I sent out a summary of my Summer 2013 Mission Work this week. (The report is also linked on the website.) Some of those who receive reports send responses: “Are your mission trips always so intense? It makes me tired reading it. Can I go with you? I am jealous–except for the bus rides!”
This week one of the responses was especially encouraging. A good friend who is an elder and is actively involved in mission work referred to the results of my “vineyard tending.” I had not thought of that phrase to describe my mission efforts but it is fitting. In most of the places I go, planting has occurred in the past. There is an existing vineyard, but it needs to be tended. Sometimes it needs to be cultivated, sometimes it needs more planting, sometimes it needs pruning. My work is tending the vineyard to make it more productive. Without tending, weak vines multiply and strong vines do not become well established. The vineyard cannot be productive without strong plants in the vineyard.
The purpose of this effort is to strengthen and edify local churches and to establish biblical leaders. By developing model churches throughout Latin America, the influence and impact of the gospel is multiplied. Establishing strong, missionary churches gives the gospel a stronger and more permanent foothold. As local churches become mature, they are able to accept more and more of the responsibility for evangelizing and church planting in their own regions.