One Saturday, we met at Cabrillo Beach to fellowship and to baptize two young believers in the church, John Gonzalez and Adela Ramos.  Both had recently accepted the Lord and expressed a desire to die to themselves in order to start a new life with Christ.  What was particularly great about this baptism was that John invited four of his non-Christian friends to the event, some of whom asked us more about God. 

 As the emerging leaders of our simple church,  we had Gandhi and Celestyne perform the baptisms for John and Adela.  (Previously, I had gone over the process with both of them using the Baker’s Worship Handbook).  Both Gandhi and Celestyne did a wonderful job explaining the biblical meaning of baptism to us before performing the baptismal ceremony for us in the ocean. 

Since the baptism, our simple church has continued to grow both in depth and in size.  We are regularly having non-believers join us for our church meeting.  During the Bible study, people will often come ask us what we are doing and sit down and join us for the Scripture study.  

Please pray for protection and growth for our young leaders and for our young disciples.  Many are recently coming from very broken situations including drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, and crime.  Several have children out of wedlock from their previous lives and still struggle with the consequences of their previous actions.  Pray also for Bryan and myself as we strategize for the growth and multiplication of our church planting efforts.  Pray that we would follow the Spirit (as Paul did)  in knowing when to head out to break new ground.

 Kenneth Molina, a.k.a. “Gandhi”, might just be one of these men of peace.  Gandhi is a twenty-four year old Hispanic male who has a passion for creating rap music.  Despite his youth, he has already survived many trials, including an addiction to drugs, a life-threatening car accident and the rigors of supporting two young children that he had out of wedlock.  He understands perfectly the culture and challenges of the inner-city and already has relationships in the community that God can work in.  Most importantly, Gandhi recently gave his life back to Christ and is now committed to living for Him. 

 Last month,  Bryan and I met Gandhi at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College in South Central Los Angeles.  Right off the bat, Gandhi displayed an openness to fellowship with us and to be discipled and trained for ministry.  For the past month, we’ve been going through the 7 commands of Christ with him:

      1)      Repent and Believe
2)      Be baptized
3)      The Lord’s Supper
4)      Pray
5)      Give
6)      Love God and others
7)      Make disciples

In the past month, Gandhi has been eager and receptive to learning the seven commands and obeying what the Word instructs him to do. 

 The vision now is to build a simple church around Gandhi and his friends.  By “church”, we are not referring to a building or an organized service, but an active community of believers dedicated to obeying God and reaching others.  To this end, we have simply been meeting Gandhi and few others at the picnic tables of the campus of Trade Tech.  We have also discussed using his rap music skills to present the gospel to the community in a culturally relevant way.

 Pray for us as continue to invest into Gandhi and others like him.  Pray that God would give these urban leaders the strength and resources to endure the problems of the inner-city and be obedient to reaching out to their communities. 

thwang@worldimpact.org

Before going onto campus, Bryan and I spent time in prayer, asking the Lord to lead us to “men of peace” -  people open to the gospel and able to lead their network of friends and family to Christ (Luke 10:5)  The second day, we were there, Bryan and I ran into a young Hispanic man wearing a dew rag, baggy jeans…and a oversized T-shirt with “JESUS IS LORD” written in large letters on the back.  Intrigued, we approached him and asked:

     “Are you a Christian?”
                “Yeah, man…I’m on fire for Jesus!”
                  “Great.  We’re two Christians preaching the gospel on campus.  Would you be interested in sitting down to talk to us.”
                “For sure.”

We sat down at a picnic table and brought out our Bibles.  We spent the next half an hour sharing our testimonies and exchanging some of our favorite verses with each other.  He shared that after a period of falling away, he came back to the Lord three years ago and has been committed ever since.  He has been involved in a Christian rap music ministry this past year and has been seeking reconciliation with the mother of his two young kids. 

 
         “By the way, what’s your name?” I asked.
         “Kenneth”
         “What church are you a part of now?”
         “I don’t go to a church right now.’
         “OK, what do you think about starting a church with us right here on campus?”
        “I like the way you guys think.”
        “Do you feel called to ministry?”
        “Yes."
 
Kenneth is the kind of “raw material” Bryan and I are looking for.  Does he know everything he needs to know yet?  No.  Could he start a church on campus on his own now?  No.  But is he called to preach the gospel and is he committed to obeying the Lord in all areas of his life?  Yes, it seems like it.  Pray for Bryan and I as we continue to equip Kenneth to do the work of the ministry among his urban poor networks.  Pray also that we would find more like him all across the city.  We are yearning for a church plant movement to catch fire across the city in the next few years!

7 Commands - Complete

The Lord's Supper