SUMMER, 2015 Helping leaders build gospel movements in cities THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE FOR BELIEVERS AND SKEPTICS by Mai Hariu Powell Page 2 A NETWORK GROWS IN EDINBURGH by Neil MacMillan Page 5 8 LATIN AMERICA UPDATE by Andres Garza, Director of CTC Latin America T he CTC Team recently welcomed Andres Garza to lead our efforts in Latin America. Andres is a former church planter and has already become known throughout Latin America as an effective network leader. He is based in Monterrey, Mexico. Christianity in Latin America is growing quickly. E l Consejo Episcopal Latino americano [the Episcopal Conference of Latin American nations], estimates that around 8,000 people from the Catholic Church move to Protestantism e very day. Today in Mexico for example, only 84 percent of the population is Roman Catholic, which is around a 12 percent decline the from the mid-twentieth century. In Brazil Protestantism has also grown rapidly, and about 15 percent of Brazilians now identify themselves as evangelical Christian. The question is: how many of these new Christians are being discipled in a gospel-centered way? Or, how many are really making an impact on the cities through their jobs, expressions of culture and social circles? City to City Latin America (CTC LATAM) seeks to create networks in Latin America s 15 most influential cities. By 2017, CTC LATAM will catalyze network leaders and new churches in at least the first three cities (Lima, Bogota, Mexico City); fortify two existing networks in Monterrey, Mexico and Santiago de Chile; and also identify, recruit, train and mentor the future church planters to serve these cities. Team training in Monterrey, Mexico All emerging global cities face similar cultural obstacles to the gospel. As the cities of Latin America become economic engines for the world, the tendency for materialism and status grows also. City dwellers experience the preoccupations of making a name for themselves, achieving position and status, and encounter the increasing influences of cultural liberalism. If you are led, please pray that CTC LATAM finds the key leaders needed to develop the church planting pipeline and network. Pray also for resources to build a multicultural CTC LATAM board team.
2 We had to ask ourselves: There are so many Christian books and curricula on the subject already. So, what would be different about our curriculum?
THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE FOR BELIEVERS AND SKEPTICS by Mai Hariu Powell, producer of The Meaning of Marriage DVD curriculum There are a lot of Christian books on marriage. Or at least Amazon thinks so. If you search for Christian marriage book in their search engine, over 16,000 books come up as results. Clearly we Christians have many unanswered questions about marriage! Not surprisingly, ever since Tim and Kathy Keller s book The Meaning of Marriage was published a few years ago, we ve had many requests for a curriculum or study resource to go along with the book far more than for any other title. But before we could oblige, we had to ask ourselves: There are so many Christian books and curricula on the subject already. So, what would be the same about our curriculum? And what would be different? Like others, The Meaning of Marriage curriculum will feature a DVD for couples and small groups to watch and discuss, along with a study guide. We hope it will be applicable for marriage counselors, couples young and old, and many ministry settings. However, we introduced an element of surprise. Each filmed session will be an unscripted group discussion (six to seven people are on camera, including Tim and Kathy) highlighting some of the key points and tensions of the book. Among the individuals that CTC asked to be involved in the discussions were two unmarried people as well as a couple who would not call themselves Christian. One might wonder, what is the logic there? The biblical purpose for marriage is intriguing and relevant enough to be considered by married couples a nd singles, and by believers a nd skeptics. We believe that a biblical view of marriage coexists with a high view of singleness, and that in fact healthy Christian community integrates, rather than separates, single and married people, believers and those who are not yet believers. Those considering marriage need the brutally realistic but immensely hopeful vision for marriage that the Bible offers. We hope both Christians and skeptics will be humbly and respectfully encouraged. The Meaning of Marriage DVD curriculum is currently in postproduction with Zondervan and City to City, and will be available later this year. May it bless many people both inside and outside the faith, and both married and single, who wrestle with the meaning of marriage. The Meaning of Marriage curriculum group discussion multi-day film shoot 3
