Ministry Focus
Church Planting
The mission of Jesus cannot be fulfilled apart from the establishment of local churches.
At ABWE, we are driven by the belief that fulfilling the Great Commission involves not only making disciples of all nations but also establishing thriving local communities of believers—churches. Church planting lies at the heart of our missions agency as we strive to follow Jesus’ call to go and make disciples of all nations.
Since our first missionary, Dr. Raphael Thomas, arrived in the Philippines, we have been committed to winning new believers, nurturing them through discipleship, and establishing local churches. These churches become centers of spiritual growth, fervent evangelism, and eventually, they send their own missionaries throughout the world. Our church planting efforts provide the foundation for the advancement of the gospel to every corner of the earth—to the unreached and beyond.
The Biblical Mandate for Church Planting
Church planting finds its foundation in the teachings and examples set forth in the Bible. Throughout the New Testament, we see the apostles and early believers actively engaged in church planting, establishing vibrant Christian communities in various regions:
- The Great Commission: In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissions his disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that he commanded. The formation of churches is integral to this process of making disciples, nurturing them in the faith, and fostering a Christ-centered community.
- The Apostle Paul’s Ministry: The apostle Paul exemplified the essence of church planting during his missionary journeys. He established churches in cities like Corinth, Ephesus, and Thessalonica, where he preached the Gospel, discipled new believers, appointed elders, and provided pastoral oversight (Acts 14:21-23, Titus 1:5).
- The Early Church in Acts: The book of Acts provides numerous accounts of church planting efforts. The apostles and early Christians planted churches in response to the transformative power of the gospel, resulting in the rapid expansion of Christianity (Acts 2:41-47, Acts 16:5).
Church Revitalization: Strengthening Established Churches
In addition to our focus on church planting, we recognize the critical role of church revitalization efforts in contexts where established churches exist but have grown weak in terms of vitality, effectiveness, doctrinal integrity, spiritual health, and missional living. We understand that these once-strong churches are now facing the risk of collapse, and their communities are in need of restoration.
Our missionaries play a crucial role in bringing much-needed revival to such struggling churches. By working with local believers and leaders, we address the challenges faced by these churches and provide support to strengthen their spiritual foundations. Church revitalization efforts encompass a range of activities, such as:
- Doctrinal Integrity: Ensuring that the foundational teachings and beliefs of the church align with biblical principles and theological truths.
- Spiritual Health: Fostering an atmosphere of spiritual growth, discipleship, and prayer within the church community.
- Leadership Development: Equipping leaders and pastors with the necessary training and resources to lead the church effectively.
- Missional Living: Encouraging the church to actively engage in evangelism and outreach to impact their local communities positively.
- Worship and Fellowship: Cultivating meaningful worship experiences and nurturing a strong sense of community among believers.
- Community Engagement: Involving the church in various ministries and outreach programs that address the practical needs of the community.
Join Our Church Planting and Revitalization Teams
If you possess a passion for starting new churches or restoring struggling ones, we invite you to join our church planting and revitalization teams. As part of these teams, you will have the opportunity to engage in various ministries, including:
- Bible studies
- Business ministries
- Church restoration
- College ministries
- Coffeehouse ministries
- Hospitals
- Music ministries
- Sports ministries
- Women’s clinics
- Youth camps
We are looking for individuals who are bold in their love for Christ, patient in their endeavors, and deeply committed to living out their faith. If you feel called to serve in church planting or revitalization efforts internationally as a missionary, we would love to connect with you and explore how your passion and skills can make a lasting impact in the kingdom of God.
Is God calling you to use your skills on the mission field?
Opportunities
Agricultural Development
South AsiaServe as a coordinator for developing agricultural programs that help tribal people move from slash-and-burn farming methods to stable hillside gardens and orchards.
Assistant Church Planters
NicaraguaThe church planting movement in Nicaragua is growing rapidly. Come work alongside national pastors with both new and existing church plants in a variety of locations both urban and rural.
Assistant Community Church Leader
United StatesThe church-planting team in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania is looking for long-term community group leader to help with their thriving church plant.
