Sociology of Organization

The lost and wandering girl has finally found her niche

Kimberly Claire P. Caoile

A girl, in her late grade school, was left alone at an apartment with no one to depend on. She prepares everything in the morning before going to school, manages her allowance for the whole week, watches over her needs and cleans her home after a long tiring school day. This girl takes care of herself. As she enters her high school, she does the same. She learned how to be dependent, and she did survive.
That kid was me. For two years, I’m alone. My parents were working in other country and my siblings are staying in their own apartment too, busy with all the school works they are tasked, to finally graduate. With myself all alone, entrusted to our neighbors and relatives that I can’t feel watching over me as they are supposed to, I felt lost and not loved. Moving forward and neglecting all the fuss that this story could bring about, as I enter a Christian High School, I could say that I have found my niche. I felt found and loved.
But behold. This paper is not about my dramatic story. This is about what captured me to finally feel uncovered and treasured. I have first encountered this religious organization through my siblings as they visit me on weekends and as I enter high school. This church was once introduced to me by my friends and my sisters. They keep on dragging me in attending their services. I have never imagined myself getting all soaked up in this “religious” thing that they do because I find it really corny. I remember telling myself that there are others things in life I’d better be busy with than “wasting” my time here. After a year or so of attending services, sleeping while the preacher is speaking in front, and going in and out of the church for the sake of being able to say that I’ve done what I had to do, I unconsciously found myself being the one doing the “religious” things I saw corny before. I must admit, being in the same position right now, I do not regret it. I actually am grateful for those who have constantly dragged me along with them. Life has never been the same again. This church organization was used to capture my very apathetic and cynical soul. Believe me. I have lost my faith in humanity and even in everything in this world way before I knew this organization. I have searched for love, worth and identity in different things. You know how teenagers run their mind, we try things out of curiosity and we jump into relationships from another. But I am assured that these things have given me no fulfilling and satisfying answer at all, not even one. I am certain that there is this hollow in my heart that only one could fill and fit. Maybe you are wondering what’s in this organization that has won all my questions, my searching and doubts. Well, here it is. Who we are? Our church organization exists (our mission) to honor God and establish Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, socially responsible churches and campus ministries in every nation. Or as our organization like to put it, we want to simply HONOR GOD and MAKE DISCIPLES. It is one church that meets in multiple locations in Metro Manila and has planted churches in various provinces across the Philippines.
How our church started? In June of 1984 three men, namely Rice Broocks, Al Manamtam, and Steve & Deborah Murrell, led a team of sixty-five American university students on a one-month summer mission trip in Manila’s University Belt. After two weeks of evangelistic meetings at the Girl Scout Auditorium, the new church moved into the basement of the Tandem Theater on Recto Avenue. At that time, the congregation consisted of about 150 high school and university students. By 1986, the U-Belt congregation spread to Makati, then to Tuguegarao, Dagupan, Baguio, Los Baños, and other Philippine cities and abroad. Our church has sent Filipino campus ministers and church planters to serve as cross-cultural missionaries in Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Guam, India, Latvia, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. Besides these long-term missionaries, numerous short-term evangelism and medical teams have been sent to more than a dozen nations. In March of 1994, Rice Broocks, Phil Bonasso, and Steve Murrell met in Manila, Philippines to explore ways to cooperate in church planting. This meeting resulted in the birthing of Every Nation Churches and Ministries, with our church as one of the founding member churches. That original group of 150 students in Manila’s U-Belt has grown to more than fifty thousand students, professionals, and families, who now worship in fifteen different venues around Metro Manila. Our church has also equipped and empowered over 3,500 small group discipleship leaders who meet weekly in coffee shops, homes, offices, and shopping malls all over the city for Bible study, prayer, and fellowship. Much of our church’s growth and health can be attributed to these volunteers’ passion to live a life that honors God and makes disciples.
Why our church exists? Our mission (stated above) describes why we exist, what we do, how we build, and where we go. Why? To honor God. Our starting point is the honor of God. Our goal is the honor of God. Our motive is the honor of God. The chief end of our church is to “honor Him and enjoy Him forever.” This is foundational for understanding why we do what we do. It is all about Him, not us. What? To establish churches and campus ministries. We are a church that is called to plant new churches and campus ministries that reach every major high school and college campus and every major city in the Philippines. How? Christ-centered. Every Nation churches and campus ministries are to be centered on Jesus Christ, not for any man, doctrine, or experience to take center stage. (See Colossians 1:17, 18) Spirit-empowered. Every Nation churches and campus ministries welcome and celebrate the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to empower us to live lives that honor God and become effective witnesses to our community. (See Acts 1:8) Socially Responsible. Every Nation churches and campus ministries are to demonstrate Christ to the community and culture that they’re in. (See Proverbs 14:31 & Matthew 25:45) Where? Every nation. (See Matthew 28:19, 20 & Revelation 7:9)
Everything we do at our church is built around our four core values. These four are: (1) Engaging the culture and community. Because people are valuable to God, we must intentionally and strategically engage on culture and communities. (2) Establish biblical foundations. Because foundations are essential for spiritual growth, we must establish solid biblical foundations at the start of our spiritual journey. (3) Equip believers to minister. Because every member is called to be a minister, we must equip all believers in basic ministry skills. God’s word is the ultimate equipping tool. (4) Empower believers to make disciples. Because Jesus expects all disciples to make disciples, we must not only equip them, but also empower them to make disciples.
I am attracted with how our church was built and how it is continually growing. What I like about our church is that we are not concerned with numbers. I admit that we are an enormous church organization, thriving all around the country and even all around the world but I have to confess that we are more concerned with our growth in depth than in number. At the same time, we are of great concern with how our church grows. Growth does not happen overnight; fast growth doesn’t necessarily mean healthy growth. What our church wants is healthy growth.
I have decided to literally stay, probably until I leave earth, in this church organization. This church did not require anything from me. Whoever I am, I was accepted and open to enter the church. I am, at the same time, not enclosed in a contract. I am not forced and obliged to stay in a certain period of time just because I signed a sheet of paper. When I joined this organization, my religion did not change. I am still labelled with my religion before. This is because our church does not focus on externals. We are not of great concern of converting people from another religion into ours. We are only of great concern of the false beliefs, wrong doctrines, and deceptions we have observed. We are focused on snatching souls than grabbing bodies. Or as we put it, heart is more of to be the concern than all the externals. Moreover, this organization has taught me that
As each and every year pass by, major growth is visible in the organization. The number of the present year beats the preceding years’. I believe that the greatest achievement of the organization is to continually do and fulfil the command of Jesus, and that is to honor God and make disciples. I can foresee the organization would bring about great impact into the lives of young people, just as what happened into mine, and also all the more with the lives of the families and young professionals and even elderly. Its great impacts are now visible and hopefully continually thriving as I see and hear that politicians, government workers, big names in the business field, famous celebrities in show business, influential people in local agencies and many more being immersed in our church. I am assured that it is in my generation that future doctors, engineers, lawyers, businessmen and women, media workers, scientist, computer and technology experts, politicians, educators, agriculturists, etc., will come from and I believe that it is only in church that they would learn to lead people in the right, good and righteous way. I am secured that it is in church that these people could be shaped and molded in a way that God wants them to be. Skills, intellect, leadership and all the other abilities, all that a perfect leader would have, are useless if used to build a godless society. Rest assured that this organization is the best for me.