Marcelo Cervantes’ church in Ibarra, Ecuador was seeing that people would come to their church but they wouldn’t return. Something wasn’t working but they weren’t sure how to determine what it was.

Then Marcelo was invited through his denomination to use the Take Your Church’s Pulse (TYCP) tool to assess different areas and make changes. The tool was developed by Multiplication Network Ministries (MNM) as part of the Stronger Churches program. It presents ten characteristics of a healthy church and provides the church with surveys so they can find out how they are doing in each category.

Through this, Marcelo shares he was able to find a few strengths to celebrate with his church but they also found some weaknesses that would explain the reason that areas like evangelism have not been as strong as they could be. This is one of the problems that has affected the health of the church so that it appears the congregation is shrinking. Marcelo says it has not been easy to counteract this reality.

“There was no commitment on the church’s part to disciple the people who came and neither was there any desire to go out to invite others – everyone waited for the pastor to do it. The TYCP tool helped us to see this and to recognize there are a few things we can do to make the church healthier,” shares Marcelo.

Marcelo has committed to develop the use of the TYCP tool with the rest of the congregation so they will be able to concentrate on the need to be a stronger and healthier church. In the area where they are located, there is a lot of idolatry and opposition to the gospel and the church.

In order to be able to impact the community, Marcelo believes they need to strengthen their church so their testimony as a people of God will be louder. “Then the people will begin to know us and know we are interested in their needs,” he shares.