“What a reminder that Jesus Christ came for everyone. Not just the Church that’s in North America. In fact, the Church in other parts of the world is growing so much more rapidly than what we’re seeing in America”
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| Christians at one of the global church plants made possible with help from global church planter ICM. | ICM |
By Leonardo Blair
Christian Post Reporter
The evidence is anecdotal, but the lesson from the reaction of some of the world’s poorest Christians to hunger and government restrictions on large gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic is a powerful one for their American counterparts, says Janice Rosser Allen, CEO and president of the global church planting ministry ICM.
The ministry, started in 1986 by Allen’s father, Dois Rosser Jr., is described by some as the mission world’s best-kept secret because in the more than three decades it has existed, ICM has helped to plant and build more than 35,000 churches in 100 nations, creating a safe space for the faithful who sometimes have to worship in a hostile cultural climate.
While the majority of American churches shifted to convenient online worship services, and a vocal minority flouted social distancing protocols and challenged public health restrictions on large church gatherings in the name of religious freedom when the pandemic hit in March, ICM-backed congregations responded differently.
“It’s been interesting to see the response of churches in America when we were told you can’t get together in groups of greater than 25. ... Many, many churches as we all know closed their doors,” Allen recalled in a recent interview with The Christian Post.
“What we began seeing with a number of our partners is that if they were told that same thing, ‘You can’t have more than 10 gather,’ they’ll say we’ll just have the church open 24 hours seven days a week so we’ll have groups of 10 come through throughout the days and nights,” Allen said. “It wasn’t an option for them to not gather. And the passion that these believers have for their faith where they know [when] they decide to become a follower of Jesus Christ that they are putting their lives on the line. They’re putting their families on the line, their jobs on the line. It’s [like] that old hymn, ‘I have decided to follow Jesus no turning back, no turning back.’”
Unlike the American Church, which has faced few obstacles to gathering beyond the pandemic restrictions, Allen, who took over ICM from her father in 2006 after a career in nursing and the passing of her husband, said her ministry has been investing in helping indigenous congregations build their own churches in the developing world because sometimes that’s the only way their government would allow them to fellowship.
“In some nations where we work it’s been interesting that the government may have put laws into place that forbid congregations to gather unless they have a building. And so in those instances it was a strategy of the government to try and keep Christianity to minimal growth because they just figured these poor congregations could never afford to build a church?” Allen said.
“I think God has a sense of humor because they thought that would be the restriction that would keep the church from growing and then all of a sudden ICM helps provide something they never ever thought would be possible,” the mother of three added. “In some other places we find that, particularly where Christianity is in the minority position, it sometimes is seen that it’s a Western religion, so it's discounted. When a congregation that’s an indigenous congregation is able to build their own church, it gives a legitimacy to Christianity that did not exist before.”
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A church being constructed at one of the global church sites planted |
ICM’s church planting model focuses on identifying strong indigenous ministries in the developing world and then partnering with them to help create self-sufficient churches which they support with religious education through a variety of electronic technologies and social media.
“I’ve always said over the years that ICM basically is trying to work ourselves out of a job because we want to empower the indigenous church to be self-sustaining. I never thought we were going to have a chance to test that model in every single nation where we are working at the same time, but to see the strength of the indigenous ministries and the indigenous leaders to continue the work seamlessly even when we couldn’t be traveling to oversee the work has really been extraordinary,” Allen said.
She said that about 850 churches were under construction when the pandemic hit in March and she fully expected the work to come to a grinding halt. But the churches never stopped working.
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