Projects
Megumi Bible Church Tokyo
Megumi Bible Church is a Bible-grounded, gospel-centered church in Tokyo, Japan
Megumi Bible Church in Tokyo exists to worship God and make disciples of Christ according to the Bible and the grace that he provides through the Holy Spirit. Biblically qualified, spiritually mature leaders strive “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ” through the careful exposition and bold preaching of the Scriptures.…
El Poblado Project
Great things are in progress on the mission field through this ministry! Our missionaries will be sharing more project details shortly and look forward to how you might get involved. If you need to get in touch immediately, let us know at info@abwe.org…
Psalm 23 Church and Garden with Jack
Great things are in progress on the mission field through this ministry! Our missionaries will be sharing more project details shortly and look forward to how you might get involved. If you need to get in touch immediately, let us know at info@abwe.org…
Megumi Bible Church Tokyo
Megumi Bible Church is a Bible-grounded, gospel-centered church in Tokyo, Japan Megumi Bible Church in Tokyo exists to worship God and make disciples of Christ according to the Bible and the grace that he provides through the Holy Spirit. Biblically qualified, spiritually mature leaders strive “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ” through the careful exposition and bold preaching of the Scriptures.…
El Poblado Project
Great things are in progress on the mission field through this ministry! Our missionaries will be sharing more project details shortly and look forward to how you might get involved. If you need to get in touch immediately, let us know at info@abwe.org…
Psalm 23 Church and Garden with Jack
Great things are in progress on the mission field through this ministry! Our missionaries will be sharing more project details shortly and look forward to how you might get involved. If you need to get in touch immediately, let us know at info@abwe.org…
Igrejinha Church Plant
Our church plant in Igrejinha has begun to rent a building to have a larger space for our growing group. That building needs to be furnished. Our church plant in Igrejinha has been going on for about 2 years now, and we have officially outgrown our basement space.…
Church Planting with Pastor Karlos
Great things are in progress on the mission field through this ministry! Our missionaries will be sharing more project details shortly and look forward to how you might get involved. If you need to get in touch immediately, let us know at info@abwe.org…
Silvia Henriquez
Silvia is a missionary partner with ABWE in the area of Queretaro Mexico and serves in church-planting ministries, supporting a local church plant through working with their evangelism, discipleship, teen, and biblical counseling ministries.…
Anatoliy Cherepinskiy
Anatoliy and his wife Alla were saved as adults and baptized in the Ark of Salvation Church in Odesa, Ukraine. Anatoliy started the Philadelphia Church on the south side of Odesa, Ukraine. The village church in Limaniy, Ukraine, began as an outreach of the Philadelphia Church.…
Gathered Church Plant Western Asia
Gathered is a new church plant among the unreached in Western Asia. Gathered to hear Good News and scattered to share it with our unreached neighbors in Western Asia. In a city of over one million people and only a handful of English speaking churches there is a greater need for a Gospel preaching church in this global city.…
Cape Town Church and Counseling Center Property
Cape Town is growing by at least an estimated 100,000 people annually. While the gospel gaps remain large, they are only growing with the population. Whether it be the wealthy or the wanting, their gospel need remains the same. We have located a community 20min from our church, where all the diverse populations of this country are within reach.…
Christian Citizenship Inc.
Christian Citizenship exists to see the citizens of Papua New Guinea become genuine citizens of heaven through the gospel of Jesus Christ, to the glory of God. …
Hope Alive Healthcare Birthing Center
As a gentle birthing facility, Hope Alive supports women on their motherhood journey, sharing more about who Jesus is and how to study the Bible, and is often a safe haven for abused mothers to be. Hope Alive is a free clinic to the poorest families in the area, and is the only clinic in the area that focuses on caring for the local Muslim community with halal spaces and vitamins.…
Church Planting/Outreach with Florin & Ana Romania
Florin is the Lead Pastor of Hope Baptist Church in Fundulea where he leads in preaching, men’s prayer meetings, and Bible studies. Ana is busy ministering to the women of the church, both to young women and to the elderly, while also serving as a godly wife and mother.…
Eastern Ukraine Church Planting
This church consists of young Christians who seek to grow in the Lord and spread God’s Kingdom in the society to influence it through Bible study groups and building relationships with local people via youth clubs, camps, and humanitarian projects. Please, support this church initiative with regular prayer, finances, and mutual project.…
Give to the Send Offering – Send Sunday
The need for the gospel is urgent, and missionaries cannot go without the faithful support of churches. Send Sunday is a one-day missions offering that enables churches to participate directly in God’s global mission by giving to the Global Gospel Fund.…
