How Big Is Your God?

HOW BIG IS YOUR GOD?  ~   "Bill, that is a silly question!  God is God, all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present.  Are you asking a rhetorical question, or a serious question?"  Glad you asked.  No, it is not a rhetorical question, it is a very serious question.  There are folks who will sincerely proclaim faith in God, but then feel that they must help Him, or correct His decisions.  "What do you mean, Bill?"

Before I answer that question, let me take you back about 25 years to the Filipino-American Church of Corona, aka, Fil-Am Church of Corona (later renamed CICF).  It was a relatively new church planted by Pastor Sam Lacanienta, a daughter church of the Fil-Am church of Irvine (FACI).  We were visited by a Caucasian missionary couple, Steve & Leslie, who had been commissioned by FACI as missionaries to the Philippines. 

During their 12-year Philippines ministry, they would annually return to the U.S., as required by the American Immigration Service, and use that time to visit supporting churches in America to give an update, and to seek continued ministry support.  On one yearly visit circa 2000, they came to our fellowship in Corona and Steve's message has really stayed with me, for it gave us a unique perspective on the Great Commission.

Let me refresh your memory on the Great Commission, which through the apostles, Christ gave to ALL believers throughout all time.

Matthew 28:18-20, "And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.' "

That with Acts 1:7-8 comprises the Great Commission, "But He said to them, 'It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.' "

To summarize the Great Commission:  "Go, Make disciples, Baptize them, Teach them . . . And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and in all the earth."

Let's not overlook a key word:  BOTH!   Christ makes Jerusalem the highest priority as He tells us, "you shall be My witnesses BOTH in (1) Jerusalem, [highest priority] and (2) in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth."   He gives a strong priority, first is your Jerusalem where He has placed you.  And THEN to all Judea, Samaria, and all the earth.  That tells me that God wants you to concentrate the vast majority of your efforts, especially your initial efforts, where He has placed you - Your Jerusalem!

Steve's message was:  You as a believer are responsible for carrying out the Great Commission.  To accomplish that, your order of priority, as Christ taught it, is:  First, your Jerusalem:  your family, your local fellowship, and your community.  THEN your Judea:  your city and state ~ your Samaria:  the nation in which God has call you to serve ~ And finally in all the earth which is self explanatory.

I realize that traveling to other countries to plant churches "in all the earth" may seem more exciting.  During my many years in the computer industry, I loved traveling all over America and to other countries.  It was exciting.  But for all believers, but especially pastors and elders - is that God's priority for you? 

Or does He want you to cultivate your Jerusalem, your family, your local fellowship, your community - first?  The answer to that question is very simple:  How many daughter churches have YOU planted in your local community, once your initial local fellowship where God put you has become self sufficient?  Have YOU planted any local daughter churches?  If not, why?

Is that where God called you to serve?  Did He bring you to this country - so that you could then travel back to other countries to plant new churches?  If so, I have to ask, "Is your God too small to raise up pastors or church planters in those countries, without your help?" 

Notice in Acts 1:7-8, "in all the earth" is His final priority, not His first.  Why?  Because God can raise up pastors wherever He wants them.  He does not need your help to do that.  He brought you here.  Do you doubt that He can raise up pastors in those countries, like He did you in America - without your help?

So what should be done when God plants a person as a pastor or as a mature believer in a new location, maybe a new country?  Let's say God has called you to relocate to America.  Where is your new Jerusalem?  It is the local fellowship and community - in America - where God has planted you.

Your first priority is Your Jerusalem - getting your family and your local fellowship on a solid Christian foundation.  Then your task is to saturate your local community.  That done, you move on to your next priority, saturating your city, then your state with the Gospel.  Part of saturating your local community, city, state with the Gospel - is planting daughter/sister church fellowships in those locations. 

That does not mean that you have to be the pastor of all those church plants.  We know that God wants new church fellowships - and we know that our God is big enough to raise up a pastor to lead that new church fellowship - while you go back to your Jerusalem and begin planning your next local church plant.

If your local church has been established in America for 10, 15, 20 years and it has NOT planted more church fellowships in your Jerusalem - are you really living the Great Commission?  Really?

Let me give you two great examples of God planting pastors in Orange County, California.  It was the same year, 1965.  The two new churches were about 10 miles apart.  But their Great Commission impact was far more separated.

