Our Plan

Jeff and Heather Stutzman in partnership
with Biblical Ministries Worldwide

It has been said many times, but the truth bears repeating. To fail to plan is to plan to fail. The purpose of this document is to set forth our plan for planting churches in the population centers of the province of Pangasinan. We have prayed and researched and we believe this is how God wants us to go about planting churches in this province of the Philippines. We cannot guarantee that everything will go exactly as we plan, but we know you must have a goal to strive for, or you will get nowhere.

Our ultimate goal: To see at least one church planted in each of the 5 population centers of central Pangasinan within 30 years of reaching the field full time.

These population centers are:

Lingayen	Pop. 88,891	www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingayen,_Pangasinan
Dagupan city	Pop. 130,328	www.dagupan.gov.ph
		www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagupan_City
San Carlos City	Pop. 154,264	www.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Carlos_City,_Pangasinan
Urdaneta	Pop. 111,582	www.urdanetacity.com/
		www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdaneta_City
Mangaldan	Pop. 82,142	www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangaldan

To accomplish this goal there must be a starting point and subsequent goals leading up to the final goal. Through survey work and prayer we have selected the city of Dagupan as the city to begin in. Dagupan is centrally located in the province and is the most population dense city. In our research we have not found even one church preaching the true gospel inside this city.

We will start with evangelization, where all church planting must start. We will accomplish this more through personal contact than through public meetings. Due to cultural influences, we believe that personal relationships developed with the end goal of evangelization will be a more effective base for church planting than large, public "tent meetings." This personal approach to evangelism will be carried out during general, daily contact as well as contacts made specifically with the intent of evangelizing. What we are saying, is that while we intend to do specific things geared towards making evangelism contacts, such as inviting people to our home for dinner and getting involved in local events, there is also just day-to-day contact with people as we buy groceries and live in town. Evangelism will have to be more of a lifestyle not just a weekly activity.

Because everything we do will be focused on planting reproducing churches our evangelism will have as a primary focus, men. We will share the gospel with anybody we can, but we are planning to specifically target men who can be trained to be the leaders of a church. The Biblical mandate for leadership in the local church is men. To try planting a church without Biblically correct leadership would be pointless.

Once we see somebody saved, we will begin discipleship. Again, we will disciple all converts God is pleased to give us, but we will specifically be looking for men to disciple into local, church leadership. Our discipleship will start with normal discipleship matters such as assurance and obedience in baptism, but it will always be geared towards planting a church that is looking to reproduce itself. A vital part of the discipleship of the men that get saved will be Godly leadership. We will endeavor to help the Filipino men become strong, spiritual leaders both in their home and in their church.

If God is pleased to make our plan work, then an American will not pastor the church. Our plan is for it to be a Filipino church from the beginning. We want the church to be a natural outgrowth of their learning and personal spiritual growth.

10 year goal = 4 churches established in Dagupan

With God's grace and strength, we will use these principals to see four churches established in the city of Dagupan and ready to begin reaching out to reproduce themselves. Due to the population density of Dagupan, we believe it is reasonable to start 4 churches in the center of Dagupan. From the beginning, these churches will have as their purpose to reproduce themselves on the outer edges of the city.

20 Year Goal = 4 more churches on the outskirts of Dagupan

After being on the field for 20 years, we would like to see the outskirt plants ready to start a push out of Dagupan and on to the other population centers. Again, these second-generation churches will have had from their beginning, the plan to reproduce themselves in the cities of: Urdaneta, San Carlos, Lingayen, and Mangaldan.

30 Year Goal = Reproducing, local churches established in the population centers of central Pangasinan

After thirty years of being on the field, we would like to see the churches started in the population centers ready to begin reproducing themselves in their own cities. Each of these cities should by this time have doubled in size according to current population estimates. With the support of three generations of church planting, these churches can now start planting churches to reach the rest of the souls in their city.

We know that these are very far reaching and impossible sounding goals, but we know that we serve the God of the impossible. The truth is that the things that appear impossible to us are really no problem for God. He is not limited in strength or resources. He will provide all our needs, and in the end He will be glorified because it will be more than a work of men, it will be God's work.

If you feel that you would like to be a part of this work for God, please visit the "Our Team" page to see where you might fit on our team.