Spiritual Dynamics in El Salvador

by Melvin L. Hodges

El Salvador is a tiny Central American republic about 150 miles long and sixty miles wide. It has the densest population of any country in continental America, averaging approximately 300 people’ to the square mile. This condition in itself provides an unusual opportunity for evangelism-people are everywhere.

El Salvador is a tiny Central American republic about 150 miles long and sixty miles wide. It has the densest population of any country in continental America, averaging approximately 300 people’ to the square mile. This condition in itself provides an unusual opportunity for evangelism-people are everywhere.

When the Assemblies of God sent its first resident missionary to El Salvador in 1929, an evangelistic awakening had recently taken place through the efforts of an independent missionary. Yet, the work was disorganized, the converts lacked teaching, and there was no effective discipline. Because of these conditions a national leader of the work had sold his business to finance a trip to Mexico and the United States in order to contact the Assemblies of God and request that a missionary couple be sent.

Soon after the missionary’s arrival, a conference was called of twelve workers who represented twelve churches. Standards of doctrine and discipline were drawn up. A national church organization was formed in which national leaders shared responsibilities with the missionary leadership. By 1936 the number of churches had increased to twenty-five. The next few years were spent in training the national ministry and developing the churches. By 1954 there were seventy-eight churches with approximately two hundred outstations. The following years until the present have been years of rapid growth. Our churches now number three hundred with 1,000 outstations.

Total membership is approximately 1 3.(10(1. Sunday school attendance is 30,000, which represents one per cent of the population.

The remarkable growth of the work in El Salvador can be attributed to four principal factors: (1) A moving of the Holy Spirit has taken place, demonstrated in New Testament faith, experience, and outreach. (2) A foundation of teaching the Word of God was established early in the work of the Assemblies of God, and since then an extensive and constant Bible training program has been held for new converts. (3) Indigenous church principles have been followed. (4) There have been intensive evangelistic campaigns.

The third factor was followed especially in three phases: (1) Establishing local churches with national pastors who are supported by the churches themselves, with emphasis on their responsibility to govern themselves, discipline their members, and spread the Gospel. (2) An "every Christian is a witness" approach to the task of evangelism, with strong emphasis on lay participation in outstation work and in the development of new churches. (3) An aggressive Bible school program which trains workers both doctrinally and in evangelistic methods such as literature distribution and outstation work. Many students are actively engaged in church planting even during their student days.

CONSISTENTLY FOLLOWED PLAN
Churches have so consistently followed the plan of establishing other churches through their outstation work that in some areas the mother churches find themselves completely surrounded by daughter churches. For example, in the area within a thirty-mile radius of Santa Ana there are at least one hundred established churches. This is partly the work of Bible school students stationed in Santa Ana, but mostly it is a development of local church outreach.

Because the Bible school students play such an important part in establishing churches, the school has now been moved to the capital, San Salvador, to provide a new sphere of activities.

With regard to the fourth factor (intensive evangelism) the combination in evangelistic approach of campaigns and the activity of local churches and workers can be seen from the following incidents:

In 1956 there was only one established church in San Salvador, with fewer than one hundred members. The church was inadequately housed in a store-front building. This little church had a few outstations in the area. In 1956 an open-air evangelistic campaign was held, with emphasis on salvation and healing. Crowds of approximately 3,000 attended nightly. At the end of two and a half months, 250 new converts had been instructed and were ready for baptism. Six weeks later, an additional 125 converts were baptized.

Instead of trying to hold all these people in one congregation, our missionaries and nationals divided the city into approximately twelve sections. A call was made for workers to take charge of new meeting places. Some of the workers were Bible school students, others were men who bad had outstation experience with the local church. Some were pastors who had moved in from other parts. Our Missions Department helped with a donation of approximately $600 to enable the brethren to rent small meeting places in homes or buildings. Each worker was assigned to a section and given the names and addresses of interested persons.

At the end of one year there were twelve incipient Assemblies of God churches in the city, with a combined total of approximately 1,200 in Sunday school. Yet, the story does not stop there, for these churches have continued to grow and extend their influence in establishing new churches. In 1964, eight years later, there were twenty-seven established Assemblies of God churches, with two hundred outstations in the city and surrounding areas. In the city alone, combined Sunday school attendance was fluctuating between 7,000 and 9,500.

ILLUSTRATES POTENTIAL
The Assemblies of God work in El Salvador illustrates the potential for church growth that can be realized by organizing and directing the converts and churches in aggressive evangelism. However, beyond the organized efforts, one must realize that the Holy Spirit is the dynamic that causes the work to advance. To understand the secret of what has happened one should attend some of the prayer meetings held once a month for workers, or visit the Bible school in one of its times of spiritual emphasis. One would see prospective workers, teachers, and missionaries earnestly seeking God for days at a time, calling for His blessing upon their lives, for spiritual renewal, for the granting of spiritual ministries and gifts, acid for the fulfilling of the church’s mission in their country.

When proper methods are linked with spiritual dynamics we begin to realize the potential for evangelism that lies in the church.

Copyright © 1966 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

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