Building Momentum in Mexico
An update from Abelardo Munoz, pastor of Iglesia Gracia Soberana, Chihuahua, Mexico..
In the month of May of 2014 our church, “Iglesia Gracia Soberana” de Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, in partnership with the Charles Simeon Trust Foundation, hosted an expository preaching workshop which was the first ever conducted in Latin America by this foundation. Our goal was to equip as many preachers and Bible teachers as possible to correctly handle the word of truth, and also to get an idea of how the pastors and teachers of Mexico would respond to the rigorous, hands-on training these workshops entailed.
The workshop was a resounding success, as all participating pastors and teachers responded very enthusiastically to the instruction, preaching and practice they received for two and a half days. About 40 pastors and teachers, mostly from our city and nearby cities in Northern Mexico attended that first workshop. From that year on, our church has hosted a workshop every single year (with the exception of 2021 due to the pandemic), and as the number of churches in our nation began to grow, in addition to the fact that the level of interest in expository preaching was also growing in pastors all over Mexico, in 2015 we decided to host an additional workshop in central Mexico, which was also very successful and was attended by pastors of several denominations coming from different states of our nation.
As the years have gone on, the number of participants attending our workshop in central Mexico has continued to grow steadily. Since 2017 this workshop has been hosted by our sister church “Iglesia Gracia Soberana” de Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. The workshops usually take place in the month of March both in Juárez and Guadalajara, and the same Bible genre and book is taught in both workshops each year. The Simeon Trust workshops provide training in six different Bible genres, which are: old testament narrative, prophets, wisdom literature, gospels, epistles and apocalyptic literature. One particular genre and Bible book within that genre are chosen for study in each workshop. When all genres have been studied in a given location, a new cycle begins, with a new study on the same genre, but using a different Bible book within that genre. This is what is currently happening both in Juárez and Guadalajara.
To give you an idea of how much the level of interest in this kind of training has grown in our nation, let me share some significant facts connected to the last workshop we hosted in Guadalajara this past month of March:
The number of participants was the largest number we have ever had for a single workshop done in Mexico; a total of 72 pastors/teachers.
Those participants represented 30 different churches, and they came from 16 different states (which is half of the 32 states our country has).
Of the total number of participants, 24 (or 33%) came from churches which are already a part of Sovereign Grace Mexico, or which are in the process of being adopted into our family of churches.
Besides giving us opportunities to meet and befriend pastors from all kinds of backgrounds, and explore the possibility of potential future adoptions, an additional blessing of our partnership with the Charles Simeon Trust Foundation, is that for several years they have invited several of us who are full time pastors in Sovereign Grace, to be trained as instructors and small group leaders for their workshops. During this last workshop in Guadalajara, one of the two instructors was a Sovereign Grace pastor and 6 of the 8 small group leaders were also Sovereign Grace pastors. Currently, seven Sovereign Grace pastors are serving as instructors in the workshops being held each year in several Mexican cities, and about twelve other Sovereign Grace pastors are serving as small group leaders in those same workshops.
Another training event will take place in Guadalajara from May 9th to 11th. For the last three years the elders and leaders of Latin America have gathered in Guadalajara for a training retreat. This year, about 50 pastors and leaders from all the churches in our nation and from several churches pursuing adoption into Sovereign Grace will be attending, and the main instructor will be Jeff Purswell, who will teach us on pneumatology. Rich Richardson and Carlos Contreras will also teach during the retreat.
We are truly amazed at what our Lord is doing in our nation and we want to, once again, express our deepest gratitude to our family of churches and to the Sovereign Grace Leadership team for their partnership in our work in Mexico. “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”. To Him be all the glory.
