Philippines Church of the Nazarene

Some times life just gives you a wake up JOY!  A wonderful weekend with Rev. Marcelino Ochoco Jr allowed us to catch up with several new church plants that have been started for only a few months.   Many of these were the result of coordination between the district, local churches and Medical teams from the Susanville CA Church of the Nazarene.

We had the chance to interview one of the pastors involved in planting new churches in the Luzon District, Pastor Bernardo “Jun” Ganancial

Naz.org.ph: What first motivated you to be involved in this work?

Jun: First, I saw people’s needs for spirituality and a relationship to God. Today people are so busy preparing for their everyday life they have no time for the Lord. That’s why through church planting I can share with them the true life and how to make time for the Lord, because there is not much time left on earth for us to prepare ourselves to meet the Lord.

Second, our main purpose in life is to obey God’s command, so we must go back to command of the great commission “go and make disciples in all the nations”

Third, Church planting and evangelism are the main heart beat and main activities of the church, church planting makes our church alive.

Naz.org.ph: What helped your local church members to be excited and involved?

Jun: I constantly impart the vision and share the importance and blessing of church planting. Every Sunday worship service I announce about the progress of our church plant, what happened, the goodness of God to those people in our Bible study. I announce also that someday another church will exist and another daughter church will have been born from our church. All of the congregation are exited and they all want to be involved, giving themselves to that activity. Some of them help through prayer, love offering, gifts in kind, testimonies, giving money for candy, Bibles, materials for Bible study and transportation and they want also to become members of the church planting team.

Naz.org.ph: How did you select the places you decided to work in?

Jun: First: prayer is very important in starting the job of church planting, asking God what place is best to start in.

Second: I asked the team or the leaders of the church for advice, so that they will give me ideas of where to start and what place is the best to start in. I also consider places where I already have contacts and key people that can help us in the church planting program.

Naz.org.ph: Were you able to get a team from your local church or did you do the work by yourself?

Jun: No, I don’t work by myself, I have team or group from our church, especially the church board, to work with. I find those members who have burden for the lost and have the same vision I do, are willing to work, committed to job of ministry and also have good testimony inside and outside of the church

Naz.org.ph: What methods did you use to make contacts?

Jun: We have several methods, some are, Community Survey, asking the congregation if they have some relatives or friends to our target area of church planting and using friendship evangelism, another method is that in our church we have the NYI who help the church plant by hosting a concert crusade three times a year in other communities especially in our church plant target community. After the crusade we follow up those who accept Jesus Christ during the crusade and ask them if they want to start a Bible study in their house. We also use a survey. To do this, we pass out questionnaires and tell them that if they answer the questions we will give them a New Testament on the day we return to their home. If their answer is “no” or if they don’t like to have a Bible study we ask permission to take five minutes to present the gospel of Jesus through the evange cube. After the presentation of the gospel we ask them again if they want to receive Jesus Christ in their life. If they receive Jesus Christ, we ask them again if they want to have Bible study in their house their answer is usually “yes.” That’s the way we make contacts.

Naz.org.ph: How are you working to help these contacts become good disciples of Jesus?

Jun: Through Bible study “knowing Jesus”

Naz.org.ph: How did you gather them together into a congregation?

Jun: In each of our different Bible study groups we start with a same materials (Discover #1, from the Bible League) same program and same songs to sing. After some weeks, if they are ready to gather together, ready to share their faith, ready to testify. We organize the fellowship.

Naz.org.ph: How are you helping to develop local leadership in these church planting areas?

Jun: After the Bible study, we have another lesson in order to develop these believers. what we call a nurturing Bible study. This teaches them how to grow as Christian, how to obey God, how to share the gospel and make disciples.

Naz.org.ph: What were your greatest challenges as you worked through this process?

Jun: It is difficult to get the time and attention of people, so as a planter we are adjusting to the different kinds of behavior, kinds of living, and kinds of life they have. And its also difficult to work on these varying schedules if we don’t have a vehicle to use. When I use a motorcycle only one or two people can ride with me. Sometimes we rent a four wheeled vehicle to have the space to bring more people with us.

Naz.org.ph: When do you expect that these will become organized churches?

Jun: After they are nurtured spirituality, when there are regular worship services, when leaders or laypeople are prepared to lead or we find a pastor to hold that church, this is the time to organized it as a church.