I’m entirely convinced that I’m not the one who should be writing this article, as my experience is still yet very limited, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to share these thoughts. Many years ago, I assisted a pastor with a church plant in Hermosillo, but as the primary “church planter”, the church I’m currently pastoring is my first one. 

I will take for granted that we all understand the need to pray much more than we do for our ministries, and to depend upon the Holy Spirit’s leading in ministry and in life, generally speaking. Aside from those extremely crucial things, I think one of the most important things I have learned in the short time I’ve been a church-planter is to pay real close attention to the culture of the place where the church is being planted. I am unaware of how this works in other countries, but here in Mexico there is a general “Mexican culture”, but inside of that culture, there are countless “sub-cultures” which one must heed to. Simple example: I grew up in a fundamental Bible church and have been serving in Bible and/or Baptist churches both in the U.S. and in Mexico for most of my life. That means that to preach or participate in any ministry you must wear a suit and tie (I’m exaggerating, but only slightly). Here in Moctezuma, which is a sub-culture being a small town, the most important person (the mayor) dresses in jeans, and cowboy boots. In other words, I have not worn a tie to any service since we’ve been here. Another example: Pastoral visits in big cities (even here in Mexico) usually last 20-30 minutes at most. Because you have to move fast to get to your next visit. Here in Moctezuma, if you leave after an hour and a half, the people ask why you’re leaving so soon! 

Short Anecdote: This past Mother’s Day, we had a special service to celebrate all the moms. On the invitation, we said that there would be a gift for each mom present and a meal for everyone after the service. Praise the Lord, we had 19 moms present that day, about half of them were first- or second-time visitors. The normal practice, at least for churches here in Mexico, is to introduce the first and second time visitors so the church can know their names and so as to give them a hardy “welcome”. I forgot that we were in a small town where everyone knows everyone, and where we are the real “visitors”. So, I had all the moms stand up and introduce themselves. Then while they were all saying their names, I thought to myself, “you dummy, you’re the one who should’ve introduced yourself. They all already know who everyone is!” One of the ladies to introduce themselves even made a sarcastic comment saying “no one knows who I am, right?” It was a learning experience for me, and next time, I’ll be the one to introduce myself!