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A NETWORK GROWS IN EDINBURGH by Neil MacMillan, church planter and network leader Edinburgh has a skyline dominated by church spires and cathedrals. It was once the home of John Knox and a stronghold of Protestant faith. But today most of those churches have been converted to pubs, apartments or warehouses. Of all Scots, only two percent are evangelical Christians. When I moved back to Edinburgh six years ago to plant a church, I heard Tim Keller was going to be speaking in London and decided to check him out. At that meeting, I ran into four other guys from Edinburgh who I d never met before. Despite the small number of Christians in Edinburgh, our shrinking denominations weren t talking to each other, and it s likely we would never have met. Inspired by what we had heard, we decided to join together to start a movement for the gospel. Baptists, non- denominationals and Presbyterians began praying and plotting to win our city for Jesus. From this season of prayer and meeting together, a plan formed to start new churches that would start new churches that would start new churches. Since 2009 our network has helped start eight new churches and six more are in development. These churches serve the poor, the rich, university students, and a broad array of neighborhoods. Some of the new churches are already hiring and training staff to plant even more new churches. This process of church multiplication is the most effective way to reach Edinburgh. It is estimated that to reach just 10 percent of the population of Edinburgh, over 200 new churches will be required. In previous church planting situations I experienced isolation and a sense of helplessness, like I could only have a tiny impact. However, CTC has drastically changed that! One of the benefits of CTC is that I no longer feel alone in this work. CTC shares insights, expertise and resources so freely and effectively, not only helping to fund church planting in Edinburgh, but also training church planters from Edinburgh and elsewhere in Scotland. Currently there are about 15 Scottish church planters meeting every month to be trained in partnership with CTC. We are now uncovering the leaders with the greatest potential for the churches of tomorrow. We will keep doing this until new churches start in every neighborhood of Edinburgh so that everyone can access a gospel-centered church. CTC gives us the vision and the tools to win our city for Jesus again. Wherever you are, I want to encourage you bring people together and pray for your city about creating a church planting network for your city. It is astonishing what can happen! 5
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A NEW CHURCH LAUNCHES IN BASEL, SWITZERLAND by Leo Dietschy, church planter We re excited to let you know that F okusbasel (the name of our church plant) held its first public worship service at the end of March. Since then, our first six services have happened in four different locations around Basel and at five different meeting times. The idea behind this is to find out which time and location minister to our (future!) members best. After the summer we will solidify a worship rhythm and gather at the same time and place. So far the highest attendance at a service is 34 people. Honestly, for our particular setting and context this is a very promising start! New people come to each service and non believers, also. Inspired by other CTC church plants who do this, we invite students who are studying classical and jazz music in Basel to come be a part of services. Each person also gets a leaflet that helps them follow along and understand w hy certain things happen within the service flow. The people of Basel are very driven and career-focused. Our hope at Fokusbasel is to create a welcoming, warm and relaxed atmosphere where people can meet Jesus. All in all we feel blessed and thank God for what is happening here in Basel. You may recognize Judith and Leo Dietschy from the CTC website! Recently they were featured as part of a mini-documentary series created by CTC about global church planters. Everyone at CTC celebrates with Judith and Leo as they just launched for public worship in Basel, Switzerland. You can watch their video at redeemercitytocity.com/basel. 7
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CTC TRAINS PASTORS IN SEOUL, KOREA by Stephen Um, CTC Church Planting Trainer for Asia As someone who is privileged to train Asian pastors through City to City, I am constantly amazed at the work God is doing in the Asia-Pacific. Three weeks ago I had the opportunity to train 170 pastors in center-city Seoul, and the response was overwhelming. Most reports point to the decline of the Korean church. Statistics indicate that about 16 percent of Koreans are Christian, and of 20-somethings the percentage is even smaller only about two percent attend church. A few years ago I wasn t very optimistic that established churches in Korea could make a missional change in order to reach the unreached demographics in their country. Even if the Korean churches of Seoul don t necessarily reach non-believers and skeptics, they are still impressive. Most of them have multiple facilities and attendance in the tens of thousands, and are considered mega-churches by any global standard. Why would such massive churches adopt new methods of evangelism or different expressions of worship? Meeting these leaders three weeks ago changed my thoughts entirely. A cohort of CTC faculty and I taught pastors from Seoul, and the priority topics were Christcentered preaching and communicating the gospel to a secular audience. By the end of the conference, with tears flowing, the gathering of leaders asked us to return multiple times next year to mobilize others with a vision for evangelism and apologetics. It is clear that CTC has great missional opportunity in Seoul and is uniquely equipped to speak into the concerns expressed by the Korean church. The Korean church is asking CTC for help in the coming years, and we hope to: 1. offer training in Christ-centered preaching; 2. help preachers communicate to a secular culture; 3. and help guide the Korean church toward catalyzing a church planting movement. Would you join us in prayer for the Holy Spirit to do a renewing work among some of our Korean churches? CTC Faculty, Redeemer Presbyterian Church lead pastor David Bisgrove, and many leaders of the church in South Korea training in Seoul, May 2015 9
