Historical perspective · January 2007
Latin America Blessing the World
A report from a gathering of Latin American mission leaders and workers, reflecting on a growing cross-cultural mission movement.
The gathering of the Latin American mission force
The third international gathering of the missions association of Latin America brought together nearly two thousand church and mission leaders from forty Latin American nations from 13–17 November 2006 in Granada, Spain. Earlier gatherings had taken place in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1986 and Acapulco, Mexico, in 1997.
Nearly three hundred attendees were Latin missionaries serving in sixty countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Around 150 volunteers from places including Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Canada came at their own expense. They assisted with airport transportation, security, and the practical details of the conference.
The location brought the meeting closer to many missionaries serving in the Indian Subcontinent, Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. It also allowed participants from Latin America to visit mission workers before or after the conference.
The program included five messages under the title “Message to the Church,” in which missionaries reflected on the Latin American church as a sending church. One worker with twenty years of experience in North Africa made a direct appeal: “Put Christ in the centre of the Church.”
Nearly twenty-five years earlier, Latin America had formally joined the world mission force; the report described a movement extending far beyond the region.
Participants heard an appeal to work closely and in consultation with national churches rather than acting alone. Accounts from Morocco and Albania illustrated how ministry by Latin missionaries had contributed to local Christian leadership. Panels addressed training, sending, and missionary care.
Researchers also presented work on the history and future of Latin American mission. Their findings became the basis for daily working-group discussions that included missionaries serving in cross-cultural settings.
Latin America in global mission
The article reported four hundred mission agencies sending nine thousand Latin missionaries, with another three thousand thought to have gone without a formal sending structure. Of the nine thousand, two thousand were described as serving outside Latin America. Many first gained cross-cultural experience within the region before moving to assignments in Asia or Africa.
The historical figures cited in the report included:
- 780 serving among Muslim communities
- 246 serving in India
- 128 serving among Buddhist communities
- 1,440 serving in the 10/40 Window
Training for ministry in Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist contexts was another emphasis. The article described programs held across Latin America to prepare workers for effective and respectful cross-cultural service.
One account concerned a couple from a small Brazilian church who went to work in Spain. They spoke of a long and difficult path into mission, including financial hardship, family separation, illness, and uncertain support. They later began a small church plant while working part-time to meet their needs.
Renewed passion and a wider vision
A closing message on mission amid persecution drew on 2 Timothy 3:12 and emphasized the cost of public Christian faith. The speaker urged listeners to stand for the gospel, speak with courage, and protect other believers when facing pressure.
The conference presented Latin mission not simply as a regional movement, but as part of a wider work of the Holy Spirit.
The closing ceremony included flags from many nations and marked a leadership transition in the movement represented at the gathering. The final message emphasized that mission is centred on God and obedience.
A Korean mission leader summarized an important lesson from the conference: no single nation or region stands alone in world mission. Latin missionaries carried their own history, experience, and identity while building on the work of those who had gone before them.
The article closed with a hope that church growth across Latin America would overflow into service throughout the world—and that the whole Church would continue taking the whole gospel to the whole world.
This article was published in the January 2007 issue. Numerical claims, organizational roles, and descriptions of events are historical and have been framed in the past tense; they should not be read as current reporting.