Josh and Naomi Smith
Mexico City, Mexico
Ministry Overview: The Smith family seeks to bring the gospel to one of the
largest urban centers in the world: Mexico City.
As a ReachGlobal team, their goal is to actively contribute to the development of a biblical,
gospel-centered church planting movement in Mexico City and beyond. By meeting
specific needs in the areas of church planting, leadership training, mentoring/discipleship,
evangelism, mercy ministries, strategic planning/vision and strategic gospel
partnerships, they hope to multiply efforts and help Mexican believers
have the broadest and most far-reaching gospel impact possible. As the leader
of the ReachGlobal team, Joshua will also seek to develop a committed team of
missionaries and Mexican nationals for this same purpose.
Where They Live: Mexico City, Mexico. According to William Ortega of the IMB, Mexico City has 4,253 neighborhoods, and 3,337 of them do not have an evangelical church!
How to Pray for the Smiths:
- Pray for gracious humble hearts toward our new country, each other, and our ministry partners.
- Pray that we find just the right home.
- Pray that we will have a growing love for Jesus, and for those who need Him.
December 2011
How do you reach a (mega) city?At our last Saturday morning small group study, I asked the members:
“How do you fill a city of 22-30 million people with the gospel?
Even if every church building in the city was filled, how many people would be left unreached?”
I think a light went off for many of us. Even in the best-case scenario, tens of millions would be left on the outside looking in. Something has to happen. . .
- The city is just too big. Over the past month I have longed to get away from the crowds. (Yes, even veteran missionaries experience culture shock in Mexico City!) After being here for five months, it has become clear that you just can’t escape the semi-chaos. There are people everywhere, lots of people – crowding around you on the streets, smashing you together on the metro, taking any sense of personal space that you might once have considered your own.
Yet all of these people need the gospel. Which begs the question, how do reach so many? How do you bring the gospel to a city that can easily take three hours to cross? Is it realistic for us as a missionary team of four people to even try?
- Addition isn’t enough. If we are going to fill Mexico City with the gospel, we can’t just plant one church at a time, or focus on adding more chairs to existing groups. Addition (1+ 1 + 1) will just not do the job. There are too many lost people, and too little time.
- Multiplication is key. Our mission – EFCA ReachGlobal – is committed to “multiplying health churches among all people.” That means that as a missionary team we must lay the groundwork for exponential growth, not just addition growth. We are still figuring out the best way to do that, but here are two ways we are trying:
- Training leaders and influencers. We don’t have to be a team of just four. If we can train a group of influential men and women who can then train and/or influence others, our efforts radically multiply. We are beginning to do just that through: the launch of our Gateway Theological Institute (10 students), helping train the new leaders of two local church plants (over 15 leaders involved), training a group of leaders from various churches (10-12 involved – our Saturday group) and networking with other ministries.
- Partnering with multiple church plants. As a team, we are currently partnering with two church plants, and what may be the beginning of a third. Our goal is to partner with and help begin/equip many other churches and small groups in the future. We hope that this strategy will lay the groundwork for exponential, multiplication growth. The type of growth that could eventually fill the city.
How will you fill your city with the gospel?
TIME TO PRAY!!!
- Pray that we are able to multiply gospel-centered churches in the city.
- Pray that we find our “place” in life and ministry.
- Pray that God raises up more leaders, church planters, and missionaries. . . MAYBE YOU???
Watch Josu celebrate the Mexican revolution in style: www.facebook.com/smithsinmexicocity
Joshua (for the family)
Mexico City Team Leader