Send the Gospel to the Lost and Unreached This Christmas
God is moving through missionaries like Tim and Laura Compton, who began a ministry in an unlikely place—a CrossFit gym. From relationships built during workouts, a Bible study began, leading to lives transformed: A woman battling depression found peace in Christ.…
Nepal Church Planting
Great things are in progress on the mission field through this ministry! Our missionaries will be sharing more project details shortly and look forward to how you might get involved. If you need to get in touch immediately, let us know at info@abwe.org…
Global Gospel Fund: Send Workers to the Harvest
The Lord is moving, and you can be part of the harvest. As global tensions rise and the world grows darker, the light of the gospel is piercing through closed doors. From communities in North America, where Afghans are encountering Jesus for the first time, to Tanzania, where missionaries like Stephanie Boon (shown above) teach women microenterprise skills and boldly share Christ along the way—we see the gospel transform lives each day among the nations.…
Project Fit
Project Fit includes a CrossFit Gym (LIFT) and church (Rx Church). We use the gym as a way to build community and relationships with middle-class Thais. Rx Church was started as our gym members began to follow Jesus. Our goal is to start more gyms throughout the city within the next 5 years.…
Crossroads Baptist Church – Ukraine
In 2014 God brought together a team to plant a new church in the Luzanivka region of Odesa Ukraine. This is a poor region where alcoholism, drugs and crime are a part of the culture. Crossroads Baptist Church began in a small rented space using a variety of ministries to reach out to the community and there is now a thriving church there.…
El Roi University Center Togo
El Roï was created to reach a specific population of unreached/under-engaged Islamic Students who currently study at the University of Kara through various services who are then invited to join a bible study group with the ultimate goal of a church plant in their own village or city by their own people group.…
Experiencing Faith and Hope Ministries Dominican Republic
About the Ministry At the center of Experiencing Faith and Hope Ministries is a new church plant on the outskirts of Santiago, the second largest city in the Dominican Republic. Worship is the heartbeat of this new church, both through music and the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.…
Bible and Life Church Kyiv
Bible and Life Church in Kyiv led by Pastor Yevhen develop leaders and reach the community with the gospel since 2000. Since the war escalated in 2022, this church has assisted the internally displaced Ukrainians who have fled from more dangerous or destroyed towns.…
Ayvalik Church Building
We want to purchase a building that will enable the Ayvalik Church to have a more secure future under local leadership. The house church model has not proven to be very workable in this area. Most organizations have reached this conclusion.…
Ensenada Discipleship Center
The establishment of the Ensenada Discipleship Center is far from just a physical structure and represents a vision to further amplify our ministry efforts in Puerto Varas, Chile. The goal is to purchase a 2.5 acre property with a house and ministry building on it to use for discipleship and training purposes.…
Sorriso Church Property Purchase
This project is the first phase of a project to eventually construct a church building in the west central Brazilian city of Sorriso. Sorriso is the agri-business capital of Brazil and located in one of the fastest growing regions of the country.…
Happy New Year: The Global Gospel Fund
We are so excited to begin this New Year! God has done and continues to do great things around the world through missionaries and generous supporters. No matter what the next crisis, war, political turmoil, or obstacle that comes our way, we can be sure that the same God that parted the Red Sea waters will continue to supply, sustain, and carry-out his plan to fruition.…
Eternity Matters: The Global Gospel Fund
Time is short. Eternity matters. We praise God for what he has done among the nations in 2023 and look forward to all that he will do in 2024. More than 40% of the world’s population is considered unreached with the gospel, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.…
Christmas and the Nations: The Global Gospel Fund
Christmas is the best time to reflect on the fact that we serve a missional God. This Christmas, your gift has the power to penetrate a dark world with the gospel. One third of humanity remains isolated from the life-changing message of Jesus Christ, dwelling in profound spiritual darkness.…
Bring Light to Darkness: The Global Gospel Fund
This Christmas, your gift has the power to penetrate a dark world with the gospel. More than 40% of the world’s population is considered unreached with the gospel, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Gifts to the Global Gospel Fund help to equip, train, support, and mobilize missionaries to reach the hardest places in the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.…
Cabanillas Church Building
Iglesia Evangelical of Suanzes (the mother church), located on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain, is in process of purchasing a building to use as a church space. The total need is $200,000 to complete the renovation and make the space usable.…
