Wilfredo Rodríguez is the coordinator of the central district of the Wesleyan Church in Colombia. He has been pastor of the church Pueblo de Dios for six years in Bogota. Last year, he and other leaders of his church had the opportunity to participate in the church planting awareness campaign with Multiplication Network Ministries (MNM). "It was a great experience," Wilfredo says. "We hadn't seen the need for church planting before but now we realize it is a necessary task."

As a local church and district, they decided to enroll in MNM's church planter training. "One of the first challenges we encountered was the mentality of the pastors. We originally worried that if we planted other churches, people would stop coming to the other established churches," shares Wilfredo. "We also wondered about financial issues and how new churches were going to be sustained."

But the leaders received training on these issues and more through MNM's program. They began to work in vulnerable zones. "It has been amazing to see how the community is being impacted by the power of the gospel. The majority of the new leaders have committed to working with adolescents to help remove them from vices to bring them to the Word of God," Wilfredo says.

In addition to establishing new faith communities, Wilfredo and the other leaders have been able to revitalize a few churches using the Take Your Church's Pulse tool. A church in Pereira was at the point of closing but after evaluating ways they could better impact their community, it has become a stronger church with around 70 people.

Wilfredo realizes it is a constant need to work on changing his mindset. "As pastors, we should transform our minds, stop being selfish, and build up the leadership of the church without fear. We shouldn't think of our own reign but God's."

As a result of this transformation, the time for making excuses about planting new churches has come to an end for Wilfredo. Now his denomination is planning to move ahead with the same training in a second district with the goal to continue seeing what God can do in the life of every person.