Koinonia 2014

Since our church has multiple sites, every three or four months we have a joint "Koinonia" service.  Yesterday more than 1000 member of the various Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva sites met together to hear Pastors Julio Contreras and Steve Kern present the 2014 vision for the church and witness the ordination of 24 new deacons.

As you can imagine it is amazing to hear and be a part of more than 1000 voices singing praises to our God.  Yesterday's music included "Our God," "Great is Thy Faithfulness," "We Adore You," "In Christ Alone," "The King" and "Praise and Honor."  Some of the songs you will recognize, but others were originally written in Spanish.

 

Pastor Julio presented the 2014 vision for the church, "Expansion3.0," which included:

• Continuing to advance all of the ministries of the church
• Sending a two missionary couples to Bogota to plant a new Vida Nueva church
• Adding additional services at the Lourdes and Apopa sites to accommodate growth
• Remodeling the sanctuary at Miravalle and constructing an anex for the administrative offices
• Offering seminary classes online
• Offering a new cycle of IDEM (discipleship 2) classes
• Searching for God's strategy on how to unify the Miravalle and Crown Plaza sites
• Establishing the program "Love and Respect" to reach married couples for Christ

We also witnessed the ordination of 24 new deacons who were nominated by the church members and approved by the pastors.  There were new deacons from each of our four sites (Apopa, Crown Plaza, Lourdes, Miravalle.)  What a blessing to see Godly men willing to take on a greater leadership role in the church.

Pastor Steve preached from Acts 11:19-25 focusing on the importance of having the hand of the Lord upon the church/the believer, seeing the grace of God in the life of the church/believer and working with purpose of heart to see people added to the Lord.

It was an awesome service and one typical for a Koinonia (started at 10:00 AM and finished at 12:45 PM.)

Lives Were Changed

The 40+ people who came from Valley Baptist, Bakersfield, CA; Copper Springs Church, Clovis, CA; Faith Baptist Church, Youngsville, NC; and Crossroads Church, Benson, NC, and the group from Vida Nueva saw God do a great work this week.  There were more than 700 professions of faith and, with the exception of a few group presentations downtown and after the movie each night, these decisions were the result of faithful one-on-one sharing of the gospel message by the team.  Although a large number of professions of faith is not abnormal, they are usually the result of a combination of sharing lessons/gospel in the schools in the mornings and one-on-one in the evenings.  Not so this time.  Because the decisions were made with individual team members and their translator, the personal information they gathered is likely to be complete and accurate which makes the follow-up process much easier.

The campaigns were divided among our various church sites:  Friday and Saturday night we worked with Pastor Koky Lopez and IBVN Lourdes;

Monday and Tuesday with Pastor David Guadron and the IBVN Crown Plaza site;

Wednesday with Pastor Alex Hernandez and the IBVN Miravalle site;

Thursday with Pastor Chitty Lopez and IBVN Apopa 

and Friday with Pastor Manuel Orellana and IBVN Coyolito.  

I know I've mentioned it before, but if you've never had the opportunity to participate in a mission trip, then you have missed out on an unbelievable blessing.  A trip is "life changing" for those who are now part of God's family and for the team members who were able to see God work through them.  Please pray about what God would have you do--we'd love to see you here in Central America this year.

Happy Anniversary Vida Nueva

Here in Central America, church anniversaries are celebrated every year.  I really like this idea!  It gives the pastors and congregation a time to reflect on what God has done in and through the church in the last 5, 10, 15 (fill in the blank) years and to dream about the future!

Yesterday, we celebrated the 22nd anniversary of Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva.  Pastor Steve Kern took a minute to explain that we pattern our annual celebration on Jehova's message to the nation of Israel to celebrate their rescue from Egypt every year during the passover season.  As Christians, we no longer celebrate passover, instead we celebrate Christ's resurrection.  But, the idea of remembering what God has done for the church (from one year to the next) is one that serves the church well.

These days, the church meets at four different sites and has six distinct services.  This Sunday we were 1000+ strong at the Crown Plaza Hotel.  Wow!  The music, the historical video, the message and the fellowship were awesome.  I've included a couple of pictures from the celebration!

When you read this, take a moment to reflect on the history of the church you attend.  When was the last time you looked back to the rich history of your church and clearly saw the hand of God moving.  If you haven't done that lately, I encourage you to try it--it's a great way to build your faith!

"Better is one day in Your house than 1000 elsewhere!

 Praying for our newest missionaries who are going on a 2-week survey trip to Bogota, Colombia.

 A view of part of the crowd.

 Pastor Julio bringing the message from the book of Esra.

 Birthday cake and the Salvadoran birthday song!  

Five pastors blowing out the 22 candles!

Cake for everyone!  Happy birthday to Vida Nueva!