In these next few paragraphs I want to tell you about an amazing man with an amazing ministry here in the Philippines. His name is Ray Calusay (pictured below with his grandson and very handsome friend!) and he comes from a place called Roxas City which is located way down south in the island of Davao. He has been an AoG pastor for many years and is now the General Superintendent for the Philippines AoG (the top man!) Yet, his heart and passion is still winning people to Christ and planting churches. He is a great preacher and a real 'people' person. He is a funny guy but with a huge heart. I have met him many times and have come to really love and respect Ray and his family.
Many years ago, Ray cried out to the Lord for a new church planting vision and strategy. He saw that the old models we worked with had lost their emphasis and effectiveness. The Lord put in his heart and spirit a new ministry called 'Summer of Service' or SOS. The basic principle and ethos behind this ministry is that volunteers are gathered from various churches. They have intensive training for one week and then they are put into Ministry Groups according to their giftings, character and ministries. Then, they are sent out to a town or village or city where they will plant a brand new church ... in three weeks! The people give up their entire vacation time ... to start a church. At the end, a Pastor and leadership team are left to continue the work and grow the church.
It has been going for many years in Roxas City, and when I asked pastor Ray how many churches they had planted he calmly told me "between 190-200". Gulp. Makes me kinda feel I haven't even reached the starting line!!
We adopted SOS into our Bible School curriculum three years ago and this year our students joined another 80 volunteers to plant three new churches in Northern Luzon. They finished their intensive training on Sunday and on Monday all the jeepneys rolled up to take them to their places of ministry for the next three weeks. They will be doing door to door ministry, starting cell groups, leading people to the Lord and on the last Sunday they will have the first opening service in each location. The teams are so exited and you can almost feel their joy. What an adventure. Most of the volunteers are teenagers or early twenties. Tremendous.
It got me thinking about back home. How much response would we get if we challenged people in the UK to give up 3-4 weeks of their holidays to plant some churches? I thought that maybe SOS is only for Filipinos in the Philippines. But Pastor Ray told me that they have successfully adapted SOS in Australia! Mmmm...
Our concept of church planting is people 'coming in' and doing their thing. I wonder if we will ever realize that our greatest resource is not finances, technology, good musical instruments, great venues ... but our own people who are willing to sacrifice a bit of luxury to find a bit of destiny.
One day ... I would love to see this happen in the UK.... what do you think???
Selah ...
Many years ago, Ray cried out to the Lord for a new church planting vision and strategy. He saw that the old models we worked with had lost their emphasis and effectiveness. The Lord put in his heart and spirit a new ministry called 'Summer of Service' or SOS. The basic principle and ethos behind this ministry is that volunteers are gathered from various churches. They have intensive training for one week and then they are put into Ministry Groups according to their giftings, character and ministries. Then, they are sent out to a town or village or city where they will plant a brand new church ... in three weeks! The people give up their entire vacation time ... to start a church. At the end, a Pastor and leadership team are left to continue the work and grow the church.
It has been going for many years in Roxas City, and when I asked pastor Ray how many churches they had planted he calmly told me "between 190-200". Gulp. Makes me kinda feel I haven't even reached the starting line!!
We adopted SOS into our Bible School curriculum three years ago and this year our students joined another 80 volunteers to plant three new churches in Northern Luzon. They finished their intensive training on Sunday and on Monday all the jeepneys rolled up to take them to their places of ministry for the next three weeks. They will be doing door to door ministry, starting cell groups, leading people to the Lord and on the last Sunday they will have the first opening service in each location. The teams are so exited and you can almost feel their joy. What an adventure. Most of the volunteers are teenagers or early twenties. Tremendous.It got me thinking about back home. How much response would we get if we challenged people in the UK to give up 3-4 weeks of their holidays to plant some churches? I thought that maybe SOS is only for Filipinos in the Philippines. But Pastor Ray told me that they have successfully adapted SOS in Australia! Mmmm...
Our concept of church planting is people 'coming in' and doing their thing. I wonder if we will ever realize that our greatest resource is not finances, technology, good musical instruments, great venues ... but our own people who are willing to sacrifice a bit of luxury to find a bit of destiny.
One day ... I would love to see this happen in the UK.... what do you think???
Selah ...
1 comment:
praying for batch of SOS volunteers to come to Tuguegarao next year (2008), where i can contribute and share the talents He has given me. Cornerstone Church Tuguegarao (CCT)will then be born!
Rommel T.
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