Article updated as of May 2011
The year 2011 marks the 110th year of the C&MA ministry in the Philippines. The 110 years of God’s faithfulness to the CAMACOP can be expressed in the hymn of the Christian life entitled “Jesus is the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever.” Our God is eternal and sovereign; He is the source of strength, truth, and trust in the life of every pastor doing His work. Our vision, which is “to transform communities with mission-driven Christian organizations here and abroad for the glory of God,” translates into the presence of local churches all over the country and beyond. We must stay aggressive and divinely obligated to intensify planting churches that proclaim Jesus Christ as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King.
CAMACOP’S FIVE YEAR GOAL (2011-2015)
Church planting is no longer an option, but is now a divine obligation that everyone in CAMACOP should heed. Church planting is now the flagship program of our denomination. The national church planting summit held on September 22-24 at the Golden City Alliance Fellowship (GCAF) Hub set a goal of 1,500 new and possibly viable churches from 2011 to 2015. We want to be aggressive in planting churches, by God’s grace. Our challenge to all is that:
- every official worker of CAMACOP must be engaged in church planting
- all local churches and members must apply all possible ways and means to plant churches
- lay leaders may be sent out to plant churches among their families, relatives, or tribal groups
- all auxiliaries in the local churches, circuits, zones, districts, regions, and national level must support church planting
- residence and non-residence educational institutions may re-design curricula and field ministry assignments for students in the light to planting churches
- all DMSes and national leaders must contribute toward church planting
- the 2011 and onward budget for church planting must be increased based on the plans and programs approve by the NBOT.
GO … GO … GO …All brethren for the “Ultimate Task” (1500 by 2011)
Let us identify “unchurched” cities, towns, provinces, and barangays all over the country. A healthy local church normally produces one daughter church for every three or five years. As of December 31, 2010, CAMACOP has 2,891 local churches. If in three or five years every local church is able to plant a congregation or a daughter church, we shall have put up 5,782 churches by 2015.
GIVE … GIVE … GIVE … Churches and Christian Brethren
We appeal to all pastors and members to set aside an amount every month to support church planting over and above their tithes. Local churches are enjoined to conduct their own church planting summit. All support for church planting shall be collected by local churches or coursed through the districts. Local churches shall appoint a church planting director and treasurer.
PRAY … PRAY … PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
Appoint a prayer coordinator and identify individuals who will commit to pray and fast monthly. Encourage the whole congregation to pray every Sunday and in all meetings and gatherings of the church.
PLAN … PLAN … PLAN FOR CHURCH PLANTING
Identify places where to start church planting (within your community and beyond), organize a church planting team and partner with other congregations, institutions, auxiliaries and organizations to plant and support church planting ministry.
EVANGELISTIC (Rev. Elezier Fiel and Rev. Isacar Los Banes)
Our national evangelists conducted open air meetings all over the country through the districts and local churches in 93 places, with 14,604 attendees, 5,374 decisions, 49 baptized and five church planting. We had 28 evangelistic teams, including volunteers all over the country. The trainings and seminars of 62 evangelists were conducted in Luzon and in Mindanao in partnership with Ambassadors for Christ Philippines. Our national evangelists also facilitated 70 WIDER seminars which were participated in by 2,374 pastors and church leaders. We thank God for churches, districts and individuals who sacrificially assisted and supported our evangelistic ministry.
PRAYER AND FASTING (Rev. Danilo Cagampang)
Our national prayer coordinator conducted prayer and fasting in 11 districts, among 880 pastors. A total of 31 local churches received seminars on prayer and fasting attended by 1,555 people. Rev. Danny Cagampang tendered his resignation effective December 31, 2010 due to health reasons. We appreciate and value so much the ministry of Pastor Dan in the CAMACOP as national prayer coordinator. Thank you very much Rev. Dan Cagampang. Indeed, you are a gift to the CAMACOP.