2014 IN REVIEW Redeemer City to City (CTC) recently presented a report of 2014 accomplishments to our Board of Directors. With thanks to God for His faithfulness to CTC, we thought you might enjoy reading along, too. Your generosity is at work around the world. In 2014, CTC helped to launch 46 new churches in global cities and trained 1,500 leaders. Along with church planting and creating new content to help the global church, CTC is equipping the next generation of entrepreneurial ministry leaders, church-planting spouses, and whole ministry teams. CHURCH PLANTING NEW YORK CITY We helped launch 10 new churches in New York City. We trained 30 local New York City church planters in one of three Incubator cadres. Incubator is CTC s twoyear training program for local church planters. We graduated five local leaders from the CTC Fellows Program. These leaders are on track to start new churches in NYC in 2015 or 2016. We continued a signature workshop series to develop New York City ministry leaders, called City Lab. The 2014 workshops focused on preaching and were attended by local area pastors and church planters. We gained accreditation to start Redeemer City Ministry, a Manhattan-based seminary program in partnership with Reformed Theological Seminary. EUROPE We convened more than 500 church planters and leaders in Paris for the City to City Europe conference. In total, CTC has helped to start 167 new churches in the cities of Europe. We directly helped establish regional networks in the UK, Francophone Europe, the German speaking countries, Netherlands and Southern Europe. We brought Bobby and Teresa Ladage on board as CTC Catalysts to help get networks going in Poland, Finland and other Eastern European countries. AFRICA We have, up to this point, helped establish four new churches in Cape Town, eight in Pretoria and Johannesburg, one in Durban, one in Antananarivo, Madagascar, and one in Bukavu in the DRC. We are now helping more than two dozen apprentices get trained to start new churches in the Pretoria and Johannesburg area. MIDDLE EAST We helped establish a lead church in Dubai in 2011. That church is now involved in planting four other churches in the other Emirates as well as a Farsispeaking church in Dubai. We helped facilitate a church planting training center in Dubai that is now training church planters and should be fully operational by January 2016. We helped start a new church in Tel Aviv and plans are being made to start new churches in Beirut and Kuwait City. We came alongside a regional network in North Africa and the Middle East that is being launched under the name Vision 10/40. ASIA PACIFIC We helped start 15 new churches in cities such as Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Manila, Melbourne, Taichung, Taipei, Tokyo and other cities throughout East Asia. 10
We trained 11 leaders in the International Church Planting Intensive in Asia who will start new churches over the next two years. We facilitated some of Tim Keller s ministry in this international field. In March, he addressed 1,500 Chinese house-church leaders in Hong Kong and then an additional 840 church leaders in Sydney. We also implemented practical church planter training in addition to these catalytic gatherings. Field training happened throughout the Asia Pacific in more than nine cities with more than 650 leaders participating. LATIN AMERICA We trained church planters from Monterrey, Mexico, and Lima, Peru, in a residency program here in New York City. We continued to guide and counsel seven new churches in Santiago, Chile. We trained seven church planters through the Incubator, delivering it in the ministry field in Buenos Aires. We trained 35 leaders and church planters through the Incubator in Santiago, Chile. We developed Spanish training materials on gospel renewal, new churches and ministry leadership in order to serve the ministry communities in Latin America, especially in Mexico and Chile. We came alongside the Santiago network to train ministry leaders in coaching, assessment and pastor training. CONTENT We supported the development and launch of Tim Keller s best-selling book, Prayer. We continued a multi-year project to redevelop our church planter training for use by planters and pastors; it launches later in 2015. We began three publishing projects that will be released this year and another that will be released in early 2016. We added 20+ international versions and translations of resources by Tim Keller. We started the City to City Partnership, a program through which 15 American churches committed to give over $700,000 in grants to start new churches in global cities. We launched new websites for City to City, City to City Asia Pacific, and City to City Australia. We tripled our online donors and doubled the amount of money raised online. We increased Tim Keller s online fans and followers by 90 percent to 330,000. 11
1166 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1620 New York, NY 10036 You can give to Redeemer City to City by check, online gift, stock transfer or EFT. Please make checks payable to: Redeemer City to City 1166 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1620 New York, NY 10036 To gift appreciated securities or a mutual fund, please contact doug@redeemercitytocity.com To give online, visit redeemercitytocity.com/give For general gift inquiries, call Doug Thorson: 571.221.7210. Q2 CTC FINANCIAL SUMMARY GIFTS YTD $1.7M NEED $3M 2015 GOAL: $6M (M) $0 $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 The CTC Snapshot is sent to a special group that helps us continue this work. We thank you for your generosity, passion and devotion. Together we see movements of the gospel spread through the world s major cities, and we are humbled that you join us on the journey.