Gary Short

Relief or Church planting/evangelism, which is most important? Meeting human need and giving people hope and faith for their future and the future of their children may be among the top priorities of missions in undeveloped countries.  If you have a strong emphasis on evangelistic activity you may at first thought take exception to that statement; if you are strongly motivated by humanitarian aid you probably will also especially when I add that I believe that the most effective way to fulfill that goal is through church planting.  Let me tell you 4 short stories that will, I hope, convince both factions.  In undeveloped countries relief and evangelism are you right and left foot, you won’t get far without both.

Bringing healing and stability into the life of a rape victim. One of our churches planted a church in a hapless little village of which the most outstanding feature was that all the men seemed to be drunk, literally, all the time.  This appears to have changed somehow in the last year since the church rose up; the gospel seems to have an effect that goes far beyond even the life transformation of individual believers.  There was a 16 year old mother living in this village, who was isolated, scorned by the people around her, in desperation about the future prospects of her and her baby.  When our church was planted there, she began attending and soon surrendered here life to the Lord.  Her mother had died a few years earlier, her father; a military man had sent her to live with an uncle while he was away serving.  The uncle raped her regularly for months, until she became pregnant, then he kicked her out.  There she was, all alone and desperate, in the village where we happened to plant a church.  The church became her life line of support.

Through her new relationship with the Lord and her new friends in the church this young girl came out of her isolation and began to have hope again.  Soon, through the prayers of her and her church-mates, God did the impossible and provided a way for her to return to school.  Now she is a bright young woman who is looking forward to her future.  There are no social services in the bush; without a compassionate church these stories would not happen.

Confronting the alcoholism scourge. In another village, we have a thriving church, which one of our teams planted.  There, through a partnership with an American church and a Christian NGO we were able to get a borehole (water well) drilled, which instantly lightened the burden of hundreds of women.  Let me tell you just one man’s story that would never have happened if the church had not been planted there.  He was an alcoholic, got drunk every day; his marriage was on the verge of ending. This particular morning, he had been up drinking all night and was on his way home to sleep it off so he could do it all over again the next night.  Because of the church that had been planted there, a ministry team was in that village that morning doing a school assembly.  This man herd music, went to investigate, got saved, started attending the church and was freed from alcohol.  There is no 12 step program in the bush; without a church that demonstrates the power of God; this man would still be a drunk. His wife is happy now!  By the way, he is has become a bold lion for Jesus that, now pastors two churches.

Solving the delinquency problem among young men. There is the young man who by age 24 had already become known as a “town drunk”, one of those fellows who hangs out on the street, begins drinking early in the day, whose only real goal is to drink and party.  He attended a crusade but did not respond to any of the opportunities to surrender his life to Christ.  However a week or two later he could not shake out of his mind how he had felt at the crusade, so he decided to check out the church that we planted during the crusade.  He came to church and that same urge to surrender his life to God that he had felt at the crusade gripped him again during church.  He surrendered his life to Christ right there, was delivered from his alcohol bondage and became a key part of the new church plant.  Later, because he was sober and an upstanding citizen he got the opportunity to go to a teachers college in Uganda and finish his education to be a secondary school teacher.  He just graduated in July and has returned home to teach in a local school and pastor one of our churches.  His life was transformed and he became a productive member of the community because we planted a church.  In the bush there are no social programs reaching out to wayward young men, only a vibrant church can offer them an alternative to their idle lives.

Answering mental health issues. I just wrote about the witchdoctor whose life and family were recently transformed.  (Go to our blog on the webpage to read more).   Here was a man hearing demonic voices urging him to kill his wife.  He was on the verge of a psychotic criminal act, but instead he was set free and his life was transformed.  This happened because our people planted a church in his village.  When he became desperate he went to our church for help.  There are no mental health clinics in the bush.  Church planting is the key to individual, community and country transformation.

Church planting is not just about a place for people to go on Sunday morning it is about life transformations.  It is about community renewal, it is about building nations that have a moral, generous and God fearing culture and foundation.  Biblical church planting is about bringing the Gospel and Kingdom of Jesus Christ to men women and children in a way that gives them new and transformed lives.  The greatest human need in my view is to hear and then respond to the Gospel.    When the gospel comes to a community, which includes redemptive preaching and church planting, it sets in motion a whole range of other effects, such as those in the stories I’ve just told.  The church is God’s means to bring this about; when the biblical church comes into a village it brings with it a wealth of future hope. We would love to hear your thoughts on church planting.

God has challenged us to plant 25 more churches in 18 months.  Frankly this is an impossible goal, but we believe that God had given it to us.  In the last few years we have been privileged to see 23 churches planted and almost 70,000 people make decisions for Christ.   We have teams waiting right now to go into new areas to begin planting churches.   We are looking for partners to help us accomplish this goal.  If you would like to dialog with us about how you can partner with us to win people to Christ and plant churches click on this link and tell us how you can be involved.