Bammel Mission Work in Costa Rica: March 2019

Change of Growth Pattern

Carlos Ulate

During the last ten years, the church in Heredia has been experiencing a steady growth that has forced the leadership to implement different strategies to respond to it. The last strategy that this church is implementing consists of moving on from a centralized growth pattern to an orbiting cells growth pattern by using the leadership resources that were developed during the last ten years.

Eight years ago, the first strategy involved holding a second worship service in the evening. This didn’t work, because everybody preferred to attend the Sunday morning service. A second strategy involved the elimination of Sunday School classrooms to expand the seating capacity of the auditorium. Six years ago, the first partition wall was torn down, which meant that the family occupying part of the facilities had to look for a home somewhere else in order to accommodate the Sunday School groups that needed room. Four years ago, the second partition wall was torn down, which meant that the kitchen and a corridor became classrooms, and the preteens group has to meet outdoors in a nearby park to receive Sunday School classes. Since there is potential for further growth, a third strategy has consisted of remodeling the building so that a second floor would accommodate the Sunday School classes and the whole of the ground floor would be used as the auditorium. This strategy is no longer a favorite because the city government denied the construction permits, the growth would be limited by the size of the enlarged the auditorium, and the cost for this project is too high, making the building an expensive investment whose only benefit would consist of a mere four hours of use during the Sunday morning activities. For this reason, the Facilities Committee even decided to sell the present building and look for a meeting hall that could be rented only for the four hours event each Sunday morning thus reducing costs and dependency on a building. The decision to sell has not been implemented yet.

Parallel to this, beginning this year, a decision was made to stop focusing on the idea of enlarging the central church building to accommodate the steadily growing crowd. Since there are seven orbiting cell groups that were started back in August 2018, the local leadership decided that, instead of growing locally within the central church building, the orbiting cell groups would be encouraged to become churches on their own to absorb that growth. This way, the efforts to attract new members would also be shared by the cell groups. Two of these groups will soon be in conditions to operate as independent churches in the communities where they were started. The other five need more time to be in such conditions, but they would eventually become churches on their own. One of the advantages of this pattern of growth is that new areas in the surroundings of Heredia are being evangelized, and the message is already being transmitted to more people through the existing cells. The central church would be relieved of the pressure of remodeling, and the decision to sell the present building and meet in rented auditoriums would be postponed until there is a real need for doing so.

Key to the decision of moving on to the orbiting cells growth pattern is the fact that the Lord has blessed the church in Heredia with the development of very fine leadership resources during the last ten years. There are several brothers and sisters who have become excellent preachers and teachers and feel that their gifts could be better exploited if more opportunities were made available to them. This began to be possible after the departure of Juan Carlos Garcia, Baxter apprentice, back in July of 2018. He had started two cells in the surroundings of Heredia and was given the responsibility of leading one of the cells that I had started as a missionary. When he left, the local brethren became concerned about who would continue to lead the cells started by him. Soon there were brothers who would volunteer to do so, and there were others who started Bible study cells on their own, to make it a total of seven. When they began to experience the responsibility of leading a weekly Bible study cell in a home located in the surroundings of Heredia, they developed confidence and one of them is now giving serious consideration to the idea of having Sunday morning services in one of such homes. This cell group is being led by Jorge Cambronero. They meet in an area of Heredia called Santa Cecillia, and they have an average attendance of ten to twelve people. The brothers who are leading the other cell groups include Kenneth Matarrita in San Francisco, Rodrigo Ulate in Guarari, Didier Rojas in San Isidro, Victor Araya in Hoja Dorada, Carlos Brenes in La Armonia, and Carlos Ulate in San Pablo. It is important to recognize the contribution from Mateo Martínez, a brother from Dominican Republic whose testimony and teaching gifts were effectively used during the last seven years to build up this congregation. His wife Ramona and his daughter Diana also did a great job being among us. Another important contribution was the visit of Bob Young, from Tulsa, OK, whose presence during eight days amongs was very encouraging and enlightening.

As a conclusion, it can be said with great confidence that the church in Heredia is experiencing a healthy transition from a centralized growth pattern to an orbiting cells growth pattern. This transition is being facilitated by the fact that fine leadership resources were developed during the last ten years.