PERSONNEL RECORDS, LICENSING, RESEARCH, AND STATISTICS ( Rev. Joel Garcia)
The Department is tasked to document and validate every Minister’s competence and faithfulness regularly (Personnel Records and Licensing); and ascertain CAMACOP situation and challenges (Research and Statistics).
- Structure: laying and configuring the functional structure of the department.
- Personnel Records: pursuing our data base on personnel records.
- Licensing: complying with requests by Pastors and churches for documents;
- Statistics: analyzing and appreciating the implications of the reports of Division Heads with statistical data;
- Research: capturing strategic transformational concepts by identifying and gathering concepts available toward transformational endeavors and ministry growth of CAMACOP constituents.
HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT ( Mrs. Susan Aragon)
Mrs. Aragon assumed her full-time ministry on January 1, 2011. Her term will end on May 31, 2013. The HRD task is primarily to assist our workers/pastors in terms of:
- Placement – see to it that all licensed ministers are assigned and that there is an adequate number of workers/ministers serving in CAMACOP churches/institutions)
- Ministry Organization and Information – to produce guides for ministers/workers/officers in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities for enhanced efficiency and competence; develop and administer ministry evaluation programs for the organization.
- Training – provide trainings for specific purposes (knowledge upgrade/coaching/values strengthening, etc.)
- Benefits – ensure that all ministers receive the benefits due them (medical assistance/calamity assistance/insurance – Philhealth/SSS/ARP/PAGIB IG/etc.). To make sure that everyone in the organization is accounted for.
- Ministry Support ( Equivalent of “Compensation”) – a study is being made on the standardization of ministry support according to the classification of churches and the cost of living is a particular place.
- Personal Data Forms – only 859 PDFs have been forwarded to the office of the HRD. The office will try to complete the master list of all licensed workers/ministers by district (to identify those without data forms yet). God willing, we will soon start the computerization system.
- District Counselors’ training - the tentative schedule is June 13-16, 2011. We will be pilot-testing the curriculum submitted by Dr. Moises Ardina, Jr. after which an evaluation will be made before its implementation in the Visayas and Mindanao. The Lord willing, CAMACOP will have a pool of certified counselors to help our pastors.
A “ministry survey” was conducted to find out how our pastors/workers are faring and to identify those who are not covered by SSS, Pagibig, Philhealth, or ARP. The results will form the basis for future proposals.
NATIONAL ALLIANCE YOUTH PHILIPPINES (Rev. Augie Dela Cruz)
The organization of the Leadership Team of the Alliance Youth Philippines has been put in place. This team is the legislative and administrative body of the whole AYP. This is composed of the elected regional youth representatives namely, Edward Estacio (NCLR), Alex Janaysay (Visayas), Orlando Ortiz, Jr (WMR), Architect Nory Loyd Narvaez (NCEMR), and Engineer Abednego Baro (SCMR). Edward Estacio was also elected national President of AYP. In order to further empower the AYP, national coordinators were also elected by the Leadership Team, namely Rev. John Dave Labrador (Zambas) for Youth Ministers’ Fellowship, and Pastora Hazel Hontiveros- Russell (MMD) for Young Teens’ Fellowship. Nory Loyd Narvaez concurrently serves as national coordinator for Young Adults/ Professionals, while Abednego Baro serves as national coordinator for Pastors’ Kids.
The thrust of the whole AYP program is the training of key youth leaders throughout the country, remembering that leaders, not followers, grow the Church. District youth camps and leadership seminars have also been held, and the results were very encouraging. A recent SMD youth convention reported 1,412 registered delegates. A record!! Preparations for a national youth congress in General Santos City in April 2012 that expects 4,000 delegates, is also underway.
NATIONAL ALLIANCE WOMEN PHILIPPINES (NAWP) – Mrs. Sylvia Guevarra, President
The NAMP aims to fulfill the following objectives:
- Prayer- provides intercessory support for the alliance missions worldwide.
- Propagation – encourages spiritual growth in the lives of women by teaching biblical principles, providing inspirational fellowships, and emphasizing stewardship.
