Multiplication Network Ministries (MNM) Founder and President Dr. John Wagenveld says, "The Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is affecting us globally as national leaders in newly planted churches are having to find different ways of ministering in their communities." Please note that all of MNM's leaders around the world have been cautioned to reduce exposure and be safe while following the regulations set by their countries' governments.

Carlos Ríos is an associate pastor for the Assemblies of God in Costa Rica. For several years, he had been involved with the church and serving God but had been searching for God’s direction for some time. Carlos was introduced to church planting and started to take an interest in it. He soon saw God opening many doors for him.

One such door was the opportunity to receive church planter training provided by you through Multiplication Network Ministries (MNM). Carlos began to learn the first steps in church planting. One of the first obstacles he had to overcome was to break certain traditional paradigms regarding planting churches such as making a change from the way church planting had been done for the last 30-40 years.

Carlos says that the key part of planting churches is people. “We need passionate leaders who live the gospel in every second of their lives, not just when they are in an evangelical activity or in a meeting but also at work, with their family, in the neighborhood.”

For him, church planting opened a range of possibilities because he is no longer limited to one way of doing things. Rather, he says, the strategy is planting churches in every corner, in every place, and with a specific strategy for that place. “MNM’s church planting approach begins with an analysis of the location and the community itself tells us how to reach them,” Carlos adds.

Carlos shares that one mistake many people make is to think that the people of the local church do not want to plant more churches. He assures that there are many passionate people like him, waiting to be invited to impact their communities and families with the gospel through the planting of churches.