Fieles 2023 - The Best Fieles Ever

An update from Carlos Contreras, lead pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and our key leader for Mexico...

This year marked 10 years since we started “Fieles a Su Llamado” (Faithful to His Calling) with a desire to equip and encourage those called to ministry in the church. Our desire was to serve the growing number of men and their wives that were joining our small family of Sovereign Grace churches in Mexico, but since we were still small, we decided to open our doors to all who would come. By hosting it in our local church in Juarez, we were then able to “share of grace what has been given to us by grace”. God has been faithful and gracious to us every year by allowing us to witness Him accomplish precisely what He had placed in our hearts to do.

This year our theme centered on “The Pastor and his Family” focusing on our marriages and our parenting. Our dear friend Dr. Miguel Núñez and his wife Cathy, who have been a part of Fieles since 2013 joined us again. Bob and Julie Kauflin, Joselo and Kathy Mercado, as well as Rich and Tiffany Richardson also joined us. It was a wonderful and unique experience to hear not just from our main speakers, but also from their wives as they joined them in workshops and panel discussions. Attendees were deeply affected by the transparency and honesty with which they all shared not just their experience and wisdom, but also their failures, weaknesses and trials as couples and families.

After 10 years Fieles is truly a Sovereign Grace event, not just in the exposition of our theological convictions, but also in the modeling of our historical values and practices. Not only are our own pastors and leaders growing in acquiring Sovereign Grace values and virtues, but our guests are also being touched and blessed by experiencing them.

This year we closed registrations at 550 attendees which consisted of pastors, deacons, ministry leaders and their wives from 155 different churches from Mexico and 4 other countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica and the USA). Of those, about 35% were leaders from our own family of Sovereign Grace churches, and the rest represented churches coming from 20 different states in Mexico. We were surprised to see that about 40% were first-time attendees.

Because of the numbers, our building installations and resources were stretched, and yet by God’s grace we were able to pull it off thanks to the 150 wonderful volunteers that give of their time for a whole week to set up and serve those coming.

As it is with every year, at the end of the conference we all left thanking God for what feels like the best Fieles ever. But we now realize the reason for that, and it is because God’s mercies are fresh every year. So again, He was gracious to freshly bless us with joyful times of very loud worship, great times of teaching and personal ministry and wonderful times of fellowship and the making of new friends. We don’t know what to expect for next year, but we know it will be the best Fieles ever, all over again.