Taking More New Ground in 2023!
This year continues to take shape, but we have several projects locked and loaded already! We currently have travel plans for ????, Nepal, Brazil, El Salvador and Slovenia. We are also talking to leaders in Honduras, Croatia, and other countries about the possibility of Catalyst Communities in 2023. I wanted to share a little about three of these projects below:
Nepal: A Regional Collaboration
About 5 years back our team was working in Delhi, India. While there, we trained a group of leaders to reproduce the Catalyst System across India. They took the framework we gave them and tweaked the teaching content to make it work even better for house church movements in India. Since then, they have seen results that are truly mind boggling!
You might remember, it was Albert from our team in India that connected us with Sher in Nepal. My friend Diwas was also part of the India team we trained. Diwas is from northern India, and his family roots are actually Nepali. In fact, Diwas is from the same people group as Sher.
The first picture above shows Sher (upper left) Diwas (bottom) and me on a recent Zoom call. The second and third pictures are from our Catalyst Community in Nepal last year.
75-80% of the teams we work with in Nepal are from villages rather than cities. Diwas has had tremendous success leading house church movements in India, and we believe the training he does there is just what we need in Nepal. It turns out Diwas also speaks Nepai! In fact, his family is from Nepal and he has a heart to help grow the Kingdom there. Diwas will be joining us this April to help teach at our upcoming Catalyst Community in Nepal!
Slovenia: Back to the Balkaans!
Two years back we led a discovery call with a group of pastors from Slovenia to share a little about the Catalyst System and the idea of collaboration among churches. Since then I’ve been meeting periodically with one of those pastors. Inspired by our call, these leaders formed a network and have been meeting regularly to talk about church planting in Slovenia, and they recently decided they were ready to host a Catalyst Community there in the fall! I think we have just what they need to accelerate the work they have already begun!
Slovenia is a mere 0.2% Evangelical Christian. There are 40 churches in this nation of 2.1 million people. We are slowly working our way through many of the Balkaan nations. To “balkanize” means to divide (a region or body) into smaller mutually hostile states or groups. We are working to bring them together. Our dream is to one day host a gathering of leaders from all across the region to help them build a collaborative strategy for reaching the entire Balkaan region!
????: New Churches & Network Formation!
We have been working in ???? for several years now, and we get more and more excited as we hear stories of progress from around the country. In March we head back to ??? for a Catalyst Community #3 gathering, and then we fly to ?? to lead another Catalyst Community there. This will be our first time in the northern city of ??.
The percent of Christian adherents in this country is statistically “unknown”. I’m continually amazed at how things are taking shape in this country. The sense of national unity among Christians of different flavors is strong. They are quickly taking to the idea of working together in networks across the ????, and word of new churches on the fringes continues to pour in!
We Can Do Even More!
The Global Catalyst Team has a growing number of opportunities to leverage the partnerships we’ve made over the years and the regional teams we’ve trained across the globe. Our regional teams are ready and the opportunities are there, we just need to resource them to put things in motion.
As followers and advocates of Taking New Ground you are uniquely positioned to help through your own giving, but also by connecting us to other like-minded donors or churches. Help us network to find new sources of funding so that we can accelerate our mission to Take New Ground for the Kingdom through the efforts of the indigenous leaders we’ve trained around the world!
Thank you!
