Meet Josh.
Josh is a young pastor of a new church development in the city of Colón, with an evangelistic dream to reach the young people around him for Christ.
He grew up in a family of ministers, hearing the gospel preach. This type environment nurtured an evangelistic passion in his heart.
He learned
- how to worship,
- how to preach, and most of all,
- how to reach the youth of his generation for Christ.
His mom and dad pastored a growing church in a distant area between Colón and Panama City, until a family tragedy struck.
One afternoon a few years ago, Josh’s father died instantly from a heart attack after a morning service.
Josh and his mother were now the pastors of this congregation, but sensed a growing call to plant a brand new church.
Currently, new congregation is about 3 years old and we have been invited on a few occasions to provide training.
Listen to Josh’s Heart
A few weeks ago, Josh told me what was on his mind. You could hear the frustration and disappointment in his young voice.
“There is no one here to train me in planting a church planting church.”
“I can’t find this information in Spanish”
“I can’t find networks of mentors for church planting here.”
Can you train me?
After telling me different stories about the false starts they’ve had because of his lack of any kind of formal training, Josh looks at me and says:
Will you provide some training for me and our team? We really need some help.
We’d like for you to meet with us over the next six months to share your experiences so that we can learn from them.
I have a lot of wisdom to share with Josh.
He doesn’t have a university degree. He doesn’t have a Master’s of Divinity.
But he is a skilled communicator and visionary leader that has gathered a core group of young people around him.
There are plenty of skilled church planters in the US, and lots of available books on church planting and theory in English. Those resources are out of reach for this young team.
However, we are here in Panama.
We can sit at a table and share our stories. We can provide the interactivity that can’t happen from a book in a different language. We can share the insights from being involved in two urban church plants.
Our experience, training, preparation and location has equipped us to be an available mentor to Josh and his team.
Our strategic location allows us to come alongside this pastor and his family [pictured below] and help him fulfill his calling to reach his generation for Christ.
Help us invest in Pastors like Josh
This invitation is part of our core calling:
to come alongside church planters and pastors in Latin America to help them reach their communities for Christ.
Several of you who read this newsletter already financially support our work with pastors like Josh. Thank you!
We want others to help us invest in Josh. Make your financial gift or monthly contribution by following the directions here.
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