About sixteen miles from Riohacha lies the community of Peskal. In 2000, a church was planted there and was named Betel Baptist Church. In 2015, the pastor left, but the church continued to gather every Sunday.
Rafael and Tomás are brothers, and they both serve at Betel Baptist Church. Last November, they graduated from our Sembradores Bible and Ministry Training program. We believe that both Rafael and Tomás are called to pastor this church. They each have gifts, talents, and skills that will bless the church and their community. Tomás is gentle and compassionate, with the gift of shepherding. Rafael is passionate and enthusiastic, with a gift for teaching.
As our staff worked closely and consistently with the church, Rafael and Tomás began to recognize that God was calling them to serve in the nearby community of Chichia. What happened next illustrates an important change we are beginning to see in the way the indigenous church approaches church planting.
A New Church Planting Paradigm
For years, the indigenous Wayuu church has relied on a particular approach to church planting and missions: cultos, or church services.
These gatherings often look much like a traditional evangelical church service, with songs of praise, prayer, and a Bible lesson or reading. Many of these services are conducted in a God-honoring way. The people sing to God, pray to God through Jesus, and read Scripture.
But because traditional Wayuu beliefs have a strong animistic dimension, church services can carry significant weight in the way many Wayuu people understand God and Christianity. For many who attend cultos, including unbelievers, these gatherings are seen as a means of receiving healing, prosperity, and well-being. In this sense, a church service can function almost like an amulet: a way to obtain spiritual benefits.
The influence of unbiblical charismatic movements among the Wayuu has contributed to a false sense of assurance among some who attend these services. They may come to believe that participation in a culto entitles them to blessings and benefits from God. These ideas have spread throughout many Wayuu communities in La Guajira.
This helps explain why many Wayuu communities are open to evangelical Christians coming to conduct church services. Traditionally, Wayuu churches have often entered new communities through family relationships or because someone has asked them to come and pray. They may conduct church services for several weeks, teaching one or two people how to reproduce the ceremony. They learn the songs, the words used in prayer, and the order of the service, and are then encouraged to lead these gatherings in their own communities.
There is certainly value in gathering believers for worship. But at Bread of Hope, we have learned that when church planting becomes primarily about reproducing a church service, it can create serious problems for the indigenous church.
First, it can promote a ritualistic form of Christianity centered on the events of a service rather than on a growing relationship with Christ and His Word. Second, in the desire to reproduce churches quickly, it can prioritize attendance over developing biblically equipped believers and leaders. Finally, it can neglect the importance of biblical discipleship and the need to confront cultural understandings of morality and character with the truth of Scripture.
This is why our work with the indigenous church during the Empower phase is so important. We want to see gospel-centered, Bible-guided, Christ-obeying indigenous churches. Churches led by indigenous believers who know God’s Word, understand their identity in Christ, care for one another, and are equipped to make disciples.
That’s what makes what is happening in Peskal so encouraging.
“Church Services Are for Believers”
When Rafael and Tomás shared their desire to serve the community of Chichia with their ministry coordinator at REDESKA, a local Wayuu association of Baptist churches, they were encouraged to go to the community and begin holding church services during the week, inviting people to join them.
But Nancy, a Wayuu believer who has been part of the Empower process alongside our staff, Rafael, and Tomás, had a different perspective.
She felt that simply going to Chichia to hold church services was not the best approach. As she put it, “Church services are for believers.”
Instead, she said, “We should spend time with people, building relationships, getting to know them so they know we care for them, and presenting the gospel by sharing the story of God in the Bible.”
And that’s exactly what they did.
A few weeks ago, Rafael and Tomás began spending time with people in the community of Chichia, building relationships and getting to know them. Today, Rafael is teaching the Bible, and a small group of people regularly come to listen. Even people from neighboring communities are coming to hear what they call “the story of God.”
What may seem like a small beginning represents something much bigger. The church in Peskal is beginning to think differently about what it means to plant a church. Rather than simply reproducing a church service, they are building relationships, teaching Scripture, and sharing the gospel with people who need to know Christ.
This is the kind of growth we hope to see during the Empower phase: indigenous believers taking responsibility for the mission of the church, not simply by reproducing programs or services, but by making disciples and reaching their own communities with the gospel.
We are deeply encouraged by what God is doing in Peskal. We pray that He will continue to guide Rafael, Tomás, Nancy, and the believers at Betel Baptist Church as they grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, build one another up, and reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Please join us in praying for the church in Peskal. Pray that God will strengthen its leaders, deepen their understanding of His Word, and give them wisdom as they seek to serve their community. Pray also for our staff as they continue to walk alongside these believers as mentors and teachers. And pray that what God is beginning in Peskal will become an example of healthy, indigenous-led church planting throughout the Wayuu people.
This post was written by our team and reviewed with the help of an AI tool for clarity, spelling, and grammar.
