An Integral Approach to Church Planting Among the Mapuche People in Southern Chile

This paper focuses on the ministry of Iberoamerican Ministries and Las Iglesias de Cristo Iberoamericana in Southern Chile. Working in partnership these two organizations have embarked upon an outreach to the Mapuche people group. The ministry's vision is to facilitate a church planting movement among this indigenous people group within the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Regions of Southern Chile. The project
addresses the integral approach to church planting that these organizations are implementing in their attempt to establish a movement that serves the advancement of God's Kingdom, while respecting the culture of the people group they are ministering to.

This project examines the need for church planting among the Mapuche people. It describes the incarnational and integral strategy that the church planting team is utilizing to bring about the movement. It shows how community development plays a key role in the expansion of the church in the region. It gives a brief overview of the modern history and the culture of the Mapuche. The paper attempts to explain how the church planters intend to honor the culture while acting as agents of change within that culture in order to bring about true worldview transformation. The project also attempts to show how the efforts of church planting are bringing about individual and community transformation in the lives and society of the Mapuche people. Partnerships with other individuals and institutions are shown to be fundamental factors in the church planting efforts to advance the Kingdom of God among the Mapuche people. The paper also suggests actions that church planting teams should take in order to be successful in establishing this church planting movement.

The project is limited to examining the efforts of the two previously mentioned organizations in church planting. It does not attempt to investigate or evaluate attempts at church planting by other organizations working with the Mapuche people. It does not attempt to make an exhaustive study of the Mapuche culture and history. It also does not examine the differences between urban and rural Mapuches and the implications those differences have for church planting among this people group.

This project enables church planting teams to discover insights into the Mapuche culture and worldview that were previously unknown. It helps the team identify the Mapuche communities that are in most need of planting churches. The project also evaluates the progress of the church planting efforts up to this point and makes recommendations for future actions.