My dad once invited a guest over to the house for coffee, and asked me to tag along. The guest was a pastor of one of the more ‘mature’ church congregations in Iloilo.

By mature I don’t mean that their members are old, but that they’ve been around for quite a while. He had asked to meet my dad about using the facilities of his business for that small church. The pastor was telling us about his church, and all the great things they were doing as a ministry. They weren’t that big, but it was obvious that pastor loved his church. It wasn’t long until the all too familiar question came out of nowhere:

“What is Victory’s secret?” Of course that meant, “Why is your church big?”

The answer to that question has always been the same. I always just answer two things:
1. I don’t think Victory (even as a national body) is big.
2. It’s because we have the best ministers.

Since 2005, Victory Iloilo has been growing by 100% every 3 years. That basically means that every 3 years, we double in size. It’s not miraculous, but by the Grace of God and through the dedication of Victory Iloilo’s leaders, we are now hitting the 1,200 attendees mark.

It’s crazy to think that only 2% of churches across the world ever hit the 1,000 mark, and Victory Iloilo is blessed to be one of them. I have to admit though that it’s not because we have the best preaching, the best worship, the best doctrine.

It’s because we have the best ministers, and I’m not just talking about the pastors and staff. In Victory we have hundreds of ministers, because we’re all about discipling disciple-making disciples.

2 Timothy 2:2 instructs us, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”

God’s design for the church is simple. It’s us (existing leaders) entrusting to reliable men (their Victory Group members), who will also teach others (the Victory Group member’s members). The greatest arsenal a church can have is a congregation that’s more than ready to do the pastor’s job, and we at Victory are blessed to have those kinds of people in our church.

That’s why come this July 2, we’re going to appreciate our leaders through one big event- because without them Victory Iloilo won’t grow the pace it’s growing now. It’s because every member is a minister. It’s because pastors aren’t the only one sharing the Gospel. It’s because we have a discipleship process that fast tracks spiritual growth.

Bill Hybels wrote in his book, Courageous Leadership, “The church is the hope of the world.” It’s God’s purpose to have big, growing and victorious churches across Panay, across the Philippines, across the world. The game plan is simple- we build churches through discipleship.