The first snapshot that I want to share is how much I like the vision of e3 Partners and the pastor in Paraguay who leads the movement to plant churches there. The goal is aimed more at discipleship than evangelism. The first night that we were there, Pastor Alcides told us that we did not want a big church from this week; we wanted big Christians. The emphasis was very much on making disciples, not just converts.

I see this as very similar to the methods that Paul used. Paul came into a city and began teaching. As people accepted Christ, he continued to teach them and developed leaders. Paul never stayed in one city, he always looked to move on to other areas. In order to do that, he had to equip the local church to survive in his absence. He appointed elders and then stayed in touch.

During the first part of the week, we did evangelism. The evangelism was intended to be at a slow pace, so that we could explain the Gospel. We wanted people to really understand the message, and to truly accept God’s grace. As people accepted Christ, we made appointments to come back and study the Bible with them. The goal was to make sure that they understood the Gospel, and that they grew in their understanding and in their faith. We did not want people to just accept Christ out of being polite, but to really want Christ.

Another goal of the discipleship sessions was to build relationships between the new Christians and members of the local church. The purpose of this was to encourage the local church members to continue in discipling the new believers. We also wanted it to be easy for new believers to come to church.

At the end of the week, we presented the names of the new believers to the pastor who had been trained to lead the new church. In the photo above, Pastor Eligio is holding a bag that contains the names of more than 80 people who accepted Christ in his neighborhood. This was the result of presenting the Gospel 118 times. We also met more than 40 times with new believers. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet with all of the people who accepted Christ.