- Promotion – to the local churches and workers in implementing the missionary program of CAMACOP.
- Provision – encourages sacrificial giving and aiding CAMACOP overseas missionaries in obtaining their outfits and providing assistance to church planting ministry.
We give God the glory for the successful 28th Nat’l AWP convention held at Crown Regency Hotel, Cebu City. There were 675 delegates, including five women from Indonesia, and 14 missionaries.
The 29th Nat’l convention will be held in Cagayan de Oro City. The venue is yet to be finalized. The theme will be: “The World in our hearts, the means in our hands.” It is our fervent prayer that God will continue to enable the Alliance women to exercise their gifts for the glory of God! AMEN!
NATIONAL ALLIANCE MEN PHILIPPINES (NAMP) – Judge Jordan Reyes, President
The 2010 National Alliance Men Convention held in Zamboanga City was blessed by God with almost 700 Alliance men in attendance. Mayor Celso Lubrigat graced the occasion. Bishop Reniel Nebab was the keynote speaker. The NAMP has been supporting and has committed to continue helping the church planting ministry of the CAMACOP.
ALLIANCE CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAM (ACEP)
The 2010 ACEP was conducted by the CAMACOP President and National Executive Ministers in every district, with a total attendance of more than 2,400 pastors. We thank God for our local churches that sent their pastors to attend the ACEP. We were encouraged by the excellent and superb feedbacks from our pastors who said they learned many new things and ideas on public relations, leadership, budgeting, dreaming and vision-mission casting, building relationships, etc.
CHURCH GROWTH MINISTRIES (Dr. Kenneth Gerada)
(On November 17-19, 2010, during its regular meeting in La, Trinidad, Benguet, the NBOT approved the full-time appointment of Dr. Kenneth Gerada as National Director of the Church Growth Department). Fifteen Hundred Churches By Two Thousand Fifteen (CAMACOP Church Planting, 2011 – 2015). CAMACOP Church Planting envisions to plant fifteen hundred CAMACOP churches in five years from 2011 to 2015 in strategic areas in the Philippines. This goal came out as a result of much prayer, deliberation and planning during the Church planting national summit in Cagayan De Oro last year attended by 97 delegates representing various offices and auxiliary groups like the Alliance Men Philippines, Church Planters, District Ministry Team Church Planting Coordinators, District Ministry Supervisors, National Leaders, and invited guests. With our local churches, districts and regions, the Alliance men and other auxiliary groups, national leadership, ministry supporters, and partners working together, this goal can surely be accomplished. One of the major roles of the Church Planting Department is to empower the Church Planters, local churches, auxiliary groups, and ministry partners by generating viable Church planting funds, providing trainings and skill building seminars and workshops, building strong partnership connections for greater collaborative efforts, and providing the needed materials and strategies for effective Church Planting ministry.
The National board of trustees of CAMACOP approved the following recommendations from the National Church Planting director during the NBOT meeting last April 13-15 in Antipolo City:
- BT-11-22 MSC: Approved that pledges be solicited to support CAMACOP’s church planting program starting December 2011.
- BT-11-23 MSC: Approved to designate December as CAMACOP’s church planting month.
- BT-11-24 MSC: Approved a supplemental budget of P1,213,800.00 to be taken from the 2010 surplus and add P500,000.00 to the 2011 (current) P750,000.00 appropriated budget for church planting.
CONCLUSION
I believe that no other institution like the local church exists. It is the epicenter of God’s work on earth. As the Gospel is preached by the church, sinners are saved. God intentionally builds His church to make known His glory by redeeming the world. Why plant a new church? Planting churches is the surest way to accelerate our mission of making the Name of Jesus Christ famous and known in the world. We are planting a church because we believe that eternity is real. We, at the CAMACOP, are all church planters!!!
Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo C. Cajes
Vice-President/Auxiliary Bishop
NEM-Division of Church Ministries