Last Sunday I had the opportunity to attend 5 services-- 1 of our church in Rosarito and the other 4 in the churches of my students.
We've been learning about teaching methods and principles. It has been a long time coming- almost 2 years- since we started the process- and this is really the proof as to whether or not they "got it" or not!
So we went to Church at Capilla Calvario Rosarito -- our church in Rosarito. We have 3 services each day to accommodate the growing church. 5 or 6 years ago they were 40 people meeting together starting a church in Northern Baja. Today it is a dynamic Bilingual church in a bicultural area. We live in a unique area in that 50% of Mexicans have their visas and can cross the US border-- and many do- for shopping, entertainment, work and to visit friends and family (many of whom cannot cross borders). We also receive the lions share of deported Mexicans from the US. Every night hundreds of Mexicans being deported are dropped off at the border and told "good luck" as they enter a country that has become foreign to them. A few of the folks in our church are in that category. They were brought over into the US as preschoolers, raised there, schooled there. It is home. They are culturally Americans. But upon getting in trouble with the law, they are dropped off in Tijuana with a few bucks and a set of clothes. We have many of these folks in our church who either found Jesus in Jail, or while they've been here in Mexico. They are bilingual, bicultural and are learning to fit in both cultures.
Then we have the missionaries who are from the US and Canada and other places. They are not fully North American anymore nor Mexican - but again are bicultural- many bilingual. We congregate here too.
The church is now over 400 strong and continuing to grow. This summer they baptised over 40 new believers. The church is growing numerically and spiritually. One new missionary said recently that she has grown more spiritually at our church in the last 4 months in Mexico than she ever has. We are very thankful for our church and their dedication to preach the Word of God, verse by verse, chapter by chapter no matter who it offends. Every Sunday People are offered the gift of Salvation in Jesus and almost every Sunday someone repents and places their faith in Jesus.
Well after being in the second service last Sunday (from 10-11:15am) We went home, had a quick lunch and Ivan and I went out to the Colonias to listen to my students teach.
It was a bit of a roller coaster day in that somethings went very well and others were quite disappointing.
We were late to the first church, but when we got there they were still singing (probably an hour or more after they started!) As we got there, they shuffled us up to the front seats (!!) in a church of about 50 people. They had an old Fender Monitor for their speaker in the front. All sound that came out of it was LOUD and SHRILL. And we were about 6 feet from the speaker.
Mexicans are generally pretty emotional, so this is shown in church as well. By the time the next round of singing was done, I could barely hear!
My student did her teaching and it was OK. I don't know how often she gets to teach or preach-- but I think it's fairly often. So I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't better, but it was pretty good. She had some good points and her interpretation was good, but she was missing a lot of application. Overall I was pretty pleased with the job she did.
We were late and so had to leave as people came up for "ministry time" ( to be prayed for) and so excused ourselves and rushed off to our next assignment.
We were 15 minutes late and at this church- they start on time. So the student there decided to pray lots and give lots of background information to stall until we got there!! It was Sunday school with about 20 adults.
She did a fantastic job and was passionate about what she was teaching. She did an excellent job of communicating it in an understandable way and we were all able to come out of it with some good points of application. I was VERY impressed with her work, but I was expecting it too. She is always asking Questions in class, participating, investigating-- asking about their own denominational teachings and where they are found in the Scriptures (sometimes they are not!!) and has had one of the most teachable spirits int he class.
Next was church service time at the same church-- we sang for an hour or so, had some time where people could come up and give testimony and then the teaching time. This is where the roller coaster went down again. The speaker there had not done the assignment as I had asked him. It even seemed as if he had completely ignored it and went back to the old way of doing things. The normal way of "preaching" in some of these churches is to read a passage of Scripture and start speaking about other things!! And that is what he did for about 30 minutes. No life application, no real meat. Just milk.
I came away from that place REALLY discouraged. But not surprised. He's been leading in churches for 11 years. And it is very difficult to teach someone new ways of doing things. Although he has been faithful at class, he hasn't always seem convinced of what I'm teaching.
I had the chance to talk to him the other day. I have been very gracious to them in the past, and patient ( they mention this all the time...) so I'd realized I'd earned the right to be hard for a few minutes. I called him out on his lack of preparation and his lack of study. I admonished him to start feeding the people meat or else they will always be babes in Christ. His response was that on Sunday and Wednesday evenings they don't want teaching-- they want music, prayer, testimonies and a little preaching. I've been down here long enough to know that that is not enough for these folks. What happens is they get that for a while, never grow and then leave the church-- either for good- or to search for another one. There are countless stories of churches growing and collapsing because no one ever grew and figured out how to live in community. So as soon as one little thing goes wrong- they bolt and take people with them.
I am going back in 2 weeks to re-test him. and I'm hoping it goes much better.
We had to leave there early too because the next church was a ways away (turned out to be an hour away) in the middle of Tijuana's hills and canyons in an area I'd never been to before.
It was surprisingly dark in the area-- I suppose that there is little electricity in the neighbourhoods and that that there is up there is stolen...
I parked beside someone Mustang ( the horse kind- not the Ford kind) and went into the little ramshackle church building. It was very small (probably seats for 45 folks) and again they shuffled us up to the front. We arrived at the last song of an hours worth of worship to hear the last message of the day at 7pm at night.
Their speaker system was incredible. They had 2 speakers outside so the entire canyon could here them- they were about 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide and really good quality. Inside they had 2 speakers that were about 5 feet tall. Again we got to sit in front of them! It is hard to believe the speaker systems that these churches have. Some have excellent sound systems and no roof even-- their priorities definitely lie in the ability to make the sound ring out in the church and the neighbourhood!!
I wasn't sure what to expect from this speaker. He is a quiet student, but always seems reflective in class. He is a student of God's Word, very humble, trusts Jesus for everything. When he does speak in class- it is always worth listening to. When he gave us an overview of his message, I thought I was maybe a bit hard on him as I asked him what the result he wanted out of his congregation who will hear it. How do you want them to change. Well he took that very well and ran with it. He is not a regular preacher. He is very new to leadership in the church, but his was the best message, by far, of the day. At the end of the message he asked people if God had been speaking to them to come up front for prayer. Usually this prayer time in these churches is reserved for prayer for healing, or release from addictions etc. But here he specifically asked if God was speaking to them and asking them to repent and become more Christlike to come up to the front for prayer. He did so in a humble way, but with authority. about 15-20 people of the 45 folks came up asking for prayer, indicating their need to change.
I stood there and reflected on my roller coaster day, some getting it and applying themselves, others not. And God seems to speak to my heart. He seemed to say that not everyone gets it-- not everyone wants to work at their relationship with Him- not everyone is teachable. But every once in a while you catch one or two or three that get it... that want to learn, want to grow and want to serve Him and see others become more like Him. And this guy-- He got it... I pray that he continues on!!
We have 2 more courses to take-- Church History and Missions / evangelism,/ Discipleship.
Please continue to pray that they "Get it" and become servants who lead.
God bless,
Mike
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