by Pastor Patrick Cho

Developing Long-term Relationships for Short-term Missions

Timeline of Missions and Church Planting at LBC:

• 1996 – John and Angela Kim begin praying about planting a church in San Diego
• Spring 1998 – Several families pray together and begin planning the church plant
• July 15, 1998 – Bible studies begin at the home of Peter and Jinny Lim
• December 6, 1998 – First Sunday Service for LBC San Diego
• May 2, 1999 – Official Inaugural Service for LBC San Diego
• July 3-26, 2000 – First summer missions trip to the Czech Republic
• July 21-August 3, 2005 – First summer missions trip to Argentina
• July 11, 2010 – Send Off Service for LBC San Jose
• July 18, 2010 – First Sunday Service for LBC San Jose
• January 30, 2011 – Official Inaugural Service for LBC San Jose
• November 4, 2012 – First Sunday Service for LBC East Bay
• April 14, 2013 – Official Inaugural Service for LBC East Bay
• October 20, 2013 – First Sunday Service for LBC Los Angeles
• February 16, 2014 – Official Inaugural Service for LBC Los Angeles
• October 12, 2014 – Official Inaugural Service for LBC Orange County (formerly Pillar Bible Church)

“Our plan is to take over the world.” I will never forget this succinct explanation of the goal of missions for Lighthouse Bible Church by Pastor John Kim. Back when the leadership team of LBC San Diego was first being developed, Pastor John communicated the importance of not only establishing a missions program early in the life of the church, but also developing a philosophy of missions that would be part of the church’s “DNA.” This commitment to missions flows out of the church’s philosophy of ministry, which is summed up in the MVP Statement.

Mission: To Make Disciples of Christ (Matthew 28:18-20)

Vision: To Plant Churches (Acts 1:8)

Passion: To Love God and People (Matthew 22:37-40)

In this way, missions has been the commitment of Lighthouse Bible Church since its inception. While many people thought sending a missions team in the church’s first year of existence (with a small number of members) was impractical, the leaders came to agree on the importance of demonstrating the church’s commitment to take the gospel to the ends of the earth and to support the work of church planting.

By God’s grace, through a number of circumstances and redirecting of plans, the Lord introduced us early on to Meinolf Mellwig, a full-time German missionary to the Czech Republic. The Lord used Meinolf and Martina Mellwig, and their five children, to plant a church in the city of Ostrava at roughly the same time as Lighthouse San Diego. The relationship built has been sweet especially since each church has been able to track the growth of the other with each passing year.

One of our primary goals in our summer missions program is to cultivate a long-term relationship with the churches we partner with around the world. This is much more difficult than it might sound. Two churches can have a deep sense of love for one another without really having a basis to work with each other in ministry. In order to accomplish a long-term partnership, at the very least the two churches must share a common philosophy of ministry and have doctrinal compatibility. For instance, this means practically for missions that the churches not only need to agree on the message of the gospel, but also on the philosophy and methods of evangelism. When these factors are met, what results is a profound trust that is built, which in turn strengthens the love between the two churches.

For almost every summer since July 2000, Lighthouse Bible Church and the Christian Church in the Czech Republic, led by Meinolf Mellwig, have partnered together to host a week-long English camp.[1] English camps are a wonderful avenue to promote the gospel because Czech students have a strong interest to improve their English and meet native English speakers. The camps are advertised as a church event and the campers are invited to attend an optional evening program where the gospel is presented. Thankfully, each year, most of the campers have come to the evening programs, and we are tremendously grateful that some have shared testimony of how God has used these camps to help bring them to salvation and change their lives.

In July 2005, Lighthouse sent a second team to Argentina. Pastor John Kim had previously travelled to the country to participate in a national pastors’ conference. During his time there, he was introduced to Eduardo Buldain, a church planter who works just outside Buenos Aires. Through Eduardo Buldain, we were introduced to Pastor Jorge Ahualle, who helped plant Missionary Bible Church in the city of Tucumán.

The culture of Argentina is vastly different than the Czech Republic. Much in part due to the influence of communism, the Czech Republic is predominantly an atheistic nation, even with its rich Christian heritage. Argentina, on the other hand, is almost exclusively Catholic with a spattering of ultra-Pentecostal churches that teach a false gospel. As a result, in both countries, there are very few churches that teach the Word of God and preach the gospel with integrity.

Each year, the teams we have sent to Argentina have helped the church conduct a week-long door-to-door evangelism campaign. Each day, the team would travel to a different barrio, or neighborhood, to preach the gospel from house to house. While the Argentine people have generally been very warm and inviting, this has also proven to be a great challenge with evangelism because the people tend simply to nod in agreement with just about anything that is shared with them. But this has also helped demonstrate the importance of establishing long-term relationships with the churches with whom we work. In so doing, we are able to see the long-term effects of the gospel in people’s lives and the fruit of evangelism and the gospel through changed hearts. It seems almost every year, Pastor Jorge is introducing us to another individual or family that was saved by God’s grace during one of our evangelism campaigns.

Because of LBC’s devotion to establishing long-term relationships with churches who are doctrinally and philosophically like-minded, another great benefit is the mutual edification and encouragement that is experienced through the relationship. When our teams go overseas, we make it clear that we are going to assist the churches there in their ministry. We are not going to push our agenda in some unilateral approach to missions. What we have experienced by the grace of God is a rich partnership in ministry where both churches are strengthened and invigorated. Because of the doctrinal and philosophical trust that has been established, we ask Meinolf Mellwig, Eduardo Buldain, and Jorge Ahualle to teach our teams about ministry abroad. We have even had them come to preach at the church in San Diego.

One last benefit to having doctrinal and philosophical unity in missions is greater confidence to invest in the ministries with which we work. Since we were mutually able to see the possibility of a long-term relationship with the churches in both countries, it gives us a greater confidence and desire to invest in these ministries and support these ministers. Summer missions trips are not cheap. Each year, the church spends thousands of dollars to send these teams. Knowing we are working with churches we trust makes the investment worthwhile because of the relationships we are seeking to build upon.

We have been so blessed to work with the churches in the Czech Republic and Argentina all these years. A deep-seated affection has grown between our churches that is strengthened with each trip. But one of the greatest aspects to our short-term missions philosophy has been the desire to develop long-term relationships with churches and missionaries. This has resulted in greater ministerial trust, a strong bilateral investment in each other, and confidence to invest in these ministries and work towards the future.

[1] The Mellwig family originally helped plant the Christian Church of Ostrava-Poruba but have since moved on to plant the Christian Church of Beroun.