Robert Schuller came from the Midwest to plant a Reform Theology church in Orange County - and he began his Great Commission calling well, with fire and imagination.  Not having a church facility, he first started Sunday services preaching from the roof of a drive-in theater concession stand.  That unique approach caught the attention of a lot of folks and his new church plant began to take fire. 

Pretty soon the Garden Grove Community Church was born and he carried forward the drive-in theater approach by allowing folks to sit in their cars and hear the sermon on their car radios, with a large door which opened so that Schuller could be seen by folks inside the sanctuary and at the same time, by folks in their cars.  Again, that unique approach caught on and many people began to attend the Garden Grove Community Church.  No doubt a good number were saved during its years.

Down the road in Costa Mesa, God had called Chuck Smith to pastor a floundering, small Calvary Chapel fellowship of only about 20 members.  Not very long after becoming pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, Chuck and his wife, Kay, became aware of the large number of Hippies living in Orange County, many of whom were seeking something better than the drug and free love scene of the 1960s.  Chuck and Kay went to the streets, embraced the Hippies, many with their minds virtually blown by years of drug use, and began to bring them to Calvary Chapel Cost Mesa,  Soon that fellowship was overflowing.

Chuck knew that music was another way of reaching the Hippies, but not hymnal music. Hymns were too deep for their drug-messed minds.  He and Mike McIntosh began to seek out young musicians who could write and play a simpler music which contained the Gospel message.  They began to make cassettes of this new music and Mike McIntosh with cassettes in the trunk of his car began to visit all the Christian book stores. 

Thus Maranatha! Music was born with Mike initially as the director.  That became the Contemporary Christian music and praise choruses we know today.  That was all part of the Jesus Movement of the early 1970s, begun by Chuck and Kay Smith at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

Then Chuck Smith began to send out young converts to lead Bible studies in other areas.  Greg Laurie came to Riverside when he was 18 or 19 years old to lead a Bible study - and from that grew Harvest International Ministries.  Mike McIntosh went to San Diego to lead a Bible study - and Horizon Christian Fellowship was born.  Jon Courson went to Oregon and Applegate Christian Fellowship was born. 

And all went on to plant daughter churches within their subgroups. These three are example of what grew out of the Jesus Movement which emanated from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa - and that kind of Great Commission spirit spread all across America and into every free nation of the world.  One church fellowship, one Great Commission pastor who knew where God planted him and what he needed to do to fulfill God's calling - in his Jerusalem, then beyond.

Over the years Chuck Smith replicated those ministries all over America and in virtually all countries in the free world.  No, Chuck Smith did not travel to all those cities and other counties.  Chuck trusted God to raise up new pastors and Bible teachers whom he could send out to begin new Great Commission ministries.  And when each was planted, they began to plant daughter churches in their areas.  That is the kind of Great Commission Steve spoke about at our Fil-Am Church of Corona in 2000.

Robert Schuller's Garden Grove Community Church flourished in the beginning, but no daughter church fellowships were being planted.  Then Schuller decided he needed a Crystal Cathedral platform for preaching his Reform Theology.  Instead of planting daughter churches, he built a cathedral.  Was that what God wanted - or what Robert Schuller wanted?

In the late 1970s Schuller spent $!8 million (equivalent to $145 million today) to build the Crystal Cathedral.  And only in later years were two other church fellowships to come out of the Garden Grove Community Church / Crystal Cathedral - one by his son, Robert Schuller Jr, who planted a church in San Juan Capistrano, California - and another by Dr. Harold Leetsma in Laguna Hills, California.

RESULT:  Over the decades before it went into bankruptcy, Robert Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral planted only two other "your Jerusalem" churches. If he had concentrated on doing the Great Commission instead of building a cathedral - that ministry might still be serving the Lord today.  Instead it went into bankruptcy.

RESULT:  Since Chuck Smith came to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in 1965 - there are literally thousands of Calvary Chapel fellowships across America and in virtually every free nation.  Chuck Smith was truly doing the Great Commission the right way.
 
Now let me get back to my initial question:  "How big is YOUR God?"  And the point I am making is that if God brings a pastor to America, or from one part of America to another, that is his new Jerusalem.  That is where God wants to see his Great Commission flourish.

God brought Pastor Sam Lacanienta from the Philippines in 1971, planted him in Orange County, and told him, "This is your new Jerusalem.  Be faithful to your Great Commission!"   Okay, that is my paraphrased version of how I would imagine God would have spoken His wishes to Pastor Sam.  And as you will see later in this blog - Pastor Sam was faithful in obeying God's command.

