The Macedonian Society

The Macedonian Society is what we call to our project of supporting local pastors, church planters and workers. This idea was taken from 1 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9.

“2Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. 5And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will. “
1 Corinthians 8:2-5

Background and Overview

When I arrived here in Ormoc City, Leyte, there already exists some of our satellite churches. We have local pastors ministering to these local churches but none of them were paid for their labor. They are not getting support from anyone outside their churches and their churches are not able to amply supply them for their members are farmers and fishermen like them. These churches were located around 10-15 kilometers away from Ormoc City and most of them are located in uphill areas.

These pastors have been laboring to their respective churches for around 5 years already getting nothing from the labor. And this situation deeply touched my heart and began to think of it and started praying to the Lord concerning this project.

I am convinced that pastors should live by faith, and I cannot and will not debate about that. For I believe that every pastor should live by faith. However, I cannot also deny that they have to be supported and amply supply with as our apostle Paul teaches and even the Old Testament, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain…” (Deuteronomy 25:4, 1 Corinthians 9:9, 1Timothy 5:18)

I believe that it will be unfair for the pastors if we teaching people that pastor should live by faith and not teaching that members should be supporting their pastors. This is why I prayed to the Lord to correct this matter.

Going back to Scriptures, it is very clear that we have to support our pastors. Unfortunately, even if we teach the members of our outreaches about this matter, poverty still exists as hindrance.

Macedonian Society was born because of this problem. The book of 2 Corinthians 8:2-5 clearly states that “out of the most severe trial, …extreme poverty, welled up into generosity.” By this, we encourage other people to support for our local pastors even in small amounts. Not only other people, we continuously encourage the members of our outreaches to support their pastors as much they can applying the principles of sowing and reaping.

We started the campaign January 2007. God has been faithful and we now have several members of this group that faithfully and continuously supplied our pastors. We called them “Partners”. Believing that we can accomplish more work in partnership, we are encouraging everyone who is willing to answer God’s calling in supporting our leaders in the spiritual battle field.

In light of this project, we send our partners updates on what is going on in our ministries through a bi- monthly newsletter because we want to reassure that every single cent that our partners send will help a lot in the ministry of our Lord here in Ormoc, Leyte. Not only this, we are also conducting pastoral and leadership trainings from time to time so that our pastors and leaders will become more effective in the mission field. More of this will be discuss under the Pastoral Training.

Outlook Of This Ministry

Currently Are Supporting:
Pastors	6
CEF Staff	1
Church Planter	1

We Are Looking Forward to Support:
Pastor	1
Missionary	1

Currently We Are Training
Pastors	7
Prospect Pastors	5
Outreach BS Leaders	12

We are looking forward to train more in the future making The Lighthouse Christian Ministry as the center of Theological and Leadership training in Eastern Visayas. This is why we need more partners in producing more leaders for Christ.

Here Are The Pastors We Are Supporting