Working ourselves out of the job

The work of a missionary in modern times consists in being able to plant a church.

This congregation of the Lord´s church is potentially a germinal church, that is, it can plant another congregation in the surroundings of Heredia. These are the signs for this statement:

1. The church has a group of local members who make decisions on their own. In other words these missionaries (the Ulates) don't have to be present in their business meetings. This is the group that will eventually make up the eldership of the church
2. Worship services are organized by people other than the missionaries. They are making the decisions about who does what. I get to preach three times a month. Sunday school for all the different ages is assigned to other servants.
3. There is a Committee that runs the Sunday School program. Roxana is part of that commitee, but they could do without her.
4. The Youth Group is under the leadership of local teenagers and young adults (who are not the Ulates). We do play a supporting role.
5. There is a Benevolence Committee in place, that works under the supervision of the leadership group.
6. There is a Facilities and Maintenance Committee, that is actively doing a lot of needed remodeling.
7. The Finances Committee keeps the books and writes the checks, and they give a monthly report to the church with accurate income and expense data.
8. There are two ladies groups that are led by local women.

I am still in charge of one of seven Bible Study groups that meet during the week. The rest of the groups are under the leadership of other members.

Leaders of the different Bible Study Groups