PASTOR MATTS-OLA ISHOEL, WORD OF LIFE CHURCH, MOSCOW 

• The Word of Life Church was started in Moscow over 25 years ago.  Establishing a Protestant church in Moscow was wrought with challenges from restrictive laws to opposition and tension from other churches.  They have persevered and now host 3,500 people during their weekend masses.  Pastor Matts-Ola and Pastor Sergey are constantly trying to help their church not just exist, but to thrive.  They realized of the 3,500 attendees, half of them are youth (under 25 years old in Russian standards), which was a great start.  They realized to secure the future success of the church and to help it grow they needed to engage the youth.  They created two Saturday masses specifically focusing on the youth.  They were similar to the adult masses on Sunday, giving them a sense of being an equally important member of the church.  They encouraged the youth to engage each other and work with the younger patrons to help them grow and understand the importance of the church. The Pastors encouraged the youth to create special interest groups on whatever hobbies interested them.  As the popularity of their groups grew, the church grew more disciples as the members spent more time together.  By engaging the youth and demonstrating their importance in the structure of the church, the Pastors have increased the size of the church and they continue to draw in the youth, setting them up for futures success.

LIFE CHURCH, TOKYO, JAPAN, PASTOR ROD PLUMBER

• Growing any church in Japan is extremely difficult simply because there are not many Christians (less than 1% of the population).  Pastor Rod Plumber  and his team of Australian missionaries began the difficult task of not only introducing Christianity to a new group of people, but helping faith continue to grow.  Understanding cultural differences was imperative and he slowly began to introduce the youth of Japan to Christianity.  Many did not understand the concept of God, nor did they know who Jesus was.  By getting the people into the church and beginning to show them the workings of the church, they grew interested.  The next challenge was to get the attendees to return each week and not see church as a curiosity, but as an life-changing experience and look forward to the opportunity to let Christ into their lives. By focusing on the age group of 18-22 year olds, who seemed more open to understanding Christianity, Pastor Rod was able to begin to grow the size of the congregation and the growth expands to this day.

PASTOR ANDREW CORSON, BOGOTA, COLUMBIA

• Pastor Andrew Corson in Bogota, Colombia leads a 24-year-old church called Su Presencia.  The church welcomes over 40,000 attendees each week! Of those 40,000, 50-60% of them are youth under 30.  The size of Pastor Andrew’s church is incredible, and Christianity is strong in the area.  Youth stand in line waiting to get into services.  What is the secret to the success?  Pastor Corson decided long ago that if he ever led a church, he would never let it be boring.  He engages the youth and makes it a fun and rewarding experience.  Because of this he is able to grow his church and works with his followers to engage new members by being Relevant, Practical and Transparent.  With these goals in mind, he is able to bring hope and faith to the youth of the church and welcome new followers in the future.

PASTOR FERDIE CABILING, VICTORY CHURCH, MANILA, PHILIPPINES

• In the Philippines, Pastor Ferdie Cabiling and his Victory Church currently has 10,000 small groups all over Manila, and their goal is to honor God and make disciples.  He is spreading his message all over Manilla, planting churches and getting young college aged people to join.  He does so by employing the four “E”s:  Engage, Establish, Equip and Empower.  By working with his team closely, they in turn are able to learn the skills necessary to help produce more converts, interns and disciples.

APOSTLE OPOKU ONYINAH, CHURCH OF PENTECOST, GHANA

• Although Apostle Opoku Onyinah’s Church of the Pentecost in Ghana has over 1 million members and attendees, he noticed there were very few young people attending services.  What he did was to train the leaders to love the youth, to engage them and to teach it’s their responsibility to get to know them.  Help the youth find the light.  They began to ordain young people to be ministers while in the university and started churches on campuses.  It was and continues to be a great success.  In ten years of reshaping his church, it grew from 1 million to 2 million members.  A 100% growth and of those new people 750,000 are youth!  With that amount of growth, there is great hope for the future of the church.

PASTOR JASON LOZANO, FREEDOM CHRISTIAN CENTER, CALIFORNIA

• Pastor Jason Lozano had a humble beginning when he got his calling from the Lord to start his church.  His first church in Southern California had a mere 8 people, most family and has since grown to over 3,000 people in over 300 groups.  By creating disciples and multiplying cell groups, he continues to grow.  He did this by traveling and to find the perfect system.  The Path of Freedom makes leaders out of laymen over a 12-week series of class.  With his style he sees huge potential for growth and his goal is to have 30,000 members.  By being closely involved in all aspects and working closely with his leaders it is to see how this goal can be achieved.

PASTOR HOW, HEART OF GOD CHURCH, SINGAPORE

• Singapore is home to Heart of God Church, started in 1999 by Pastor Tan Seow How. Having worked in his father’s business, which he eventually purchased from him, and working in ministry and various other churches, Pastor How began Heart of God Church as a “Youth Church.” Today, they are 4,000 strong, and the average age in the church is 23 years old. The heart of the Heart of God Church is to rescue a young generation and make sure they thrive in their faith while they are young. The church focuses specifically on reaching 13-year-olds and discipling them through their teens and university years. They’ve developed their own systems, their own curriculum, their own leadership training, and their own branding and messaging that makes it all very succinct.
   
  Pastor How has developed a very clear balance between a life-giving ministry and a very systemic process of reaching and discipling the next generation. When I asked him to how to reach 13-year-olds, he replied, “We train the 14 to 16-year-olds to reach out to them relationally. So, for example, find out what some of the 13-year-olds at your school like to do. They like soccer? Then get four or five friends from church and invite them to go play soccer. After three or four times of playing soccer, you invite them to church, now they already have friends at church, so they are not going to be with a bunch of strangers. They come to church and that’s the first step in the process.”
   
  Pastor How, having completed his 20th anniversary in 2019, turned leadership over to his team, most of whom came to Christ and have been faithful members over the last 20 years in the church. He is still very involved in speaking and leading, but they actually run everything. He no longer calls Heart of God church a “Youth Church,” but now a “Strong Church.” He has started doing “Strong Church Seminars,” explaining the model even better. Both in Singapore, where people can come see the model I have described in person or in various other nations. I strongly suggest you go and visit Heart of God Church in person or go to a Heart of God Church seminar either there or wherever he may be. You can find more information at www.heartofgodchurch.org