Our History

Learn about the history of New Church Initiatives

Our Mission

Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ in Mexico.

God is calling us to serve the wonderful people of Mexico.  This beautiful country has come to live in our hearts. So, our mission is to make disciples in Mexico. This is one of the key distinctions that is unique to NCI today.

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Our Beginning

New Church Initiatives (NCI) was formed in early 2001 by Glenn Smith.  Our founding Directors were Dermot Rigg, Gordon Robideau, and Paul Hicks.  Originally our mission was to make disciples through church planting in the rapidly growing and increasingly diverse Houston region.  Our original strategic partners included Sugar Creek Baptist Church in Sugar Land, TX and the Union Baptist Association in Houston, TX.

Following our first year, NCI began to be invited to provide assessments, training and coaching to church planting pastors and Christian leaders across the U.S. and around the world within numerous evangelical denominations and churches.

In addition to the U.S. we have served in Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, Columbia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Kenya, and Russia. We have equipped evangelical leaders from a variety of denominations including Southern Baptists, Independent Baptists, United Methodists, Free Methodists, Presbyterian (PCA and PCUSA), Reformed Churches, Lutheran Churches, Christian Churches, Bible Churches, and non-denominational churches.

Over the past 20 years, the world has dramatically changed. While we have never changed our core theology, our mission, or our values, we have adapted our strategy and focus to follow the direction that we felt God was taking us.

A New Mission

In recent years it has become clear to us that God was calling us to focus our attention, energy, and resources to serving the wonderful people of Mexico. This beautiful country has come to live in our hearts. So, our mission is to make disciples in Mexico. This is one of the key distinctions that is unique to NCI today.
In 2019 we reaffirmed our Statement of Faith. We also reaffirmed our core values which are:

  • Biblical integrity
  • Personal integrity
  • Proven faithfulness
  • Strong work ethic
  • Well networked

The Vision of NCI

Our vision is to become thought leaders and ministry experts in Mexican culture. We will strive to become the number one networker and resource for Mexico-focused ministries, and we will strive to become the most knowledgeable and trusted resource for Christian ministry in Mexico.

Our Beliefs

Here is what we believe as an organization.

God

We believe that there is only one true and living God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, and is revealed to us in the Godhead existent in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Spirit – and that these three are all one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes and perfection, thus being worthy of the exact same homage, confidence and obedience (Genesis 1:1; Ephesians 1:3-6, 13-14; Matthew 28:9; Philippians 1:5-8; John 1:1,3,14,18; Isaiah 9:6).

God the Father

The first person of the Trinity who orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace, and who continually upholds, directs and governs all creatures and events for His own glory. All people are called the offspring of God (Acts 17:29); therefore, there is a sense in which God is the Father of all people as their Creator. However, spiritually God is only the Father of those who believe in Christ (Galatians 3:26).

God the Son

Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity and possesses all of the divine excellencies and is co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial with the Father. The Son is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin in the fullness of time, died on the cross to redeem man from sin, rose from the dead to provide justification for every believer, ascended to the right hand of God where He presently intercedes for all believers and will again, in the fullness of the Father’s time, return in visible, triumphant, personal to overthrow sin, judge the world and establish His Kingdom in its consummated manifestation.

God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, possessing all of the divine excellencies, thus co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial with the Father and the Son. He is sent from God to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, and to regenerate, cleanse, and secure from sin. He is the indwelling guide, teacher and strengthener of the believer.

Sinful Man and Satan

We believe that man was created in innocence directly and immediately by God for the purpose of fellowship with God and glory for God. Man was tempted by Satan and sinned, and because of this all men have been born in sin since that time and are by nature children of wrath. We believe that Satan is a person devil who, with his demons, carries on the work of iniquity in the world. Sin is basically rebellion against God and the end of sin is eternal separation from God (Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 5:12; Revelation 20:10; Isaiah 14:12-17).

The Bible

We believe that the Bible is the inerrant, verbally-inspired Word of God, infallible as originally given by God, and that the Bible’s absolute truth and trust-worthiness extend equally to all parts of the writings – historical, poetical, doctrinal and prophetical – thus constituting our only standard of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Matthew 5:18).

Salvation

We believe that Jesus Christ is the only Savior from sin. He provided forgiveness and atonement from our sins on the cross and rose again to provide life and justification. Apart from Christ, there is no salvation. All men are under condemnation through person sin, and deliverance from condemnation comes only by the righteousness of Christ and not human merit. This righteousness is bestowed upon or credited to the believer by grace through faith. The Spirit regenerates or gives new life to the one who makes this life commitment to Jesus, and he is kept by God’s grace forever. This salvation is complete in Heaven where the believer, as a resurrected, glorified body, will spend eternity reigning and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16-19, 5:24, 6:47, 10:28-30; 1 John 3:2-3).

The Church

We believe that a New Testament church is a voluntary association of believers in Christ who have covenanted together to follow the teachings of the New Testament. We teach that the church is a Christ-centered community of believers on mission for God. (Colossians 1:18; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 4:32-35; Ephesians 4:11-16).

Death and Resurrection

We believe that death involves no loss of consciousness but that the soul of the redeemed passes immediately into the presence of Christ and that there is separation of soul and body until the first resurrection when the spirit, soul, and resurrected body will be reunited in glorified form in heaven forever. Thus we believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to everlasting life but the lost who are not in Christ Jesus unto eternal condemnation (Revelation 6:9-17; 20:6,13-15; Philippians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Corinthians 5:8).

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