When God brings a pastor to America as He did Pastor Sam, that is His implied command:  That he should be faithful in accomplishing the Great Commission in America.  Not in the country where his pastoral journey began.  I do not believe that God brings a pastor to America from another country -  only to have him doing all his church planting in his old home country. 

That would imply two things:  First that God made a mistake in bringing him to America.  Second that God is not capable of raising up pastors to plant churches in the old country - so our new American pastor must travel back to his old country to do what God is not big enough to do without him.  In other words, his God is not big enough and needs his help.  My God is not that small.

So, how big is your God?  If He plants you in California, does that mean He wants you to plant churches in California - OR - does that mean He needs your help to plant churches back in the country where you were before He moved you to America?  Does He REALLY need your help back there?  Or does He want to see more local church fellowships in California?

Let me give you a wonderful example of a true and very successful Great Commission Pastor:  Pastor Sam Lacanienta.

Sam Lacanienta attended the Far Eastern Bible Institute and Seminary (FEBIAS), founded in the Philippines in 1948 as an interdenominational Bible school and later changed to FEBIAS College of Bible.  He was ordained and began to pastor a church in the Philippines.  In 1971 God brought the pastoral couple, Pastor Sam and Ida, to America, and planted them in Orange County, California, where Pastor Sam became an associate pastor at a small Southern Baptist church in Santa Ana, California.

A couple of years later, Pastor Sam moved, becoming an associate pastor at Woodbridge Community Church in Irvine, California, which is affiliated with the Baptist General Conference, home of Bethel University, a Baptist seminary founded in 1871.  A friend referred him to the Almeda family.  He and Ida began a Bible study in the Almeda home, where he led the family (Fred, Nattie, and their children, Audrey and Arnel) to faith in the Lord. 

That family of four became the core of a new church plant. That Bible study in the home of Fred & Nattie Almeda grew and soon became the new Fil-Am Church of Irvine (FACI), a daughter church under Woodbridge Community Church.  FACI was Pastor Sam's first church plant in America.

In 1987 I met Pastor Sam & Ida Lacanienta at a Saturday evening social at the home of Lolita & Meinrad Mueller.  That evening changed my life forever.  I was not a believer when we met - but I could see and feel the love of God in this pastoral couple.  The next day my wife, Dory, and I attended the Fil-Am Church of Irvine (CA) worship service - and I could feel the love of God flowing through Pastor Sam, permeating the whole congregation, and I was caught up in it. 

That Friday we attended their Family Bible study at the home of Ed & Ligaya Nibut - and I found the same Godly love there.  Because of the love I experienced, we continued to attend their worship services and Family Bible studies.  And after about six months, I gave my life to the Lord.  I cannot give you a definite day and hour when I believed, for my salvation was a six month process.  The more I learned about Jesus Christ in those discussion style Family Bible studies - the more I knew that I needed Him. 

During that six months, most of my Bible knowledge was learned in our discussion Bible studies - although Pastor Sam's sermons and Sunday School classes were also a big part of my maturing process over the years.  So you can see why I place such importance on interactive, or discussion style, Family Bible Studies.  Without the FACI discussion style Friday Family Bible Studies, I may never have found my way to the cross.

Side note:  Pastor Sam was also responsible for me finding my calling to do Christian writing, when he encouraged me to write a story about an earth worm I shared at our Friday Bible study.  But I will save that story for another blog.

In the early 1990s, a young man from the Philippines, Lito Carag, was attending our FACI services while preparing to attend Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California.  Through Pastor Sam, our church arranged to give a used car to Lito so that he would have transportation while attending Westminster Seminary.  Today that young man is Dr. Anacleto S. Carag,  M.Div and D. Min., president/director of FEBIAS College of Bible, Pastor Sam's alma mater.  Another great example of the Great Commission, paying it forward.

While still functioning as our local pastor, Pastor Sam Lacanienta became Director of Church Planting for Filipino churches of the Southwest District of the Baptist General Conference.  In that role, he began working to plant new Filipino-American churches in California and other western states.  

One of the first he planted was the Fil-Am Church of Long Beach.  One of the young couples in our College/Professional Group at FACI was Charles Patam and May Egenias who would soon marry while Charles was attending Talbot Seminary at Biola University.  Pastor Sam commissioned (could not be ordained until graduation from seminary) Charles as the pastor of the Fil-Am Church of Long Beach.

