The Portugal 4x4 Plan: Accelerating a Church-planting Movement

GOAL: To bring hope by planting churches

Steps to accomplish this goal:

Proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the over 10 million people who live in this part of the Iberian Peninsula.
Disciple those who come to faith in Christ so that they, too, freely share their faith with others.
Teach them to train others to be strong believers in order to produce healthy, reproducing churches.

Even before the first ABWE missionary arrived in Portugal in 1980, a church-planting plan had been developed. By the year 2000, seven first generation churches were planted, of which three have national pastors. Portuguese pastors in partnership with ABWE missionaries develop and oversee church-planting strategy. .

Planting churches in Portugal is not easy:

The percentage of evangelical Christians in Portugal-only 1%- is less than that in any country of Central or South America, even less than in China.
Even though only a small percentage of the population actually practices their religion, the mindset is that to be Portuguese is to be Roman Catholic. Anything other than the "established" religion is looked upon suspiciously.
"The phenomenal economic growth of Portugal over the past few years due to her inclusion into the European Union has brought about the materialistic secularism so prevalent in the rest of Europe.
"In a country so overwhelmed by beautiful cathedrals and churches, not having adequate facilities creates a serious credibility problem for our churches.

In spite of the challenges, and building on the past 20 years, ABWE-Portugal has developed the "Portugal 4X4 Plan." The strategy is to enlarge the base of first generation churches to 16 by the year 2016. We believe these 16 churches will become the foundation for a national church planting movement in Portugal.

The plan involves placing four teams in four strategic locations in the greater Lisbon area. Each team will consist of missionaries involved in evangelism, pastoral care, and youth ministries, and a national pastor.

Each of the 16 churches should also have its own facilities, including, at a minimum, an auditorium for 100 people. In Portugal a congregation of this size should be able to sustain its operation and to expand its facility as it grows.

The Portuguese churches and the missionary team have already pledged $530,000. We trust God for the remaining funds and additional personnel.

For information as to how you can be involved in accelerating a church-planting movement in Portugal, e-mail Jack Shifflet.