Sharing faith, changing lives
An interview with Marco Güete

Marco Güete (left) commissions church planter Jorge Quintanilla (center) and his wife Consuelo (in black) through anointing and prayer. Photo: Provided

Marco Güete works as a Mennonite Mission Network urban ministry director to coordinate South Central and Western District Conference church-planting efforts in Texas. The majority of people joining these budding congregations are new believers. Many are first-, second- or third-generation immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Q. Why is it important for Christians in the Western District and South Central conferences to share their faith with others?
A. At least 200 American churches close their doors every week. The attendance in 85 percent of American churches is declining. In 50 percent of the congregations believers are being attracted from other churches. They're closing because people are moving churches. Less than 2 percent are growing by evangelism. If the denomination doesn't do outreach it will decline in membership.(Statistics from the National Baptist Association newsletter.)

Q. What has been the most effective way to share faith in this region?
A. The most effective way to share faith in our district is person-to-person conversation. One of the church plants started a year and half ago when the church planter offered free music lessons in his neighborhood. People started coming to his free classes. He taught guitar and keyboard using Christian songs. He contacted about three families and that was the core group for him to start the church Casa de Dios (House of God).

They also share the good news with extended family and friends that are not attending church. We have another church whose members used Christian tracts at garage sales. The majority may throw them away, but some keep them and come to church to see what is has to offer, to see what kind of church it is. Another way has been inviting co-workers to church. The majority of the outreach plan has been to reach non-Christians. Maybe 80 percent are non-Christian and 20 percent are Christians that stopped attending church.

Churches have what they call outreach training classes or evangelism classes — how to reach your neighbor, friend or relative that is not attending church. It's very intentional.

Q. In what way is God changing the lives of people who come to Jesus?
A. The first thing that happens is they change their lifestyle. If they usually drink on weekends they stop. Their vocabulary and the way they treat their spouse and children changes. The household economy increases because they don’t spend money on drinking or having parties. They are more responsible with their work.

When the household economy changes they can do more with their money, and they start participating in giving to the church for the general budget and special programs. A good number of churches in Texas are new churches and receive financial help from the conference. When people start giving to the church the subsidy diminishes rapidly. Some have ended the subsidy one or two years early. Light of the Gospel had a nine-year plan and in year number six they informed the conference they could stop sending money because they were self-sufficient. That first year they sent a substantial amount to the conference —$1,500 from a congregation of about 70 people.

Q. What are some of the obstacles to sharing faith?
A. [One] obstacle is congregations that have been in the same place for a number of years. They’re at kind of a plateau; they aren’t accustomed to sharing their faith with others. They take care of themselves and dedicate all their time to maintaining the system and not reaching out to the community.

But congregations that are helping new churches to start are growing in the process because they have been re-energized and start sharing their faith.

Q. What is the relationship between already established Mennonite churches and church plants?
A.The plan and desire to start new congregations comes from the established congregations. They started what is called the sister-to-sister plan. One example is San Antonio Mennonite Church, and English-speaking, multicultural church that started a sister congregation with a Hispanic church, Communidad de Vida (Community of Life), about five years ago. They share programs like going to camp once a year and get together for special worship services – communion or when one of the leaders is commissioned, licensed or ordained. The idea is that those two churches will be sister congregations for life, not just for a few years.

Houston Mennonite Church is a sister congregation of a Hispanic church and is planning a second one. They get together once a month for a bilingual service and a potluck. After the potluck they have a fútbol or soccer game. They take turns having a joint service.

When a new church gets started it's encouraged to start a new congregation right away — two or three years. Both conferences working together to offer what we call cultivating a call training retreat to invite people from the congregation that have some kind of call to leadership. The other retreat is a church planter retreat. We host those retreats four times each year.

Highlights

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Return to Beyond Ourselves—Fall 2006