The harvest of new believers and planting of new congregations begins with sowing seeds, as the Holy Spirit guides and directs. The plain simple truth is that more people need to hear the Gospel. For more people to hear the Gospel, more people have to share the Gospel. For more people to share the Gospel, more people need to be empowered, encouraged and prepared to do so. In other words, more people need to be trained as leaders in mission outreach. And every day, pastors and congregation members all over the Northern Illinois District Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod are coming to this realization and finding their role in making the Ablaze! movement goal to plant 2,000 new congregations in the United States by 2017 a reality.
Rev. Keith Haney, mission facilitator for the Northern Illinois District, notes that the key to increased mission outreach is raising up leaders from within each congregation. “You need people in place to do the ministry that needs to be done,” he says. “If it’s just the pastor trying to do it all, only so much gets done. As you expand leadership, you can expand the church’s reach.”
“In response to Ablaze!” Merlo says, “we designed a program based on the Center for Hispanic Studies [part of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis] in order to have our own institute here with the intention of planting churches in our community.”
Today he has 14 students, members of San Pablo who are preparing for work as missionaries throughout the western Fox Valley suburbs. In addition to teaching them theology based on the Center for Hispanic Studies curriculum, Merlo teaches classes in evangelism, church planting and community relations.
“The way I see it is that if Jesus gave me disciples, either I send them out to go to ‘village after village’ like he did, or I keep them with me and they remain a church just for themselves,” Merlo says. “I am very committed to teaching my people to serve the Lord and to see our Lutheran Church Hispanic ministry grow.”
Merlo has seen God bring people to San Pablo with a hunger for the Word and a desire to share it with others. It’s those people who are ready and willing to participate in the institute’s 18-month program with the hope of planting new churches, perhaps by partnering with an Anglo congregation to start a Hispanic program or mission out of their own facility.
“My role is to identify some of these individuals, ideally a husband-and-wife team, and send them into the mission field as a couple,” Merlo says. “This is not a credit program in the sense of academics. It’s a credit in that they are going to serve the Lord in responding to our Ablaze! movement.”
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Rev. Alex Merlo and Rev. Stephane Kalonji both serve a district level function of helping coordinate ethnic ministry in their respective areas. Stephane Kalonji coordinates African Immigrant Ministry in the district, and Alex Merlo coordinates Hispanic Ministry. That means congregational leaders with questions or needing help in these two areas may contact them directly.
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Rev. Alex Merlo
San Pablo Lutheran Church
555 E. Benton Street
Aurora, IL 60505
630-820-3450
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Rev. Stephane Kalonji
Zion Lutheran Church
9901 S Winston Ave.
Chicago, IL 60643
773-233-1775
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New Leaders Come From Within
Pastor Alex Merlo of San Pablo Lutheran Church, Aurora, understands this well. He desires to point the way for members, raising them up as leaders at San Pablo and beyond.