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BuildingLeaders
Ashaninka BibleInstitute, PeruCIET Bolivia—15 Years ofMaking the GradeBeing Bold in PeruCONPLEI 2012 atThe Ammi TrainingCenter, Brazil
a publication of South America Mission
on South America spring 2010
on a Missionary Journey
In February, a group of SAM Bolivia missionaries traveled to an Ayoré christian community called FÚA to build a chapel in their village and give medical attention. As weanticipate God’s kingdom, worship and healing are twothings we build for. These pictures offer a glimpse of the beauty of God’s creation encountered on this journey.
www.southamericamission.org3 window | april 2010
Walk into the oce o Kirk Ogden, SAMexecutive director, and you’ll see a ramedphoto imprinted with the ollowing text:
Purpose
–To the Praise of His Glory!
Vision
–Multiplied dynamic churches across South America that transform local communities by embodying kingdom of God values.
Mission
–Building Leaders to Build Churches.
You’ll see the same poster in thelunchroom and throughout the oce. I you know SAM at all, you know that weare committed to developing leaders or thechurches o South America.Is “building leaders” an end in itsel?No. It is a means to an end. We want to see“multiplied dynamic churches across South America that transorm local communitiesby embodying Kingdom o God values.”It takes godly, capable, committed, andknowledgeable leaders to make this happen. What goes into “building leaders”?First, there is
evangelism
. You might notthink o sharing the gospel as “leadershipdevelopment,” but it is. Leaders need to beborn again beore they can be useul in aspiritual ministry. Can you imagine tryingto create and release unregenerate leaders inthe church? Every time someone is saved, apotential uture leader o the church is born.Neil Cole, in
Organic Church
, describesthe principle this way: “the leaders or theharvest must come rom the harvest itsel.”Second, there is
real-life demonstration
.Educators have recognized the existenceo “learning styles.” Some o us are moreoriented to visual learning, others toauditory learning, others to learningthrough reading and writing, and othersto kinesthetic or tactile learning. Whilepreerred styles o learning may dier, itis sae to say that or most o us the mostproound learning comes when we areinspired or challenged by another person’sgood example. Tink o the people whohave had the most inuence on you. What was it about their lie that createdthe impact? Long-time Christian educatorLeRoy Ford goes so ar as to say:Many o the greatest teachers have nevertaught in a classroom. Tey never speak in public. Tey simply move amongpeople – being the right kind o person.Tey reect the right kinds o valuesand ideals. What Ford’s observation means is thatevery missionary is a teacher by the way heor she lives!Tird, there are intentional, structured,staed and unded
centers of learning
.Tese are the Bible institutes and trainingcenters. You, through SAM, have investeddeeply in creating places where theBible is taught and spiritual disciplinesare developed, particularly among theindigenous peoples o South America. You can read about these special places inthis issue o
window
. oday, hundreds o graduates o these institutions are servingin their communities and beyond. Overtime, these institutions themselves havetheir own national leaders. A newer ‘wrinkle’ on the Bible instituteconcept is church-based theologicaleducation. Tis approach ollows a defnitecurriculum but trains leaders in the churchrather than sends them away to an institution.One curriculum or C-BE is BILD, knownin Spanish as EBIL (Educación eológicaBasada en la Iglesia Local). Tis approach isbeing used by pastors in Paraguay and hasrecently been introduced to the Mil PalmerasChurch in Pucallpa, Peru, which has orty members involved in Level 1 training. What all SAM’s approaches to producingleaders have in common is an intentionalocus on character development through lie-on-lie relationships. I this type o ministry is your passion, we’d love to talk with you!by Dr. David Broucek Director o International Ministries, SAM
Our MissiOn
A Closer Look into the Vision and Purpose of South America Mission
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