Around the World
Why I Teach Church Planting Teams
By Nick Mahabir
Did you know that nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to “plant churches”? Then why do we do it?
New congregations are the fruit of evangelism! Jesus commanded His disciples to “go and preach.” As they went, they preached, and new believers were added to the church daily. From the many reasons we plant churches, allow me to share two: first, to make disciples, and second, to develop leaders. That is what I strive to do when I teach at the Global Church Planters Academy in West Africa.
If we are to be effective in church planting wherever we are, I suggest several important directives:
- Be personally committed. All of us must accept the responsibility to win the lost for Christ. No other activity should replace our desire and commitment to bring the lost to Christ. Evangelism is in the DNA of each believer. Having a passion for souls is not optional. It must be our mission. The prayer of John Knox, “Lord, give me Scotland, or I die,” reflects the passion and the burden he felt for the lost. (John Knox was the leader of the Protestant reformation in Scotland.)
- Preach it from the pulpit. No one comes to Christ except through the Word. Pastors must see as part of their responsibility the need to preach church planting and to challenge their congregations to respond.
- Teach church planting in our Bible schools. Ministers of tomorrow must learn the dynamics of church planting or they will not have the knowledge and skills to plant a church. At the Global Church Planters Academy, we prioritize what we call Four Dynamics: leadership, pastoral ministry, evangelism, and church planting techniques and strategies.
- Model it. Lectures are fine. Online learning has many benefits. But perhaps the most important method of teaching is to demonstrate by personal example. How powerful a message we send if a minister will organize an evangelistic team, provide appropriate training, go to an unchurched area in his “Jerusalem” (local community) and visibly demonstrate what evangelism is and how it works. One of the actions we require of all Academy recruits is that they go out and evangelize in the evening. The best way to learn the theory is to practice the principles taught. At the end of the mission, there will be added to the church many believers who will be nurtured, enabled, and sent forth to preach!
Is church planting just a slogan? In some cases, I fear so. It must become our mission. Evangelism and church planting must retain their rightful places in church activities. Open Bible is in existence today because hundreds of men and women heeded the call to “go out into all the world and preach the gospel,” and they planted churches. Missionaries to my birth country of Trinidad heeded the same call. I am a Christian because they did!
My present involvement as an instructor in the Global Church Planters Academy grew out of my commitment to church planting. I have been privileged to go to Ghana and Liberia to teach young pastors and evangelists how to plant churches. Already we are seeing the fruits of our labors. Four new churches are being planted in Liberia by Academy recruits, and a dozen or so have been planted in Ghana by Academy graduates. It is my fervent prayer that God will raise up an army of church planters to accomplish His will and purpose again here in Open Bible. The Academy exists to train up church planters and to support churches whose mission and passion is to plant churches.
It is also my joy to look back over the years and see the handiwork of God. One such memory revolves around a church I pastored while still quite young. That church today holds the distinction of being a “grandparent” in terms of church planting. We sent out and planted several churches; some of those churches planted others. We also recruited and sent to our Bible school many young people who themselves became ministers. It is always a joy to receive a call from one of those individuals who remind me that they were saved, challenged, trained, and sent out under my ministry. At sixty years of age, that church is still looking for opportunities to evangelize and plant new congregations! My reference to that church is not to hold them up as an example but to provide testimony to God’s faithfulness when we are obedient to the Great Commission.
I close with Jesus’ command:
“Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his field”(Matthew 9:38, NLT).
About the Author
Nick Mahabir, a credentialed Open Bible minister who lives in Germantown, Maryland, is an itinerant evangelist, pastor, and teacher. He earned his master’s degree in leadership from Georgetown University and ministers as a leadership dynamics instructor for Open Bible’s Global Church Planters Academy.
Have you ever wondered, What in the world are our Open Bible missionaries doing now? We wish we could visit every church or sit down over coffee and share what God is doing where we serve—but that isn’t always possible.
So this month, we’ve gathered brief notes from missionaries around the world. As you’ve read these updates from around the world, we invite you to pray for our missionaries—their families, their ministries, and the communities they serve. Please also share these stories with your church so others can join in prayer.
Use the interactive map below to see the updates:
Trouble seeing the map? Click HERE
About the Author
Tammy Swailes is passionate about cross-cultural Christian education, so working with INSTE Bible College to disciple and equip leaders throughout Europe and beyond is a great fit! Tammy has lived in Europe since 1999 – first in Hungary and now Ukraine. Before that, she was in Japan, as well as Spokane, Washington. She now serves as INSTE regional director in Europe, assisting INSTE programs in five languages. Tammy has her undergraduate degrees in both Missions and Christian Education and a MA in Intercultural Studies. Photography, good coffee, multi-cultural experiences, and the family’s Yorkie are some of Tammy’s favorite things.
Ask Open Bible pastors in Africa what the biggest problem in their church is and most reply with one word: REVIVAL! Just as Saul once ravaged the early church in Acts 8, our African brothers today face similar conditions: harassment, arrest, and even death for following Christ. But in the face of persecution, our churches are experiencing rapid growth in thirteen African nations. They’re calling for our help, not to alleviate the suffering, but to build new church facilities to serve their expanding congregations and communities.
The Global Harvest Offering of 2026 is “Building Hope in Africa,” and it is our opportunity to participate in this revival. In this initiative, we will partner with our missionaries and national directors to fund thirteen new church building projects across the continent. God is using faithful missionaries and nationals to plant churches, raise leaders, and reach communities with the hope only found in Jesus!
