Ron Heitman is lead pastor of Evangel Church in Hanover Park, Illinois, and assistant superintendent of the Illinois District Council of the Assemblies of God, overseeing church planting in urban, inner-city and suburban Chicago.

INFLUENCE: How did you become involved in church planting in Illinois?
HEITMAN: My first love is pastoring. When I was asked to help oversee church planting in and around Chicago, I was asked to do it full time. But God spoke to me and said I should serve from a position of strength. So I requested to be involved only part time, involving others who have similar experience, while I continue being a full-time pastor myself. That way, we’re working together as pastors and church planters.

When trying to multiply churches, there’s the stress of work, the pressure of finances and the effort to lead teams. When pastors and church planters are working together, you embrace these things corporately.

Your church is unique in its approach to multiplication, right?
We have 55 different nations represented among our church. It is beautiful diversity and unity, a great picture of what heaven is going to be like. We have embraced that uniqueness in a very positive way. Under one roof is an English, Spanish and Indian church, and the first Mongolian Assembly of God in America.

“Under one roof is an English, Spanish and Indian church, and the first Mongolian Assembly of God in America.”
— Ron Heitman

This is something any church can and should do for the purpose of multiplication. I would never reach the group of people we’re realizing outside this bilingual ministry.

How do you bring together these Parent Affiliated Churches under one structure and building?
God has graced us with an amazing facility to make it all happen. We have a main auditorium, a smaller chapel and another area we call the theater that can accommodate all of our congregations on the same Sunday. And all of our children attend the same next-gen ministries. Our bilingual parents love it because they want their kids to be able to speak English.

All of our pastors preach the same message each week — in their own language, of course. We also share the same discipleship pathway. It’s one vision for one church. And the use of centralized resources is brilliant stewardship. It’s cost-effective, and it’s also effective in building more disciples and leaders more quickly and efficiently.

For those wanting to start bilingual Parent Affiliated Churches in their own communities, what does it take?
It takes a senior pastor who sees a PAC pastor less like a hireling and more like a spiritual son or daughter. The day of a lone ranger is quickly coming to a close. I believe a biblical model is seeing parent churches using a sending model rather than individuals starting from scratch. To see the multiplication we want to see, PACs are vital.

It also takes a cultural intelligence — understanding that there are different cultures and different ways to engage those cultures, and that you may not have all the answers. When I talk about football in a sermon, our Spanish pastor may be talking about soccer, while our Indian pastor may talk about cricket. We all have the ability to relate the same biblical principles in our own cultural context.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2018 edition of Influence magazine.