Bulwarks Against the Darkness: Church-Planting Partnerships in Northwest Mexico
Though the northwest is the most extensive territory in all of Mexico, it contains only 2 percent of the nation’s churches and there is a great need for more gospel-centered bodies of Christ. Here, MTW’s northwestern Mexico team works with local partners to plant churches throughout the region, and exciting developments are on the horizon.
In 2012 the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico (NPCM) adopted a proposal to plant 10 churches in 10 years in 10 of the most influential cities in northwestern Mexico. Today, they’re right on track to meet that goal. As part of that effort, MTW’s team on the ground is partnering with the NPCM’s Church Planting Center (CPI) in Monterrey, Mexico, to plant a new church in La Paz, the capital city of the state of Baja California Sur. This is the first National Presbyterian church in La Paz, and it is hoped that it will be a beachhead for church planting in the region and a model for other new church plants.
It’s all about partnership
The team is also working with Ministerios Transformación, a Reformed-friendly Mexican church network that is collaborating with the NCPM, to plant a new church in eastern Tijuana. MTW missionary Dave Diaso will be coaching the Mexican church planter and walking alongside him and his family as they embark on this journey of faith.
The Tijuana church plant is part of Ministerios Transformación’s bigger picture vision to start 50 churches in the region. Over the past decade, they have already started more than 30. It takes a lot of resources to plant even one church, let alone 50. In an effort to move the ministry toward becoming self-sustainable, the MTW team plans to start a business as mission carpentry enterprise in which the profits would support new church plants.
Northwestern Mexico is a place of both beauty and brokenness, a place that needs children of God speaking grace into the culture. And here, amidst it all, God is at work building His kingdom through His people. One by one, churches are being planted—bulwarks standing against the darkness with their light.
Andrew Shaughnessy is a long-time word slinger who spent nearly six years as MTW’s staff writer, gathering and telling impact stories from missionaries across the globe. These days, he’s off working as an analyst and editor in the publishing industry, writing fiction, and mountaineering. He holds a B.A. in history and English literature from Covenant College, and an M.S. in political science from Portland State University.
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