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The World Belongs to Risk Takers
von: David Spencer
BookBaby, 2018
ISBN: 9781543947861 , 128 Seiten
Format: ePUB
Kopierschutz: DRM
Preis: 5,94 EUR
FOREWORD
It is my honor to help acquaint you with one of the greatest men of God I have ever known. Dr. David Spencer has been a mentor and a model to follow in both life and ministry. He has demonstrated to me what it is to function as a father, a husband, a pastor, and a nation-shaking apostolic leader.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should also mention that David has given to me one of the greatest gifts I have ever received in my life! He did so when he blessed my intention to marry his daughter! David Spencer is my father-in-law, and I believe this should serve even more to validate my recommendations of his life and ministry to you.
Here is some basic biographical information about David Spencer:
•David was born in Bellingham, Washington, on March 5, 1945, to Assemblies of God Missionaries Lewie and Evelyn Spencer.
•His father led him to faith in Christ when he was only six years old.
•While David was growing up, his parents served in ministry, not only in the state of Washington, but also in Honduras and Costa Rica. Because of these formative moments of his life, David became more Latin American than anything else in his thinking, language, culture, and demeanor.
•David finished high school in Waxahachie, Texas, at Southwestern High School. Immediately after, he attended Southwestern Assemblies of God College.
•During his time at Southwestern, David met the love of his life—Bonnie Marshall. They were married in 1964 during their sophomore year and have now enjoyed more than 50 years together. They graduated together in 1966 with degrees in Bible.
•David began pastoring his first church at seventeen years of age at a small Spanish-speaking church just outside of Waxahachie. This was his first taste of ministry experience, and it became the formative environment from which he would launch into larger things.
What is remarkable is what happened next in David and Bonnie’s journey. At only twenty-two years of age, they moved to the nation of Nicaragua to begin a ministry there. Nicaragua was a very poor and troubled place, and at the time it was only a few years away from a civil war that would affect so many lives for years to come. But it was during this season that God used David as an evangelist all across this nation. Every day, nationwide, David Spencer was heard by thousands upon thousands on the radio.
His unique sense of humor, passion for people, and gift of communication became the keys that opened the heart of the people of Nicaragua to this very young man of God. Aided by this radio notoriety, David worked with his father to hold outdoor evangelistic meetings, plant churches, establish Bible schools, and touch the hearts of people all across the nation.
On December 23, 1972, a powerful 6.2 earthquake devastated the city of Managua. The quake hit in the middle of the night and destroyed almost 75 percent of the city, forcing the Nicaraguan President, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, to order an immediate evacuation. David decided to leave this place of his calling and return to the United States to gain additional education.
David studied to obtain a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from the University of Hardin Simmons while also serving as an assistant pastor. For three years he served on the staff of Reverend Wilson Estes, who was the pastor of Bethel Temple in Abilene, Texas. He spent the following three years as the senior pastor of Gateway Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.
But soon the pull of Latin America was heavy on David and Bonnie’s hearts again. An assignment became available to the Spencers to serve as pastors to an English-speaking congregation (Abundant Life) near the US Military bases in the Panama Canal Zone. This location allowed David to reach out strategically in starting new churches in Panama; it also gave him the ability to take ministry trips in and out of Nicaragua.
From 1978 until 1994, God used David and Bonnie in many ways all across the nation of Panama. So much fruitful ministry happened in this season of their lives, as Panama became a second home to them. Their achievements during this time include the following:
•They started a church on an unrestricted US Army base—Cocoli Community Chapel.
•They traveled throughout Latin America teaching a family seminar called “Encounter With the Truth.”
•They pastored Casa De Oracion (“House of Prayer”)—one of the great churches in Panama City.
•During this season, David continued ministering on television and radio and traveled the world, speaking and encouraging churches and leaders.
•God granted David such favor with his ministry that during this time Dr. David Yonggi Cho invited him to join the Church Growth International Board as a representative of Central and Latin America.
•Church Growth International and Dr. Cho eventually awarded David Spencer an honorary doctorate for his achievements in life and ministry.
David and Bonnie had been away from Nicaragua for more than twenty years when God told them it was time to return to Nicaragua. I will never forget the moment when they told me that this was what they felt assigned to do. “We know how painful and difficult this will be to go back. We have always dreamed of this day, but we know that this choice will not come without cost. But if we are going back to serve Nicaragua, we are going all in. We desire to go back and make an enormous impact for the Kingdom of God.”
Now, let me offer a little bit of information about myself. Back in 1994, I was thirty years old. I had been pastoring Allison Park Church for three years, and all that I knew about ministry was a somewhat straightforward, dare I say “traditional” approach to pastoring. The goal I had at that moment was to lead an effective, healthy, growing church.
What David Spencer showed me was something far bigger than what I had witnessed up to that point in my life. His vision was not to only pastor a church, but to change a nation! He went to Nicaragua with an apostolic vision and capacity. The desire was to plant a church that would plant other churches. He envisioned a Prayer Mountain (like he had seen in South Korea). He made plans for national radio and television platforms. And he started raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to carry out the dream.
David knew that to accomplish his vision for the church and for the nation, he needed a vision for property acquisition. After fasting and praying for the Lord to give him clear direction, Hosanna was established on a piece of property that, at the time, was significantly outside the city limits of Managua. Although some cautioned David that this was not the ideal place to plant a church, David was convinced that this property was what God was leading him to buy. The City of Managua has now grown and enveloped that parcel so that Hosanna Managua sits in one of the key parts of the region today! David purchased, for several hundred thousand dollars, property that is now worth millions.
Soon Hosanna Managua had grown into the thousands and began planting Hosanna campuses all around the nation. Today there are sixteen Hosanna churches, and the overall average combined attendance is more than twenty thousand people every weekend.
There are several scenes from that season of ministry that have impacted my life incredibly. Let me attempt to paint the picture for you.
1.Altar Calls—I will never forget the first time I saw David give a salvation call in this newly planted church. Fifty people walked forward to give their lives to Christ. David talked tenderly to them about how much God loved them and what Jesus had done for them. Then he prayed with them to salvation and guided them into a place where they could get follow-up care. And this happened for three services in a row. And it was happening every weekend!
2.Celebration of Small Groups—One Sunday service I attended was a service to recognize the growth in small groups all across the region. Three thousand people packed into a huge white tent on the property. Each section was filled with Nicaraguans wearing colored T-shirts representing their cell group division. When their pastor/division was called, they would bang noise makers, shout, and celebrate the number of new groups that they had birthed in the last few months. It was amazing!
3.Church Plants—What had the greatest impact on me personally was being able to travel all over the country to speak at churches planted by Hosanna. These church plants were alive and growing into the hundreds (some of them were more than one thousand), and all carried the DNA of their parent church.
What I saw there gave me a model of what I wanted to do with my life. Since that time, I have also planted ten churches in my city and thirty around the country, and I have helped facilitate our daughter churches to multiply so that...
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