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MCALLEN—Disappointment set in with Eliseo Arreguin’s church planting team when no one showed up to their inaugural Bible study in the local library by the 2 p.m. start time. Though they were ready to begin the service, Arreguin instructed them to wait another 10 minutes. Fortunately, within that time, two women arrived, one of whom had been invited the previous day by a member of the team at a nearby park. The service proceeded with this audience of two, and both women showed interest in the Word.
Following the service, one of the women asked if Arreguin’s team could conduct a Bible study at her home the following week. Arreguin agreed to do so.
“When we went to the house,” Arreguin says, “we were surprised to see that the house was full. There were 10 adults and two children. We had a time of music and prayer, and they were very interested in us praying for them and the needs that they had. We also gave an evangelistic message. After that, we got to know each other and shared a meal.”
Before they left, another woman asked the church planting team if she could host a Bible study at her house the following day. The team again complied, and the next day, they conducted another Bible study, this time to an audience of 16.
Thus, in a matter of one week, from two women came 30 people gathering together in two different homes to study God’s Word.
“None of these people have been saved,” Arreguin says, “but little by little, with the relationships we are forming with them, we know that God is working and will continue to do so.”
Arreguin’s church plant is one of several currently being developed in the Rio Grande Valley by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Missions Associate David Ortega coordinates the SBTC’s efforts in this area, working with local churches to reach the Valley through church planting.
Barna Research Group identified the Rio Grande Valley as the No. 4 most unchurched area in the United States, indicating the desperate need for new churches in this southernmost part of Texas. Ortega realizes the importance of cooperation between believers to overcome the challenges associated with doing ministry there, which led him to form a church planting network.
“I started casting vision with a number of pastors,” Ortega says, “and I challenged them about coming together in a fellowship with the goal of church planting. We’d like to see 100 churches by 2020. And it’s all of us working together to accomplish that goal.”
This fellowship of pastors and church planters meets once a month to share needs, give praise reports, and determine ways they can work together.
The network now has nine church plants in early stages of development. Few have permanent locations, so their ministries mainly include evangelism and visitation as well as Bible studies in local parks and libraries. Even so, God is clearly at work among them.
“We’ve seen how God worked to prepare the people, and we’ve had at least 300 people receive Christ since Easter of 2014,” Ortega says. “These church planters have come and have developed into competent planters, and we’re still working, but that’s been exciting. I see a potential that we can really do some impact here in the Valley.”
Ortega encourages his fellow SBTC churches to join in this effort, whether through prayer and financial support or through planting churches themselves.
“We’re not going to reach our goal if we don’t all have this vision of reaching the Valley; if we don’t have this network,” he says. “It’s going to take pastors, laypeople and church planters. And I think that’s the way the Lord wants it; so no one gets the glory but him.”