In December 1998, Dory and I were both in the hospital with the flu. Being married we were able to share a room, which kind of shocked the male nurse the first morning.  When he looked at us, the first thing he said was, "I sure hope you two are married!"   And I assured him we were indeed married.

A few days later I was feeling better, and was reading my Bible when our male nurse came in - and this encouraged a conversation with him.  He was interested in finding a Fil-Am fellowship, even though he was Caucasian, in the Long Beach area.  I told him about Pastor Charles Patam in Long Beach, but did not have the address or phone number with me at the hospital.  Later that day I did get the information, but went home the next day and never had an opportunity to give him the info in person.

After that fiasco, I was determined to not let it happen again.  When I got home from the hospital, I created a tract for our Fil-Am churches and put the graphic image below on the back.  Those are the Baptist General Conference affiliated Fil-Am churches which Pastor Sam planted in Southern California.  There were also others in Washington, Arizona, etc.

"Bill, what is your point?"   Thank you for getting me back on track to answer my initial question:  "How big is your God?"

In 1971 God planted Pastor Sam & Ida Lacanienta in Orange County, California, as an implementer of His Great Commission.  In other words, God put Pastor Sam in that location - because that is where God wanted him to produce eternal spiritual fruit.  God did not want him traveling to the Philippines or other countries to plant church fellowships, for God could raise up other pastors there for that task.

Pastor Sam spent a couple of years at the Southern Baptist Church in Santa Ana, California, becoming familiar with the Christian communities in America.  Then he moved to the Baptist General Conference affiliated Woodbridge Community Church about 10 miles down the road.  At Woodbridge Community, he began implementing his Great Commission ministry, fulfilling the task God had put him in Southern California, to accomplish.

Over all Pastor Sam & Ida Lacanienta planted over a dozen daughter church fellowships in California and along the West Coast.  To the best of my knowledge those church plants did not put any financial burden on our FACI church fellowship, with Pastor Sam traveling by car most of the time.

In 2005, Ida retired from her teaching job in the Unified School District in Orange County.  As a young girl, Ida and her siblings had been in an orphans home in the Philippines and the missionary lady, Mom Lynip, who had run it all those years was in her 90s and needed help. 

After visiting the orphans home and their elderly friend, Mom Lynip - Pastor Sam & Ida felt that God was calling them home to help her.  We had a sad send off service at another Fil-Am church fellowship plant, the Church On The Solid Rock in Aliso Viejo, California, knowing that wherever God planted Pastor Sam & Ida, they would continue to be an outstanding Great Commission pastoral family.

At the Send Off Service, most of us stood and gave testimony of how this couple has touched our lives.  But the most touching for me was when Ida shared that her young granddaughter, Bethany, concerned about her grandparents moving back to the Philippines, asked, "Will you still be my Lola?"  A child's heart is pure and straightforward.

Back in the Philippines, they began their Great Commission there, their new Jerusalem - helping Mom Lynip, who ran the Bethany Children's Home in Mindanao, and who took care of Ida and her brother and sister when they were young. 

Pastor Sam also functioned as the Resource Speaker for Word of Life Seaside Bible Camp, was doing radio broadcast messages, doing Inspirational Messages inside several large Manila corporations - and Ida was busy planting the Talakag Church on the Solid Rock fellowship (the only church where she took the initiative to plant a fellowship), a sister church of the Church on the Solid Rock, Aliso Viejo, California, which Pastor Sam had planted.

In 2012 we celebrated the life and ministry of Ida Lacanienta as she was promoted into the presence of God.

And in 2016 Pastor Sam continued his Great Commission Ministry when he planted the Talakag Church on the Solid Rock's sister church - Maigtang Outreach Church. He planted over a dozen churches in America - and after serving the Lord for 34 years in America where God had planted him in Southern California - he went home to the Philippines.

But he did not retire nor rest on his laurels. He continued planting churches and creating ministry opportunities. With his Talakag Church on the Solid Rock fellowship they built a beautiful church building to house their fellowship and ministry. Today, in 2024, Pastor Sam is still very actively working where God has planted him, continuing to pastor their church and looking for other places where he can do his Great Commission Ministry. Now, my question to YOU: How big is your God? When was your local church fellowship established? How many years has your local fellowship been worshiping together in your present community, city? How many daughter church fellowships has your fellowship planted in Your Jerusalem? How many in Your Judea? If none, what have you been doing?

Think about what Jesus meant when He said, "Go, Make disciples, Baptize them, Teach them . . . And you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and in all the earth."

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill

Click on the images to enlarge: