- Church planting & multiplication
Angel Kim sees beyond nail polish and bright work lamps as she chats with a vibrant, revolving flow of Vietnamese people in her Arizona nail salon.
The Christ-follower glimpses God at work to turn her busy neighbors into believers as she embraces the power of a close community. She’s part of Vietnamese Outreach Mission, a new Converge church in Chandler, Arizona.
“The church gets strong because of a small group,” she said. “Those are key to getting the Vietnamese people in the USA to come and fellowship together and talk and chat and share the gospel.”
Microchurches in Vietnam empower man for new American churches
Pastor Levi Ly started Vietnamese Outreach Mission in April after decades of experience in home meetings for believers. He came to Christ at 17 in Vietnam and soon after started a house church for people who lived in the mountains.
Vietnam’s government has laws that restrict large gatherings of believers. So churches like the one Ly started as a 17-year-old meet in homes.
Before Ly left Vietnam many years later, he’d started 11 churches. Each of those churches multiplied, and now there are 40 churches connected to his first congregation.
Related: A Haitian family of pastors has created a multiplying network of small churches.
He moved to California in 2015 and settled in Gilbert, Arizona, a year later. Around his new home, tens of thousands of Vietnamese people built their days on busyness and a Buddhist upbringing.
“Not a lot of them know Christ,” Ly said. “Hopefully, one day God will touch their heart, and they will open up and receive the gospel.”
Small groups are a necessary tool for connecting Vietnamese to grace, truth
Vietnamese Outreach Mission emphasizes small groups as a critical way to connect people to Christ. But the church also gathers for worship on Sundays and Bible studies on Fridays. Ly hopes to start Zoom Bible studies for Vietnamese living in Phoenix, Chandler or Tempe.
He said the church prioritizes three efforts: teaching God’s word as the foundation of life, spreading the gospel through the world and living in the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Our vision is to be able to spread the word of God all over the world, not just to our community alone, but reaching out farther,” he said. “We concentrate on sharing God’s word with other people.”
He formed the church’s logo, a person scattering seed in the shadow of the cross as the fire of the Holy Spirit burns, to let the church know it is God’s will they make disciples wherever they are.
“We encourage our members to go out and share the gospel,” he said. "The vision is for us to go.”
Reaching people ‘too busy’ for church
People like Kim are essential to multiplying Christ-followers because she can create small groups of believers who multiply other groups. That approach can reach the Vietnamese community, Ly said.
He noted that the hope of the church is to build one person who knows a lot about the kingdom of God and has deep faith in God. That person can do much good as a leader or someone who starts a church.
Gilbert has many nail salons, they said, which Vietnamese people almost exclusively own and operate. That’s a natural place of connection and conversation.
However, getting them to attend a Christian event like worship with a church is very hard to do. Kim said people often say they’re too busy when her church invites them again and again to a variety of events.
Related: A Texas church strives to make disciples of hardworking, busy people from Hispanic heritage.
That’s why she likes Ly’s effort to focus on small groups.
“A small group is more effective,” she said. “If you invite them to your house, they are much more willing to come.”
Converge's 10 districts have committed to deploying 312 church planters before 2026. Read more inspiring church planting stories and learn about the goal to send out 312 church planters in five years.
