MESA, Ariz. — NAMB missionary Louis Spears has learned to see a silver lining behind the dark cloud of rising gasoline prices.

His mission is to plant churches in the city’s multi-housing complexes in which the vast majority of residents live. He uses the high cost of gas to rationalize that it’s better to walk to worship within a housing complex than drive an automobile across the valley.

“The biggest problem we have is a lack of a sense of community, and that means people don’t know their neighbors. When they are surrounded by anonymous faces they are not very interested in socializing with them, much less worshipping with them,” he explains.

That why, in an era of historically cheap gas, individuals never thought twice about driving 15 or 20 miles to attend church and pass eight or nine on the way.

“I believe high gas prices are the blessing in disguise we have been praying for. As we lead new believers to Christ, we are clustering them in house churches right where they live.

“Who knows their community better than those who live in them? Certainly not me, who lives across town. That’s why we are sowing the seeds of house churches and using individuals who actually move into an apartment complex for that purpose,” he explains.

A more in-depth look at Spears’ ministry will be featured in the fall issue of On Mission magazine published by the North American Mission Board.

 

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