Praise Evangelical Church – A Missions Minded Church

Introduction

Praise Evangelical Church (PEC), Singapore, believes wholeheartedly in the Great Commission. 

Jesus said in Mathew 28: 19-20: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

Not only does PEC believe in the Great Commission, but we are also convinced that it is our responsibility to fulfil it, realizing that time is short. Therefore, in the last few years we have worked diligently to achieve our vision and mission.

Our vision:

•  In partnership with the local church, to train church planters and evangelism teams and help them to reach the unreached, and establish churches in the states/countries, the Holy Spirit will lead us. Mat 28:19-20
• To equip Leaders/Church Planters/pastors in attaining the full measure of the fullness of Christ by conducting seminars/courses based on the Bible.  Eph 4:12
• To be the salt and the light of the world by meeting the physical needs of the communities that really need help. Mat 5:13-16

Our mission:

 

Our mission is to advance the kingdom of God in Asia, beginning from Andhra Pradesh/Telangana and extending outwards to the other states and countries where the Lord will lead us. To end gospel poverty is our aim.

 

Strategy

 

The essential framework of our missionary work is as follows:

 

• Rural Area Evangelism
• Church Planting
• Church Planters Training Program
• Conduct seminar/courses based on the Word.
• Building churches for established congregations
• Social work

 

Rural Area Evangelism

 

While PEC has been engaging in adhoc mission work in the 70s and 80s. Missions was mostly “done by proxy”. The defining moment came in Oct 2006 after I attended the Haggai Internal Leadership seminar which focused on evangelism and ending gospel poverty. 

 

The Lord gave us a vision to reach the villages in Andhara Pradesh/Telangana with the gospel. We began to train and equip teams to do evangelism in the rural villages. Since then, we can say that the Lord helped us to plant more than 6000 churches in the different states of India. In rural India, most of these gatherings are in houses or in the open space. 

 

Church Planters

What do you do when people accept Christ after the evangelist efforts? We need church planters. In Jun 2007, we started our first Great Commission Training Centre, in a village called Ulinthakonda, in Kurnool District. 

There after we began to setup training centers in different states in India. Today we have about 10 training centers and over the years we have trained more than 1000 church planters. Most of the church planters are actively involved in church planting in different states in India.

Places of worship

What happens when a congregation grows to about more than fifty people? They can’t gather at homes or under the trees. We told the church planters that if they raise half the money, we will find sponsors for the other half to put up a simple building where about 150 people can sit on the floor.

To date, we have built 150 church buildings, besides the many temporary sheds. This can only be God and not by any human innovation. 

Extension to other states and countries

After we started our missions work in Andhra Pradesh, the Lord began to open doors to other states and countries to do similar outreach work. Our primary aim is to reach the unreached areas with the gospel. Over the years we expanded to Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Sikkim, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Kerala. As the vision began to grow, others saw the usefulness of our strategy and we began to expand out work to other countries like, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Indonesia.

Today we have about 200 church planters/pastors working with us in all these states and countries to end gospel poverty.

Social work

 

PEC is also engaged in a number of social projects, through which we share the love of Jesus to the poor, sick and needy.  Today we have two children’s homes, several tuition centres and we also built bore wells for the villages. Occasionally we conduct medical camps in the rural areas where there is no such facilities.

What we have done so far

 

By the grace of God and the perseverance of his people, we have been able to achieve the following:

• More than 1000 church planters trained.
• 200 church planters and pastors currently serving with us
•  About 6000 churches/cells established
• 150 church buildings, besides temporary sheds
• Two children Homes
• 15 tuition centers
• Many social projects

 

Looking forward

 

Looking back, we thank God for allowing us to do our part in ending gospel poverty. But what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. Jesus said:

 

• Mat 9:37-38 - Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

 

There is so much to be done and many villages and people to be reached with the gospel. 30% of the world’s population are yet to be challenged with the claims of Jesus Christ. We as the disciples of Jesus have this solemn responsibility to do all we can to end gospel poverty.

 

These are some of our needs:

• Support church planters at $50 a month for a church planter
• Training centers @ $800-$1000 a month
•  Church buildings @ $6000-$10,000
• Children Homes @ $800/$1000 a month
• Tuition Centers @ $150 a month

 

May I encourage you to pray, participate and provide for the needs in the missional field. 

 

Blessings.

 

 

 

P. Ramachandran

Missions Pastor