By Larry Barker, Regional Director for North America and VP of Church Strategy and Training

God is a missionary God and has CO:MISSIONED us to carry out his mission. Everything we do must be motivated by the mission in which we are allowed to have a part. Our job is to mobilize believers, churches, missionaries, and church planters in advancing the kingdom of God. For this mobilization to occur, the Great Commission must be placed and remain in the driver’s seat of our hearts and the centerpiece of our churches.

Everything we do as believers, churches, and associations must center on planting churches that make disciples. God ordained the church (Ephesians 3:10) as his chosen way to accomplish his mission. CO:MISSIONED means that we join God‘s team on his missionary cause. It is not your church that has a mission to carry out but rather that the mission of God has your church to carry his mission. Churches plant churches! 

CO:MISSIONED means partnering with one another in reaching the people he has placed here in North America. We now have church plants in seven languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Urdu, Garifuna, and French. Yes, we are CO:MISSIONED to go to the ends of the earth but also to reach those right next door.

Driven by this commission, we are also reaching Hispanic populations in Dallas, Texas (Omar and Anna Pina); St. Louis, Missouri (Juan and Hannah Fernandez); and Vidalia, Louisiana (Angel and Zorismal Colón). With the Great Commission in the driver’s seat we have just approved partnerships with David and Triana Nava in the greater Orlando, Florida, area, and Edixon and Belkys Pina in Phoenix, Arizona. 

One of the newest partners in our commission is Cherry and Terma Gamboa, who are planting a Garifuna church in the Bronx, New York. They are third-generation disciples from the ministry of David and Shelley Dickson when they were missionaries in Honduras. Elvis and Wendy Garcia are doing a wonderful job in coordinating all of our Hispanic works.

Michel and Ruth Poirier are busy working in the French-speaking world of Quebec, Canada,  having planted threechurches and planning for more with their associates Michael and Josie Barton. They also minister in Haiti and are planning leadership training in several French-speaking countries like Cameroon and Ivory Coast. The potential is unlimited because of the God we serve.

CO:MISSIONED to reach every tribe, people, language, and nation includes Jamshad and Anila Hadyat ministering to people from Pakistan who speak Erdu in the greater Atlanta, Georgia, area. It also includes Boris Lebedev, who has planted multiple Russian-speaking churches in Florida and now in the greater Atlanta area. The challenges are many, but when we embrace our responsibility in this CO:MISSION partnership with God, every struggle and trial is worth it.

Obeying our commission has enabled us to plant English-speaking churches in the following American cities:

• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (Grace Harbor)
• Plano, Illinois (Jacob’s Well) 
• Southaven, Mississippi (Central)  
• Cumming, Georgia (StonePoint) 
• Pearl River, Louisiana (The Crossing) 
• Nixa, Missouri (Refuge) 
• Smithville, Missouri (North Lake) 
• Richland, Washington (The Summit).

Also, there is a Russian-speaking church in Orlando, Florida, and an Arabic-speaking church in Dallas, Texas.

We presently have planters who have been CO:MISSIONED in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Michael and Laura Strong) andMorgan, Utah (Gavin and Haley Roberts). CO:MISSIONED means that we are their partners in prayer, encouragement, and financial support. We can also provide more direct hands-on help through mission trips, phone calls, emails, cards, and building commission relationships!

Presently, we are talking to potential church planters in Wyoming and Canada and believe we will soon have the opportunity to partner with two more Garifuna works. There are several more Hispanic planters who are ready and willing to go if we come alongside them in their calling. Our prayer is that God allows us to fulfill this commission in twelve to fifteen languages in the next five years!Churches plant churches, and an association of churches can partner to carry out the Great Commission, then live out and make the CO:MISSION a reality!