As we head into the year end giving season I want to make you aware of a special opportunity we have to double the impact of your year end gift to Taking New Ground! A generous financial partner has offered to match up to $15,000 in year end gifts!
Pastor Martin and his son-in-law Pastor Pablo were invited to Catalyst Community #2 in Port Alegre Brazil in March, 2022. It was an impactful experience for them, and they realized it could be the tool they needed to re-energize church planting in their home town of Pelotas, so they asked if it was possible for us to lead a Catalyst Community there.
We just returned from leading Catalyst Community #1 in El Salvador with 16 church teams representing four different denominations. We often say that Central America can be a hard slog, because there is so much tradition and legacy Catholicism, but I left El Salvador feeling like we had accomplished a lot.
Nepal: A Nation Rich in Religion and Cultural Identity Nepal is 81.3% Hindu, 9% Buddhist, 4.3% Muslim, and a smattering of other belief systems. The percent of the population that is evangelical Christian is statistically considered “unknown”. There are 270 known […]
The Unique Culture of Brazil’s Southern Cone We recently returned to the Southern Cone of Brazil to lead Catalyst Community #2 (CC2) on developing Missional Culture in our churches, in Porto Alegre and Florianopolis. Southern Brazil’s culture is distinctively unique in […]
4 Years of Taking New Ground! March 1st, 2022 marks my four-year anniversary as a full-time employee of Taking New Ground. It’s hard to believe it’s been 4 years, but what an adventure it’s been. We began this journey with […]
with Pastor Leriel in Cuba a couple of years ago. Colin led Catalyst Community #1 there in November 2019 before the pandemic. Since then there have been 12 new churches planted and 40 new community groups started! Cuba just opened back up a month ago and we were able to visit again to lead Catalyst Community #2.
One week from today we will be back in Pakistan! We made our first trip there in January of 2020 and were able to work with 400 church leaders from around the nation. Our return trip has been repeatedly delayed, but we are now set to lead two additional Catalyst Community #1 (developing leaders) events. We are planning to return again at the start of next year to lead Catalyst Community #2 (missional culture).
Jonathan Matthews grew up in Brazil where his parents served as missionaries. As an adult, he returned to Brazil to follow in their footsteps. We partnered with Jonathan and the Southern Cone Initiative for our recent Catalyst Communities in Brazil. Here’s what Jonathan had to say about Catalyst Community:
We spent 11 days in Brazil doing ministry training events in three different cities (Port Alegre, Florianópolis, and Criciúma). We held two Catalyst Community #1 (Developing Leaders) events, led a denominational pastor training event, and trained the broader leadership teams of two strategic partner churches.
