Philippines, our vision is to plant a church within walking distance of every Filipino, meaning we need an unbelievable number of trained workers to do the job in just our part of the land.
In our part of the Philippines, the major strands of our net are three fold. The first is to train them through Evangel Bible College, our local Bible school. Although our school is small, we have consistently graduated young men and women who have become fine pastors and lay leaders. But not all are called to be church planters. Second, seeing the need for more churches and believing the prophetic word from God included mobilizing and training laypeople, my wife began a program in 2007 that called for training ordinary church members to plant house churches in their communities. These churches, in turn, are being challenged to plant more house churches. We began with three church planting schools strategically placed throughout our district and have since expanded to fourteen. To date, 184 people have graduated from this program, with more than a hundred more slated to graduate next month. So far, at least 207 house churches have been planted, and more are on the way to meet the staggering need for bringing the gospel to the Filipinos in our region. The third strand is a leadership enhancement program, which I have been asked to create, and is currently under development. This program will seek to develop and strengthen those already in ministry and will most likely include an ongoing personal mentoring program.
These three strands neatly intersect with other inner strands that are designed to strengthen our fishing net. The Fire Bible is one of those inner strands. For several years in a row, we were able to give a copy of the Fire Bible to each graduate from the Bible Schoolhelping them to both study and teach sound, Pentecostal doctrine in their churches. We have also placed copies of the Fire Bible in the schools library for the use of the students and faculty. Nationwide, many other pastors purchased a Fire Bible in book stores. In total, more than 8,000 copies have been sold, including several dozen by pastors in our region through a payment installment program that we offered for a time. We have almost exhausted the 10,000 copies printed for us by LIFE Publishers and are looking at reprinting in the next year. If you can help us with the costs of reprinting, please visit www.lifepublishers.org.
To date, the house church planting program has used other inner strands by employing materials, partially financed through the American Assemblies of Gods Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge (BGMC) fund, which were created specifically for planting house churches. As the number of churches expands, hopefully exponentially, house church leaders are calling for additional training. In the coming months, we will be taking a look at the Fire Bible, as well as other materials, to see how it might be used in this program. The same will be true for the leadership enhancement program currently under development. Like a good fishing net, we need a variety of strands for catching and keeping the fish.
Category: Ministry