I am sure most of you are familiar with the teaching on abiding in Jesus in John 15:1-10. When I think about these verses from this passage where Jesus said,

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener…He also trims every branch that produces fruit to prepare it to produce even more…Stay joined together with me, and follow my teachings. If you do this, you can ask for anything you want, and it will be given to you.”

They really reflect the ministry work for MGB over the last 4 years for both the baseball and church ministries.  We have definitely been in a period of focused training and pruning in preparation to bear even greater fruit.  MGB leaders have done all they can to learn/follow Jesus’ teachings and to abide in Him while great pruning and growth has taken place.

From about 2007 through 2012 the baseball ministry exploded with approximately 400 coaches from the Dominican Republic joining the MGB ministry along with 40 in Cuba.

In 2011 we realized that we had a problem. We did not have the leadership resources needed to disciple this many coaches; Leaders with a “calling” who have been trained to handle the word of God accurately and who can foster growth in others and the local church family.  We had grown horizontally rapidly but we did not have the leadership resources to cause deep rooted growth.

This is the moment that God “straight-armed” us and the reality that we were failing at true discipleship hit us hard.  We realize we needed to do a better job of identifying called leaders and we needed to get stronger in our discipling efforts.

So in the summer of 2012 we started implementing the following strategy.  The goal was to find 10-20 coaches that met these criteria:

They demonstrate through the testimony of their life that they were a true follower of Christ, that they had a strong desire to disciple, and they had the ability to lead others through a God given influence.

From the initial review of 400 we identified 80 coaches that seemed to meet these criteria.  Trips were made around the country to meet with each of these top 80 coaches.  The MGB team met with their players and visited their families when possible.  Follow up trips were made as needed.  By mid-2013 the list was reduced down to 40 coaches. By early 2015 we got the list down to the top 20 coaches.

In 2015 bible study assignments were given to these coaches, more visits were made to see if they were discipling their players, and these 20 coaches attended multiple day trainings to see if they could learn how to use a study bible and develop skill in interpreting the Word.

Out of this 20 we have 10 key coaches that have been involved in weekly discipleship training since February 2016.  By Summer 2017 our goal, God willing and as he provides, is to have at least 3 key regional leaders from this group that are ready to go out and start discipling and training other coaches.

In 2016 as MGB continues its efforts to train Pastors and Church leaders in key strategic cities in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, we will be working with key leaders in these other countries to form a strong leadership team in this region of Latin America.

God has brought together the leaders from a number of ministries in Dominican, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela, Nicaragua with a desire to partner together in a real way. Our first team meeting together will be at the end of February 2016 in Guatemala.
All of us are being prompted by the Holy Spirit, realizing that we can’t achieve God’s vision for the church unless we truly work together. We are realizing that we truly need each other to achieve God’s global Vision for the church, especially if we are to become a “Worthy” Bride for Christ.
We are truly seeing the Holy Spirit working in this, developing a sincere desire for all us to work together in a way that creates synergy by integrating strengths from each ministry to unify efforts and resources.

Here are 2 brief examples:

In Cuba, we currently have leaders from 2 of our ministries making trips each year to train pastors in different church networks. These networks would be brought into 1 network and the ministries would coordinate training efforts to maximize the use of resources. Jorge from MGB already spends part of his time in Cuba so this other ministry would bring their pastors into the training efforts that Jorge is leading when in Cuba.

Another example, Fellowship Guatemala has a successful “Missions” service model with a mission’s center that is used to help fund the work of training Pastors and planting churches. When the mission’s center is not being used for short term mission’s trip it is used to provide training to Pastors and Church leaders. Our goal would be to use the success of this model to build a strategic missions/training center in other key countries like Cuba and Dominican Republic. Partnering together with several ministries creating one training center with a common vision working together not only brings efficiency and effectiveness with our resources but it also brings unity in the body of Christ.

The Key Cornerstones for Leadership Team to start building upon in our first meeting are:
• To make sure we are building with the right leaders. Leaders with a Calling from God and that are Establish in the Faith
• A Clear Vision and Strategy to Execute the Vision
• Accountability to Biblical Paradigms (Key Principles, Beliefs, Concepts and Values), in the Way of Christ and the Apostles.
• A Work Plan with measurable results and key resources identified

Please keep this unifying and team building work in prayer, we know we will face spiritual challenges.

Testimony of Coach Sedano Americo from Higuey, Dominican Republic

I have been coaching baseball for almost 40 years. I have had 70 players sign contracts with MLB. I accepted Christ into my life 3 years ago at MGB clinic and I know God has called me to serve Him the rest of my days on earth. I know a lot about baseball and have enjoyed the baseball training I get with MGB, however, I desire and need the biblical training that MGB provides much more. I need this spiritual training and discipling with the Word of God to answer the calling that God has given me to help disciple other Coaches.

Please pray that God would give us wisdom in helping players and coaches to be rooted, build up and establish in the Word of God. Colossians 2:6-8