Challenges in the City - High Costs Of Church Planting

One of the challenges facing New Life Baptist Church of Las Viñas in Monterrico, a suburb of Lima, Peru is their need for expansion. Missionaries Rich and Jo Ann Davis opened their home to the fledgling congregation, which has now grown to 120. If the church is to continue growing and be able to maintain its ministries, the congregation must move to its own property. They may be able to purchase a commercial property-one that permits adding two stories to the existing building-complete with parking capacity. However, the price is staggering: U.S. $315,000. Because of the current economic crisis in Peru, all levels of society have been affected.

The Baptist churches started by ABWE in Lima are aggressively reaching out into the community, providing breakfast for the "latch-key" children of Peruvians who have flocked to the city in search of work, staffing the only crisis pregnancy center in the country, and taking the message of sexual abstinence into local schools. The church in Monterrico also is involved in helping plant a church in an outlying area of Lima, and supports home missionaries working in Iquitos.

As you think of the challenges facing urban church planters around the world, remember New Life Baptist Church of Las Viñas in Lima, Peru, and pray they will be able to continue to grow, despite overwhelming financial obstacles.