Juan Jose Flores of Ecuador speaks during the Baxter seminar. (Photo by Erik Tryggestad)
“We have excellent theology,” Flores said of the churches in Latin America, “but we don’t show the true church to the world.” Instead of letting the Word of God transform hearts, Christians here are tempted to focus on issues that divide.
When Latin Americans see a bodies of believers split by doctrinal issues, they “don’t know we are the church,” Flores said.
Rene Rosa, another Baxter graduate and a former teacher here, now works with a congregation in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras. I sat in on his seminar class about fasting — a subject many Latin American Christians rarely study, he said.
Leadership is a key issue issue among Latin American Churches of Christ, Rosa said. Training future elders and deacons and encouraging churches to plant new churches are two elements of his ministry. Too often, Latin American Christians rely on graduates of preacher-training schools to shepherd the flocks on their own, he added. Though congregations have grown rapidly in Central America, few have elders and deacons.
“If the church has no trained leadership, the church is not going to develop by itself,” Rosa said.
Madelin and Osbel Triana with their 7-month-old son, Harry (Photo by Erik Tryggestad)
In addition to leadership training, Latin Americans also are taking the initiative to plant congregations where few or none exist. I spoke with Osbel and Madelin Triana, who came here from Matanzas, Cuba, to train at Baxter. Next year they will complete their training and return to Cuba, where they hope to plant congregations in the province of Mayabeque, which has about a half-million souls and only two Churches of Christ.
Source link : https://christianchronicle.org/in-honduras-christians-stress-need-for-church-planters-and-leaders-in-latin-america/
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Publish date : 2011-05-13 03:00:00
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