The Turnstile Effect

We had a great day on Sunday at FRC-Lima. Both services (English and Spanish) were packed. This came as a very pleasant surprise to me, since it's the holiday season and the summer season here in Peru, and there was a great expectation among many people that a lot of folks would be praising God at the beach on Sunday.

I have learned many things in international ministry, and one of the things that I've learned is that I simply cannot ever accurately predict crowd size at FRC-Lima on any given Sunday. There are Sundays when I think there could be a huge crowd, and it's much lower than expected. There are other Sundays - like yesterday - when I think that it could be a much lower number because of the beckoning beaches - and it's jammed in the cinema. Shows how much I know.

However, I do think that there is a transience that is inherent to international ministry, and particularly in international churches. About 50% of our crowd at FRC-Lima consists of expats and foreigners who mainly are here in Lima as embassy workers, multinational workers, or missionaries; however, with the occasional beach bum, surfer, globetrotter, or nomad thrown in for good measure.

As a result of this, we are frequently welcoming newcomers to FRC-Lima (we had 23 first-timers on Sunday), but we also are frequently saying good-bye to folks, as embassy workers are transferred to another post, or the contracts of multinational workers expire, or missionaries move on to another harvest field. There is clearly more transience in an international church, such as FRC-Lima, than at a standard church plant anywhere in, for instance, the USA. I call this the Turnstile Effect.

This Turnstile Effect is something that you're going to have to get used to if you want to thrive in international ministry. People will always be coming and going. At times it will be frustrating. There'll be times when you are grooming someone for leadership in your church or ministry, and all of a sudden they're packing their bags for another place. It happens. It will continue to happen.

But the turnstile moves in both directions. As you lament when good folks are leaving, also remember that God will replace them with others. He won't leave you hanging. When you anticipate the Turnstile Effect, and when you understand how it might affect you and your international church or ministry, then it actually may cause you to raise up more leaders, and that's a good thing.