Missionary Spotlight Article for Vincent Family: Preach. Disciple. Send. Repeat.

One of my favorite aspects of my job is interviewing missionaries and writing up articles describing their ministries for SGWM’s monthly newsletters. I’ll post some of those here on my own blog from time to time to give an example of what I’m doing to help promote the work of SGWM and our missionaries. Here’s an article I wrote a few weeks ago about the Vincent family in Rosarito, Mexico. If you’d like to become a supporter of our ministry, please see below this article for some instruction on that.


Preach. Disciple. Send. Repeat.
by Joel Garcia

Attending a church service at Calvary Chapel Rosarito is a dynamic experience from the very beginning. As you walk into the courtyard, you’re immediately faced with the fact that this church genuinely wants you here. They want you to feel at home. They want you to feel like a part of their family. They want you to eat with them and talk with them and laugh and cry and sing with them. Their friendly greetings and hearty handshakes and warm smiles are a message from God through His people. What they’re really saying is, “You matter to us, because you matter to Him.”

And that’s not where things stop for Pastor Mike Vincent’s church in Rosarito, Mexico. If you’re a newcomer (or if you’ve brought a newcomer along with you) you’re given a gift of a book or music. But what really hooks people is the fact that this church is alive. After all of the warm greetings, you’re seated in a pew and the celebration begins. The church’s bilingual worship time is a thing of beauty, a small taste of the believer’s future singing praises with people from “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9) as Gospel-centered lyrics swing back and forth between Spanish and English in an upbeat, celebratory style. And this is functional as well, with a fair share of the church’s congregation being English speakers; Pastor Mike preaches in English through a Spanish translator as well. And with each message comes a clear presentation of the Gospel with an opportunity given for the lost to respond.

People are getting saved at Calvary Chapel Rosarito in such numbers that, about a year ago, Pastor Mike implemented a new believers’ class during their first service on Sunday mornings. Those who put their faith in Christ at CCR are encouraged to skip the sermons for a month and head to a four week class where they learn the basics of the Christian faith, culminating in publicly declaring their commitment to Christ by being baptized at the church’s monthly baptism. In fact, at a recent church baptism, 11 out of the 16 believers baptized had been saved for under 2 months!

Completing the new believers’ class at CCR culminates in baptism with the church body

So Pastor Mike’s vision for CCR is to gain converts to Christ and disciple them; but his big-picture goal is not to fill his church. In fact, he’s seeking to send them out! Pastor Mike is a church-planter at heart, because that’s what he sees in scripture, and that was what was modeled in his own life as a believer. “I was sent out myself, and it was a really exciting time for me,” he says. “I kept seeing it happen around me [at his home church, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace in Southern California], and from the very beginning I had it in my mind to start doing it myself.”

The Vincent family was sent out by a church passionate about church-planting, Calvary Chapel Saving Grace, over a decade ago

It took awhile to get the process going, getting his own church established in Rosarito and raising up leaders being the first steps. After the first two church plants to come out of CCR didn’t end up panning out, Pastor Mike became more proactive in training, implementing a church-planting class to train people in the skills it takes and the hardships involved in the process that he knows so intimately. The class is an extensive 2 year program, with weekly 3-4 hour classes led by CCR’s pastors. In addition, prospective church-planters need to be actively involved in ministry as pastors and, where possible, staff members. They need to lead at least one ministry at the church as well as a home group. It may seem like a long process, but this type of training is invaluable according to Pastor Mike. And the fruit of this work speaks for itself; out of 19 church planting teams that have been sent out of CCR (15 in Mexico and four in the United States), 16 are still presently meeting. Those are amazing numbers!

And so the process continues for Pastor Mike Vincent and his team at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. They preach the gospel, sinners come to Christ, new converts are discipled, and church-planters are sent out to new locations, where they repeat the process all over again. Preach, disciple, send, repeat; this is the heartbeat and rhythm that drives this booming church in Rosarito, Mexico.


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Time To Go!

Hello Friends and Family!

I hope you’re all doing well! Thank you for taking the time to read this update; I can’t tell you how much it blesses missionaries when you read our updates and take interest in the things God is doing in our lives. Things are continuing to go well with the ministry here. If you’re not familiar with my specific role in missions, the short of it is that I am on staff with Saving Grace World Missions as Director of Communications. I’m part of a staff that makes sure our missionaries are cared for spiritually and practically. My main role, on top of assisting with financial management for our missionaries, is to get the word out about what SGWM is and what we and our missionaries are doing. Please be in prayer as I lead up the promotion of our upcoming banquet May 5th, which is a great opportunity to garner support for the organization to help us send and support missionaries in an even greater capacity! Most people don’t realize the need to support not just missionaries on the field, but the organizations that send them and support them. The work of a missionary is not nearly as effective without a great sending organization!

I am hoping to finally get to go out on the field this year! My goal is to go to Africa in May or June with SGWM’s director, Pastor Mike Thiemann, to do some teaching and simply spend some time with our missionaries on the field there. Below are some pics of some of the missionaries we hope to visit there, and here is an article Pastor Mike wrote about why going out to see them is such an important aspect of our ministry. (On a side note, another cool aspect of my job is that I get to edit these great articles Pastor Mike writes for his missions training website).

This is Brian Kanyike. Pastor Brian is a dear friend who pastors Arise Christian Fellowship in Uganda
In the middle is Matt Harris, who I had the privilege of meeting last month. He hopes to head back out to Uganda soon with his wife, Noelle, and their two kids (and one on the way!) soon

Pastor Mike and I are also planning a trip in July to take our church’s high schoolers and young adults (ministries that Pastor Mike and I lead, respectively) to a special needs orphanage in Mexico that one of our missionary families runs.

It was such a privilege for me to take a trip out to this special needs orphanage with our youth group a couple of summers ago. I can’t wait to go again in July!

Finally, we are heavily praying about an opportunity to go to Cuba to do some missions training. We’ve had a couple of meetings so far, and as this would be a new area and work for SGWM, we are moving forward prayerfully. But, I’m excited about the work and my hope is that we can head out to scope the landscape and do some missions training with a passionate church body in Cuba!

Pastor Fernando came out to tell us about the ministry in Cuba and their need for missions training. We are praying about our involvement, and I’m praying about the prospect of being a part of this exciting venture!

I ask that you would keep all of these trips in prayer. I do need to raise additional funds for these trips, and I am continuing to work on raising monthly support to continue to fill my role with SGWM long-term and have the flexibility to go on more trips like the ones I hope to head out on this year. If you would like to make a one-time donation online or become a monthly supporter, please click the button below:

Or, you can send a check directly to made out to Saving Grace World Missions, 17451 Bastanchury Rd., Suite 203, Yorba Linda, CA 92886 with “Garcia Family” in the memo line.

Our kids on a recent venture out into the Southern California “cold.” Aren’t they adorable!?

And finally, if you’re not signed up already, feel free to sign up for our monthly newsletter here! Love you all and thank you so much for your continued prayers and support!

Love,
Joel, Amy, Maggie, Harrison, and Jude