Indonesia (MNN) — FMI’s Bruce Allen was recently in Indonesia for field visits and training conferences for FMI-supported church planters.
Training and Conferences
Indonesian believers worshipping. (Photo courtesy of FMI)
Part of these visits and training conferences included handing out Indonesia’s first set of the Snapshot Packets.
“So all the church planters, their spouses, and key members of their congregations on Java and then the same on Kalimantan would come together for [these] conference[s], where special topics talked about discernment and how to use Scripture properly to identify and to refute false teaching. And then also to give some training for evangelism,” Allen shares.
One thing that FMI is trying to do with the Snapshot Packets is to empower the local church members to also take on the job of evangelism. At the moment, most evangelism and discipleship is placed on the shoulders of the pastors and church planters.
This isn’t because congregations don’t want to evangelize, but they don’t necessarily know how or often don’t have the right resources to help them share the Gospel. However, Snapshot Packets can change this.
“They were so excited. They would say, ‘I’m not the pastor, but I can be involved in ministry. There’s a place for me in reaching my community,’” Allen says. “So, using the Snapshot tool that was developed specifically for Indonesia, they were so eager to get back home, take the extra packets that we gave, and train other people.”
Empowering National Churches
Once church members impact their own communities for Christ, Allen says these people take the next step in impacting other communities near theirs.
“We’re seeing that across the board where men and women are having conversations at their work places, in cafés, in peoples’ homes sharing the Gospel and the churches are growing exponentially,” Allen shares.
Allen has already been supplied with reports sharing how these church members, pastors, and church planters are already sharing the Snapshot Packets and how to use them with church members who didn’t attend the conferences.
However, these church planters, pastors, and congregations still have needs. A lot of these churches are in very remote areas of the Indonesian islands. These are groups of people who are literally tucked away in rainforests or on palm tree plantations.
Needless to say, reaching these places and leaving them is difficult. In fact, because of how remote these areas are, it’s important for church planters and pastors to have motorcycles to leave their villages for church planting and to travel to them. It’s literally hours of hills, forests, mud, and more that these pastors have to travel through, making the power of a motorcycle verses a peddle bike a must.
How to Help
Please pray for God to provide for the needs of these church planters. Pray for the Gospel’s work in Indonesia and for stamina, perseverance, and good studying habits in their Christian lives.
Another way to help is by donating to FMI’s Tangible Resources fund. This fund helps supply Snapshot Packets, motorcycles, Bibles, and more. Another way to help is by supporting a church planter for only $120 a month.
This supplemental income helps with emergency medical needs, provides ongoing Bible training (like the recent conferences), and ensures church planters and pastors can do full-time ministry to help mature their congregations and hopefully one day be fully supported by their own congregations.
To donate to the Tangible Resources fund, click here!
To support a church planter, click here!
