A Glimpse at the history of Nueva Vida and its Church Plants

In 1991 a relationship was formed by Iglesia Nueva Vida of Jarabacoa (NV) and Calvary EFC in Rochester, MN. NV had a vision to plant 1000 churches. They needed help, specifically in the area of building church buildings.
Calvary felt that they could help and a relationship was formed. Over the years, five different church plants were started and since 1991, Calvary sent teams every other summer.

We joined this relationship in 1997. At that time, Rick was a Youth Pastor. From 1997 – 2006, Rick led the mission trips from Calvary to Jarabacoa. Rick worked hard to bring teams that focused on equipping Dominicans, but found that only so much could be done on a short trip. Year after year, we saw the church plants in the same position, with little growth. Nueva Vida in Jarabacoa was doing its best to help the small church plants, but with limited manpower combined with the pastoral changes, they had to place more emphasis in their home church. It was obvious that help was needed. We started praying for someone to fill this need. And slowly God began to call us out of our role in the United States and into this new role.

In recent years, Nueva Vida in Jarabacoa went through a lot of change. They struggled in leadership and while their leaders were good men, things had deteriorated. In 2005, the church was at a crossroads. Numbers were down and people were divided. At the same time, Bill Hansen, one of the founding members of the church, returned to the area. Bill assumed the role of interim pastor. Bill, being a man of integrity and having an excellent reputation in the church and community, was trusted by both sides of the divided church and was able to bring stability to Nueva Vida. Over the last 2.5 years, the Jarabacoa church has grown considerably. When we arrived in May of 2007, we were amazed and praised God for the changes that we saw since our previous visit in 2005.

Nueva Vida doesn’t talk about planting 1000 churches right now. They want to get the five church plants established before others are started. At the same time, it is obvious that Nueva Vida is a church that will continually be planting churches. In the last 10 months, we have seen two new works begun in different locations by members of the church. These are potential new churches. While there are not formal plans to start new churches, it seems to be happening spontaneously.

The biggest challenge we see for Nueva Vida in Jarabacoa is to prepare for the day when Pastor Bill leaves. Bill has brought a lot of stability. Who will be the next pastor? Will things fall apart when he does leave? What can be done now to help prepare? These are all questions that we think and pray about. Naturally, a strong mother church will be better prepared to help the small churches. And while things are going pretty well now, we know that it could change.

Because we see a strengthened church in Jarabacoa, we have turned our focus toward the church plants. In our short time here, we have begun to understand more deeply the changes that face that small church plants. The main areas of struggle are:

1. Bible Knowledge - The people in the small churches have very little Bible knowledge. In our Bible studies we have been surprised by how little is known about some of the more popular stories. Generally, the women know a lot more then the men. While the women may know the stories of the Bible, the men tend to be familiar with Bible characters, but not the stories. For example, their knowledge of Moses may be based on the 1956 film The 10 Commandments (Charlton Heston).

Reasons for this are too complex to share in detail here (Possibly we will do a posting on Dominican learning styles). Most Dominicans are able to read at a functional reading level. But in the rural areas, generally they do not read to learn. Instead, they just follow what a trusted person says. In the church, they rarely question what they are told. We have not seen a lot of emphasis studying and equipping. Below the surface, there are deep historical and cultural beliefs that play into this.

2. Lack of Leaders - The small church plants struggle because in their communities, many of the leaders have left. The villages or campos, have few businesses. So the people who have the drive to make something of themselves. They tend to go to the city, maybe Jarabacoa, or the coast where there is opportunity for them. This makes sense, but for the church, it presents a challenge. The small church plants need leaders with vision that live within the communities.

3. The Social Grip of Catholicism - Being Catholic, speaks of someone's identity. A Catholic may not attend Mass, but there is a strong feeling that the church is your family. It is ok for someone to accept Christ. But newly saved believers, will not come to church. Entering an Evangelical church is like turning your back on your family. This makes it hard for the church to grow in numbers.

Note: These challenges are very specific to the village situations that we are working. If we were working in a large city, the people would be different. We even see a big difference between the village or campo people and those in Jarabacoa.