THOUSANDS ATTEND THE COMIBAM 2006 CONGRESS IN GRANADA, SPAIN
“Results and Challenges among the Unreached” was the theme of the Third Iberoamerican Missionary Congress that took place in the historic Andalucian city of Granada, Spain on November 13-17, 2006. The congress was summoned and organized by Comibam International.
An attendance of approximately 2000 participants from 37 countries represented in national delegations, alongside almost 300 Latin missionaries brought from their fields of service interacted for four days to analyze and evaluate the last two decades of work that the Iberoamerican church has been carrying out among the people groups of the world that have not had a clear opportunity to hear the gospel message.
During the inaugural meeting, the mayor of the city, José Torres Hurtado, gave a warm welcome to all those present, as well as representatives of the evangelical church in Spain and Granada. The executive secretary of the Federation of Evangelical Entities in Spain (Ferede), Mariano Blázquez, expressed his greetings as a representative of the evangelical people of Spain, and Pastor Miguel Fernández did the same in representation of the pastors of the churches of the hosting city.
In his inaugural speech, the outgoing president, David D. Ruiz M., expressed, “because of the serious nature of the missionary endeavor, it is time to examine how our missionaries have done their work. It is imperative that the movement write a missiology that, while firmly based on Scripture, will allow us to reflect the best way to work on the field.”
It is estimated that there are close to 10 thousand Iberoamerican missionaries in the world, sent by a great variety of agencies and local churches. Many have suffered due to the lack of preparation and adequate support and the inherent difficulties that are part of the work, as was clearly shown through the field research results that were presented during the congress by the person in who led the research, Dr. Levi DeCarvalho: “In spite of the fact that the majority of those interviewed expressed the lack of the minimum resources to accomplish their ministries, all of them remain firm in their calling. If there is something praise worthy in our Iberoamerican missionaries is it their sacrificial spirit to do the work that the Lord has entrusted in their hands”.Due to its format the event stood out from others. The program was designed in such a way that there was enough time for all the participants to hear and personally dialogue with the invited missionaries, either through the discussion tables set up in the dining room, or in the forums in different rooms, or the panel discussions that took place on stage of the main auditorium. The well known Latin-American missiologist, Samuel Escobar, who led one of these panels expressed, “one of the important components of the program was what we could call “critical reflection of the practice of missions”, which took up a good part of four mornings” and he concluded by saying “the congress has been an enriching experience and it has provided a vision of hope by giving us a glimpse of the great thrust of the missionary movement of the evangelical churches of Latin America. The feeling of celebration, without a sense of overconfidence, was very comforting.”
The executive director, Jesus Londoño, from Colombia, said: “Holding a congress with a perspective from the field combined with a work and evaluative format has been a great contribution to the Iberoamerican missionary movement. We believe that our future work can take place if we are capable of analyzing and evaluating moments of growth and strength like the ones we are currently living”
In his final message during the closing ceremony, Carlos Scott from Argentina, the incoming president of COMIBAM International, highlighted the risks and challenges that the missionary work faces: “We need a real understanding of the unity of the people of God, a greater participation in the global missionary movement by making ourselves participants of the universal church, sharing in the global challenges with a complete integration and a search for cooperative models as well as understanding missions as a process and not a project.”
Carlos Madrigal from Spain, who took the initiative that led to the first legally registered evangelical church in Turkey, expressed at the end of the event: “we express our deep gratitude for having invited us and for the effort made and we are convinced much fruit will be harvested as a more efficient and responsible work in missions is done by the Iberoamerican movement”.
During the International Assembly (triennial) that took place during the congress the new board was elected and it consists of the following: Carlos Scott, President; Jesús Londoño, Executive Director; and regional directors: Jasón Carlisle: Hispanics of North America; Luis Martí: Central America; Víctor Ibagón: Andean countries; Rubén Suárez: Spanish speaking area of the Caribbean; Marcos Agripino: Brazil; Daniel Bianchi: southern region of South America; the regions of Mexico and the Iberian Peninsula remained under the leadership of the interim directors Juan C. Gómez and Enrique Montenegro until the end of their terms at the beginning of 2007.
It is fitting to remember that the first congress took place in Sao Paulo, in 1987, under the presidency of Luis Bush, the second in Acapulco, Mexico ten years later, when Rudy Girón handed the presidency over to Bertil Ekstrom who is the current executive director of the Commission of Missions for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).
During the next two years Comibam International will continue the process of investigation and analysis already in effect, focusing during this stage on senders and receivers in the mission field.
Federico A. Bertuzzi
Department of Publications
Granada, Spain, November 20, 2006
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