… in the face of persecution, our churches are experiencing rapid growth in thirteen African nations.
Our missionary partners are many: the Godwins, the Kopps, the Parkers, Okon Obot, Peter Mahoye, the Moores, the Welches, and our brothers and sisters throughout the Antioch Network.
Thirteen churches.
Thirteen countries.
One goal:
to raise the $200,000 needed to
cover the costs for all thirteen projects.
With over 230 Open Bible churches in the United States, we can meet the financial goal of the Global Harvest Offering if each church gives $875. Alternatively, just 2,000 people giving $100 this year would meet the goal. Your support in this effort helps build more than walls; it builds hope, community and the Kingdom of God. Look for the QR code or this link to give to Building Hope in Africa today. Thank you for your partnership to build hope for Africa.
On October 31 – November 5, 2025, Japan Open Bible Churches celebrated their seventieth anniversary. Global Missions Director Vince and Lois McCarty, Open Bible President Michael and Julie Nortune and I were honored to join them for this celebratory occasion.
My own connection with Japan goes back to my twenty-third birthday when I boarded a plane to Kobe with two suitcases, only five words in my Japanese vocabulary, and a heart full of missionary zeal. During my six years there, the Japanese church shaped me deeply as both a missionary and a person. When I left Japan thirty-six years ago, I left a piece of my heart. Joining them again to celebrate seventy years brought me real joy!
When I left Japan thirty-six years ago, I left a piece of my heart.
Japan Open Bible has become a true partner in ministry with Open Bible Churches globally, a partnership especially visible across Asia. The anniversary celebration honored the legacy of Japan Open Bible missionaries and the heritage of churches they planted while also affirming the importance of today’s smaller, community-based congregations. We visited, preached in, and celebrated with churches and pastors in both eastern and western Japan.
Japan’s geographical isolation and a 250-year ban on Christian missions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries gave Japan a reputation as “the missionaries’ graveyard.” Yet, after World War II some US veterans, having seen the spiritual vacuum in Japan, returned as carriers of the hope of the Gospel. The Jake Collins, Eddie Carnes, and Phil Rounds families were among the first in the 1950s era to be sent by Open Bible Churches.
From a handful of missionaries and new believers in the early years to a network of Open Bible Churches across Japan today, God’s presence has been a steady flame of hope in the darkness.
From a handful of missionaries and new believers in the early years to a network of Open Bible Churches across Japan today, God’s presence has been a steady flame of hope in the darkness. Even though fewer than one percent of Japanese identify as Christian, today across Japan we see our churches, large and small, alive with joy and power of the Holy Spirit.
One of the early converts, now ninety-year-old Yaeko Yoshinaga, is likely the oldest surviving member of those first Japan Open Bible congregations. As an eighteen-year-old, she lived with the Rounds family helping in the home. She loved their children and learned to love potatoes (more than rice) as they did, but even more, came to faith in Jesus Christ.
Yaeko says, “I would not have believed in Jesus if I had not met Mr. Rounds, the missionary.“ She and her husband later pastored for 45 years, and today her son and wife pastor the flourishing church. Decades later, the flame of God’s love still burns brightly in Yaeko sensei. Her love, joy, humility, and faith impact every generation in the church. She remains a powerful reminder of how one relationship can change the direction of an entire life.
Pastor Yoshio Ishikawa told me the story of how he came to Jesus as a young boy. In the late 1960s, ten-year-old Yoshio’s family lived near an Open Bible Church in the Sumida neighborhood of Tokyo. He recalls, “When I was ten, I saw a TV drama about an incurable disease. It scared me, and without really knowing why, I walked into the church in my neighborhood that I had passed by many times. That church was Sumida Open Bible – the church I now pastor.”
Today, Pastor Ishikawa uses his talent as a skilled musician to reach people in new, non-traditional ways. He teaches a group ukulele class as a bridge to the gospel. Students learn to play the ukulele, then hear a teaching from the Bible and join in prayer. Other approaches, like book clubs, English lessons, and choirs, give churches relational ways to connect and open doors for evangelism.
In fact, many “unconventional” forms of evangelism are used to touch lives in churches in Japan. Often, churches and Christians invest years building trust and relationships before someone decides to follow Jesus. In my own experience, I saw that converts under my ministry were often a result of groundwork laid by others before me.
Looking ahead, Japan Open Bible embraces a bold vision: to plant ten new churches throughout the country in the next decade. I, for one, believe it can happen! God has not abandoned Japan. The hope of the Gospel that the missionaries brought with them back in the 1950s continues to burn brightly in our brothers and sisters of Japan Open Bible. May God fan that flame as they carry His hope across the country in ways we have not yet imagined!
As I leave Japan once again, I reflect and am grateful to have shared in the celebrations of what God has done, excitedly anticipating what He will do next!
Listen to Yaeko Yoshinaga’s testimony:
About the Author
Tammy Swailes is passionate about cross-cultural Christian education, so working with INSTE Bible College to disciple and equip leaders throughout Europe and beyond is a great fit! Tammy has lived in Europe since 1999 – first in Hungary and now Ukraine. Before that, she was in Japan, as well as Spokane, Washington. She now serves as INSTE regional director in Europe, assisting INSTE programs in five languages. Tammy has her undergraduate degrees in both Missions and Christian Education and a MA in Intercultural Studies. Photography, good coffee, multi-cultural experiences, and the family’s Yorkie are some of Tammy’s favorite things.
