Urban Leadership Foundation
A hub for leadership training in cities and among the world's 1.4 billion slum-dwellers
Director of Foursquare International, a church planting organization
Background
Foursquare International, which was established in the late 20’s in the U.S.A. They have a program called Urban Church planting Project. Foursquare believe that churches planting is based on Acts 8:4 which say, “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went…” Foursquare International started a church in the heart of Manila, and then in1949 a school to train workers was started as well. By 2002 they had 60 Foursquare churches all over Metropolitan manila; however, it took 53 years for foursquare to establish 60 churches in Manila. They then realized that their strengths were found in the provinces. Foursquare was strong in rural areas.
Urban Church Planting Project: A new movement
In June, 2003, Foursquare started a movement within the organization called Urban Church Planting Project, of which Mars was the leader. In 2002, they shared their vision with other pastors and workers around the rest of the country of the massive church planting initiative focusing on the urban poor. They also had a training institute to train workers. That year from May to December Foursquare planted 32 new churches in 7 months, as oppose to 60 churches in 53 years, which had been their previous track record. In June 2003 Foursquare also opened 12 preschools.
In 2004 once again they have had a church planting conference in January. Starting in May this year, they have opened 31 new churches. This comes up to a total of 63 new churches in the urban poor communities, in 14 months. They have also opened 21 preschools during this 2 year period.
Our strengths
This time we just don’t want churches wherever the spirit leads. There has been lots of talk this week of Pentecostal verses Baptists, Foursquares are Bapti-costal. We have been reading a lot, now we are trying to see what God is writing us. Another strength of this movement is that their leaders catch their vision. They also have these 60 churches to rely on, to help us, and provide the needed workforce for the work of church planting. Their four core values include:
1. Intercessory - They also well defined core values. They believe that nothing can be of any success without the power of God
2. International – They also are partnered with some international organizations.
3. Evangelistic – Our first priority is really Evangelism.
4. Holistic – trying to help the community in our output of something to help the community.
Weaknesses
They are a very poor organization. People say that “Their pastors are always on the Dole, they have no money.” 80% of their churches in Manila are very poor.
Mars has a congregation of 150, and has not been paid his salary since last month. Because of the poverty, they are preoccupied with basic survival issues – rent etc. They want to touch the community and help develop the community, but their basic training was to try to touch the community.
Of the 63 communities we have spread all over, places are so congested, that we need to find bigger places to eat, and that is expensive sometimes. We don’t really give salaries, we only give allowances. Because of this, early on in the ministry, our workers are burdened with having to strive for money.
Four square is about 60% rural, and because of urban migration, many people come to the city, because they get people to congregate and start a fellowship. They also have other friends helping with support in different ways.
Threats
They also have some threats, which include eviction at any time. Another area of threats is economic dislocation. They could lose their job at any time, and because of this they move to another area, to look for employment. Thankfully however, they do not do this alone; they coordinate with the Philippines evangelical movement.
The growth rate in Manila is 2.3%, with 16% of the population of the Philippines living in the city of Manila, which adds a few million a year. The evangelical church has only 5% presence, where 16% of the population lives, in metro Manila.
They are trying to catch up with church planting in metromanilla. They are working with other organizations and denominations, because they want to reach everyone in Metro Manila for the Lord. Mars encouragement to us is that they are one with us in this endeavor to reach the lost in MetroManilla. They look forward to establishing 2-300 new churches in the next few years, and thank us for our prayers.
Questions for Mars:
What is the strategy that they use in their work?
They have:
1. An abundance of lenient people from our churches
They have received financial resource.
They have partnered with more financial able churches.
They also have some funding and partners from abroad.
Their preschools also help.
Is the preschool syllabus any different from the secular?
They can not get away with directly Christian teaching, but they have an integrated program.
How are you trying to, with all these new church plants, what is your strategy of coming to a certain degree of sustainability so they don’t burn out?
When it comes down to actual work, there is a lot to do. So they are having trouble sustaining it. They really want to make grants for community development, and they would also like to make loans to the workers. The issue right now however, since they had 32 churches last year, and another 33 these 2 months, and they have decided not to do more training next year. The issue is now sustainability, and this is a learning experience