Building a Faith Family
Celebrating the fruit of Alliance church planting in central Mexico
A construction crew was at work when I arrived at the church, a two-story building with a corrugated-metal roof and a façade of steel columns and slate-gray cinderblocks. Although I had never visited the property, I had seen it many times in photos over the last two years at various stages of development. The most recent photos I had seen were from late December, soon after the concrete floor had been poured. Still without walls then, the building looked like a giant picnic shelter. Standing outside for the first time, I was amazed at how far along it had come in just a few months. It looked nearly complete. Only when I looked more closely did I notice the church was still missing some of its doors, windowpanes, and a portion of the wall on the upper level.
Even these observations could not, however, dampen my enthusiasm for the building’s inauguration service scheduled for later that day. In this part of central Mexico—where The Alliance’s gospel-advancing work is often opposed by cartels, members of the region’s majority religion, and corrupt local authorities—even the opening of a partially built church is worth celebrating. So, too, are the ongoing journeys of the dozens of local people baptized, discipled, and trained to serve as pastors and ministry leaders at Alliance churches in Guadalajara over the last 10 years. I didn’t know any of their names or faces yet, but I was eager to learn more about these people and spotlight some of their stories for the broader Alliance family.
As I explored the property, some of the workers were installing windowpanes in the empty sanctuary. Others were outside the building, pushing wheelbarrows of cinderblocks and lumber across the dirt parking lot. A setup crew was also at work. Throughout the afternoon, the crew installed an enormous TV and temporary stage at the front of the sanctuary, arranged dozens of plastic folding chairs in rows facing the stage, and placed potted plants in a flowerbed lining a stone patio just outside the main entrance. The plastic folding chairs would be the only seating that evening for the inauguration service. Although a second-floor balcony had been built, there was still no staircase connecting it to the ground floor.
An Evening of Celebration
I had come to Guadalajara at the invitation of project leaders and longtime Alliance missionaries Bob and Cheryl Fugate. In my role at the National Office, I had communicated with them every few months to receive in-depth updates from their work to multiply churches and develop local pastors and other ministry leaders in central Mexico, a region known as the “Circle of Silence” for its scarcity of gospel witnesses.
Attended jointly by U.S. and Mexican Alliance leaders, the inauguration service had been scheduled long in advance, and nothing was going to prevent it from happening—not even construction delays that had pushed back the expected completion date of the project by months. During the service, the only parts of the building accessible to the public were the first-floor sanctuary and an outdoor patio overlooking the parking lot. Besides the additional balcony seating, the facility will also eventually include classrooms for Sunday school and offices for ministry leaders who oversee church planting, pastoral training, and groundbreaking evangelism among some of the region’s remaining unreached peoples.
To kick off the inauguration, a contemporary worship band led the congregation in a song welcoming the Holy Spirit’s presence. The evening’s keynote speaker was Mexican Alliance President Juan Carlos Perales Sifuentes, who delivered an insightful, heartfelt sermon from Exodus 33, a passage highlighting Moses’s intimacy with God during the wilderness wanderings of the ancient Israelites. The sermon challenged listeners to pursue the same intimacy with God for sustained spiritual growth and ministry expansion in the region.
At the service’s conclusion, Alliance leaders from the U.S. and Mexico cut a blue ribbon strung across a row of gold poles shaped like shepherd’s crooks. As the skies darkened over Guadalajara, attendees filed out of the church onto the outdoor patio, where they celebrated with finger foods and refreshments. Since the founding of the church campus on that property in 2019, the congregation had met in a small complex of tents and other temporary buildings across the parking lot from the construction site.
Those days were finally over.
The People You Are Building
The building’s inauguration may have been complete, but I wasn’t ready to leave Guadalajara. While the inauguration service was a landmark event for establishing permanent gospel presence in the Circle of Silence, The Alliance’s work in the region goes far beyond the construction of a new building.
By driving forward church planting through years of prayers and giving, Alliance family members have fueled the development of local pastors and other ministry leaders. While visiting Guadalajara, I wanted to meet some of them so that I could make their stories known to the people who have made them possible.
Ivette
One of the ministry leaders I met during my trip is Ivette, who serves in an administrative role with the church and volunteers in children’s ministry. When the Fugates held their first church service in Guadalajara 10 years ago, Ivette attended with her family. She was 25 then and working as a factory manager.
“It was really what I needed at that moment,” she said, reflecting on her experiences at that first service and the comfort she received from Bob Fugate’s sermon. At the time, she and her family were navigating the collapse of two small businesses, one of which Ivette’s parents had owned and operated since she was 10. Her father had also been in a car accident, and his recovery had required several surgeries.
Although Ivette had moved two hours away from Guadalajara, she would return every Sunday to attend services with her parents. After attending the Fugates’ first church plant in Guadalajara for about two years, she began to lead Sunday school lessons. Although she has no children of her own and had never worked in children’s ministry, God equipped her for fruitful service as a Sunday school teacher. She discovered a passion in her heart for providing children with comfortable environments to learn Bible stories, practice memory verses, and experience God’s love. Today, she trains other leaders in the children’s ministry, guiding them to embrace and emulate the techniques and disciplines that have shaped her into the exemplary teacher she has become.
Angeles
Another ministry leader I met was Angeles, who oversees a job skills training program for women at one of the Alliance churches planted in Guadalajara. She started volunteering with the program (called Circle of Hope) after she was abandoned by her second husband. The couple had been attending an Alliance church for two years, but Angeles had never been involved with church activities outside of Sunday worship services. As Angeles endured the collapse of her marriage, Cheryl Fugate comforted her at her home, assuring her God would use her traumatic experiences to build His Kingdom.
It didn’t take long for Cheryl’s reassurances to become a reality. Each Thursday, about 10 women now attend a job skills training workshop led by Angeles. The mission of the program is to provide women in Guadalajara with practical skills so they can obtain dignified work and, in some cases, find a viable path out of abusive relationships. As Angeles and others with the program have observed, many women in Guadalajara are mistreated by the men in their lives, many of whom struggle with drug addiction and alcoholism. At the first workshops, the women learned jewelry making. They made bracelets that Cheryl sold on their behalf. Women have also been taught to give haircuts, use computers, and make foods such as flour tortillas, tamales, and syrup for shaved ice.
A Shared Hope
Because you launched and sustained church planting in central Mexico, Ivette and Angeles were anchored through some of the most difficult seasons of their lives. Today, they are using their gifts, passions, and experiences to guide others toward the healing power of God’s Word and presence.
When I asked Ivette about the future she envisions for the new church building in Guadalajara, she said she hopes the congregation will continue to grow so that more people from her community will “feel what a faith family is.” I’m sure her hope for her community is shared by many others who have propelled church planting, discipleship, and evangelism in the Circle of Silence.
The ongoing church construction and development of leaders like Ivette and Angeles will not happen, though, without the continued support and prayers of people like you. To drive the construction project to completion and cultivate the growth of gospel witnesses in a spiritually dark place, visit https://cmalliance.org/gift-catalog-alliance-strategic-projects/south-pointe-church-construction/.
About the Author
John Bils is a fundraising and campaign writer at the National Office of The Christian and Missionary Alliance. He holds a bachelor of arts in English from Ohio State University and lives in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
ONLY GOD GIVES THE INCREASE--PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW EACH DAY!