The Vision
A church plant on every inhabited island
Our family’s call to Philippines all started when Matt attended an international Regions Beyond conference in South Africa in March, 2023. Through that experience the Lord spoke clearly about their family moving to the Philippines to raise up leaders and see churches planted. You can listen to full story here!
The Regions Beyond churches in the Philippines have multiplied from 1 to 15 and they have a vision of planting a church on each of the 2,000 inhabited islands across the Philippines. That’s a lot of churches! We are joining the team to help with this vision in some very specific ways:
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The stronger our existing churches are, the better prepared they will be to multiply. We have a vision for strengthening existing churches through preaching, teaching, training, and equipping.
We believe some of the best stuff happens face to face around meals, in church gatherings, and in times of prayer as we seek the Lord together for Gospel advance in the Philippines!
Our goal is to travel once month to connect with Regions Beyond churches across the Philippines.
To learn more about the existing churches, and see a map of current locations, visit:
gracecityfellowship.org
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If we’re going to see dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of churches planted in the decades that lie ahead, the number one limiting factor will be leaders and church planters. It takes a lot to equip someone to lead and plant a church, and we have a vision for training and equipping young leaders. We want to help resource those who are called to go and do what God’s calling them to do, across the Philippines and beyond!
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There are over 2,000 inhabited islands in the Philippines, and many of them lack any form of Gospel presence. We want to see healthy, biblically based, Jesus-centered, Spirit-filled churches planted across the Philippines and beyond. With 120 different languages, hundreds of unreached people groups, and thousands of isolated islands, the need for church planting is tremendous, but God is already opening doors faster than we can walk through them.
Part of our vision includes visiting new islands, and empowering Filipino leaders and church planters to reach further across their nation, and the surrounding nations, with the good news of the Gospel. Southeast Asia represents the least reached people group on earth, and we want to see people encounter Jesus across the Philippines and in surrounding nations like:
Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Nepal, and more!
A big part of our ministry budget goes to Gospel Advance and making new connections for the sake of church planting in the nations!
As part of this larger visions, our dream is to help build and establish a Church Planting Hub which can be used as a home base for raising up, equipping, and sending out church planters and leaders. The land for this project has already been purchased in Zambales on the island of Luzon (a four hour drive from Manila). You can learn more below.
About the Philippines
The Philippines are an island nation off the coast of Vietnam, south of China and north of Indonesia. There are over 7,000 islands that make up the Philippines, but only 2,000 are inhabited.
The capital city is Manila. Located on the island of Luzon, it is the most densely populated city in the world. Metro Manila has a population of nearly 27 million, and 1 in every 8 Filipino nationals lives in Manila! While some areas have tremendous wealth, 40% of the nation still lives off $1 a day (or less).
The Philippines were colonized by the Spanish for over 300 years, before becoming an American colony for about 50 years, and finally gaining independence on July 4th, 1946 (at the close of World War II). The national languages include Tagalog and English, with roughly 120 local languages spoken across the islands.
Updates from the Philippines
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