South America congresses focus on region's vision

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

South America Region

The Church of the Nazarene's South America Region recently held a leadership congress in four different countries as a part of the region's vision to "Live the Great Commission."

The South America Region strives to involve every member's gifts in order to accomplish this vision, which has five initiatives:

• Revival — each local church preaching the message of holiness
• Evangelism — each believer reaching the lost around them
• Discipleship — each believer growing in Christ, finding their ministry, and becoming an active part of the body of Christ
• Leadership — finding, training, deploying potential leaders to guide the churches and ministries in the region 
• Communication — telling the story of what God is doing so he receives all the honor and glory

The congresses fulfilled the fourth vision initiative and were held in Armenia, Colombia; Pilar, Argentina; Asunción, Paraguay; and Lima, Perú. Each congress was attended by the district superintendents and four or five "outstanding leaders" from the districts. In total, nearly 500 leaders attended and committed to training 20 additional leaders before next year's congress.

Speakers included General Superintendent David W. Graves, Global Mission Director Verne Ward III, South America Regional Director Christian Sarmiento, and South America Regional Education Coordinator Jorge Julca. All sessions were videoed and will be available for participants to use when training others.

Douglas Carter, vice president of Equip International Ministries, created a partnership agreement with the region so leaders could use the Equip training program to train other leaders. Marty Hoskins, director of Global Mission personnel and partnership for the Church of the Nazarene, helped participants focus on their gifts and strengths through the Strengths Finder assessment tool.

Although this was a leadership training event, many leaders sensed God re-emphasizing their call to be being servant-leaders with a loving passion for the lost, evangelism, discipleship, and leadership.
--Church of the Nazarene South America Region

 

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