"Working Ourselves out of the Job"

The work of a missionary in modern times consists in being able to plant a church. This means we as evangelists need to avoid assuming a paternalistic role.

This congregation of the Lord´s church is what missiologists call a "germinal" church, not a "terminal" church. In other words it has the potential of planting another congregation in the surroundings of Heredia. These are the signs for this statement:

1. There is an effective evangelistic outreach going on. This consists of seven Bible Study Groups that meet in those areas of the city with most concentration of members homes. Each group is under the leadership of a local teacher (only one of the groups is led by this evangelist and there are three men in the group who already have the training to fill in his place).
2. 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
3. Worship services are organized by people other than the missionaries. They are making the decisions about who does what. I do get to preach three times a month. Sunday school responsibilities for all the different ages are assigned to other servants.
4. There is a Committee that runs the Sunday School program. Roxana is part of that commitee, but they could do without her.
5. The Youth Group is under the leadership of local young adults (who are not the Ulates nor their adult children). We do play a supporting role.
6. There is a Benevolence Committee in place, that works under the supervision of the leadership group.
7. There is a Facilities and Maintenance Committee, that is actively doing a lot of needed remodeling.
8. 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.
9. There are two ladies groups that are led by local women.
10. There are seven brohers actively functioning as Group Bible Study leaders.

Leaders of the Bible Study Groups