Vineyard Conference in Santiago, Chile

My (Brian) time in Santiago last month was a pivotal time for me personally as well as for the ministry. I arrived on a Thursday and was greeted at the airport by a huge swarm of “taxistas,” or cab drivers. After a half hour of intense negotiations, I finally arrived at a decent price with a driver who could take me to the church. I spent most of the day exploring the city and the culture. The best part, by far, was discovering a little known place called Starbucks. God is good. On Thursday night, I was invited to a men’s group when I had the opportunity to share about racial unity in the Church. It was a powerful time together as we discussed Paul’s confrontation with Peter about the racial problems between the Jews from Jerusalem and the Gentile Christians in Galatia. We had church leaders from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina all present and talking about God’s dream for a unified Church.

On Saturday, Pastor Tri Robinson from the Boise Vineyard shared in some detail how he grew his church from 12 families to over 3,000 in weekly attendance in the last 10 years. It is an amazing story. On Sunday, I had the unique opportunity to spend the afternoon with Tri and the pastor of the Santiago Vineyard, Roger Cunningham. One of the main outcomes of that time together was the need for Mars Hill to transition to a Spanish speaking ministry. We all agreed that it was too difficult to maintain an English-speaking congregation and do the discipleship that is necessary to train future leaders and church planters. Most foreigners who attend an international, English-speaking church stay for an average of 2 years. One of the things I learned at this conference was that the discipleship cycle (from 1st time visitor to elder or church planter) can last up to 7 years. The 2 years we have with people is not enough time to properly teach, train, and prepare people for ministry