Latin America
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CHile
ICR VITACURA - SANTIAGO, CHILE
Iglesia Cristo Redentor Vitacura
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Contact: Diego Pacheco Torrealba - [email protected]
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At A Glance: ICR Vitacura is a small family church.
We are part of the Anglican Church in Chile and we want to live our whole life as a family, centered in Jesus and focused on serving, loving and sharing the Good News of Jesus with our friends and neighbours. |
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OUR MISSIONAL STORY:
1. What’s the story of how your church was planted, replanted, or revitalized? |
We started as a replant attempt 4 years ago. A sister church wanted to help and sent 2 families to help. We've been since developing a Missional Culture and after lock-down we are launching a full on missional church approach.
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2. Where did your vision and conviction to be a Missional Church come from? |
From Scriptures. I was struggling with Mathew 28 and the Great Comission. I came to understand that is a call for every christian everyday everywhere. And the church should be the family of those who are trying to trust and obey Jesus in that direction.
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3. What is it about your church that you believe makes it a Missional Church? |
Our way of understanding the Gospel, as the renewing of all things in Jesus. Our way of understanding mission as the interpersonal sharing of life towards Jesus. Our way of shaping the structure of our church rhythms to strengthen and encourage people to become part of the family of Jesus, living under his love and wisdom and with a thirst to serve, love and share the gospel with the people our Lord puts in our everyday life.
We are missional, because we understand our identity as images/reflections of the missional God that sent His Son to heal and save the world. |
4. How are you structured/organized to accomplish your Missional vision? |
We have 3 main structures:
Sunday Celebration (with an emphasis on centering our lives in Jesus) Growth Groups (with an emphasis in praying and organizing our rhythms to live on mission), and Life groups (small groups of fellowship with an emphasis on mutual pastoring under the word of God and the power of the Spirit). Besides, we have a Missionary Team that is in charge of driving the church to really be a family, centered in Jesus and focused in Mission. |
5. How are you training and coaching your people to live with Missional intentionality? |
We have a monthly meeting to enjoy lunch, work together for the church, and get missional focused training. Also we have periodical coaching meetings with those who are leading others.
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6. What are the most important lessons you’ve learned as a Missional Church? |
1.- The church is not a movie theater. Church in the western culture have develop a client-mindset. And it thinks of the church as an event we witness, instead of a community we are part of. The Jesus defined church is not a show, is a family living in the purposes of God in Jesus.
2.- The gospel is not just about our eternal salvation. The gospel is also a message about Jesus being king of our lives and the whole world. We can do mission because our Lord is king of the whole universe and He is the one in mission, we get to be invited to go with him. 3.- Missional living is abundant life. To live by and for Jesus everyday, means you get to be who you are. You get to be in your place, and it is eternally fulfilling. This is not just a discipline or a thing we do, is who we are and how we live as truly humans. |
Missional Progress
Coming Soon...
COLOMBIA
REDIL BELEN - MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA
Redil Belen
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Contact: Jonathan Calle - [email protected]
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At A Glance:
We are a church in Medellín (Colombia), which is part of a network of Baptist churches called "Fibec - Redil". Our church has a plural leadership of Elders, and carries out the shepherding, discipleship and mission of the church through Missionary Communities. We are located in a residential sector of condominiums where more than 35,000 people live, most of them young people and young professional families. Our vision is to be a great family that, driven by the Gospel, brings a social transformation to our city, showing Christ in love and service, proclaiming HIS hope of life, and teaching others to walk with HIM. |
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OUR MISSIONAL STORY:
1. What’s the story of how your church was planted, replanted, or revitalized? |
Iglesia Redil Belen (A baptist churc), was planted in 2007 but by 2016 the church was facing financial sustainability issues, poor attendance and leadership exhausted from trying different things to grow.
So in 2016 I was sent by the church planter of this community, to start a church revitalization process. It was a difficult process, due to my lack of experience, exhaustion of leadership and financial need, however, along the way the Lord put together with my wife and I, a family of leaders of this church supported our arrival and walk with us in the early years: The Gallego family. Together with them we began a process of getting to know the church, and letting ourselves be known by it. After four months we had some clarity on the process that we had to carry out. We begun discipling the membership in the understanding of our calling as a members, we review the foundations of the Gospel that is the engine of our mission, and we begin to pray for a refocus of our mission according to the original purpose of this Church, a sector called "The hill of the Bernal". The Lord placed some ministry partners who were key in prayer, mentoring and financial support. The First Baptist Church of Covingon LA. During these 6 years they have accompanied us in this revitalization process. In 2017 we moved the church to a new area with 35,000 inhabitants and no Christian churches inside, and we started a ministry of serving the community through family restoration programs. However we noticed that the mission became "doing events", but it was not the lifestyle of the church. This reality led us to explore ways to grow in missionary life, and that is how we came to know the ministry of Missional made simple. By being in dialogue and training with Todd, we began to apply the principles of Missional Communities: "A family on Mission". It has been a difficult road, especially breaking old parameters about Christian life and ministry. However, we see with joy how the Lord has been allowing us to experience more the ministry of one another, and he has challenged us to go together in the mission. |
2. Where did your vision and conviction to be a Missional Church come from? |
In 2017 we moved the church to a new area with 35,000 inhabitants and no Christian churches inside, and we started a ministry of serving the community through family restoration programs. However we noticed that the mission became "doing events", but it was not the lifestyle of the church.
This reality led us to see the need to review what the mission of the church was, what discipleship meant, and how we could live a life that was truly mission focused. In summary, ways to grow in missionary life, and that is how we came to know the ministry of Missional made simple. |
3. What is it about your church that you believe makes it a Missional Church? |
I believe that the awareness that we now have that we must walk with Jesus also join us in his mission.
This thought has made us, in very intentional ways, seek to build ways to know, serve and love non-believers, while we seek to make liturgies more accessible to them, and groups that literally focus on going together in the mission of serving them, love them as they proclaim Christ. |
4. How are you structured/organized to accomplish your Missional vision? |
We are organized in a plural leadership, in which we encourage the ministry of one another as a family, but we have also organized the church in Missionary Communities in which we grow together, care for each other and love each other, while going on mission together.
We have left aside the "programs" a little; because we believe that although they are useful, they are not our first missionary strategy: each member and the family together is. |
5. How are you training and coaching your people to live with Missional intentionality? |
We are doing a training with Todd Morr on a monthly basis, introducing Missional Communities. This in turn has led us to mentor each community on a monthly basis in which we share the vision with the community leaders.
Now we are focusing on strengthening nuclei that have this same vision, while it has become a constant message in every sermon and liturgy of the church: life on mission |
6. What are the most important lessons you’ve learned as a Missional Church? |
I think the main learnings have been:
- The mission is not "only" individual, but as a family it is more efficient - Each member has a role in the body and the mission. There are no observers or consumers in the church - Life in family rhythms is the perfect place to see the ministry of one another - Evangelism and mission is deeply relational |
Missional Progress
Coming Soon...
Brazil
Missional Churches Coming Soon...
