EMQ » January–March 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 1
By Decio de Carvalho
COMIBAM is the Ibero-American Mission Alliance. Ibero-America is the geographic region which comprises Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of North and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe’s Iberian Peninsula. COMIBAM serves national mission networks or associations in twenty-three of the region’s countries. Because of the significant presence of Latino churches in the United States and Canada, and the cultural and linguistic affinity with Spain and Portugal, mission communities from those countries also are represented in COMIBAM.
The vision of our mission community is that the church in our region will participate in bringing the Gospel to every ethnic group in the world. We are committed to that vision. We believe God has raised COMIBAM to provide churches and mission agencies in the region with space to relate, learn, share information, and collaborate in fulfilling His mission.
A Brief History of the Ibero-American Mission Movement
Protestant missionary work to Latin America started as early as 1528, not long after the Reformation renewed the church and transformed the life of Christian believers throughout Europe. Some were so fervent that they dared to cross the Atlantic Ocean to present this new community of Christ-followers to the New World. Many would give their lives, either because of disease or persecution.
During the 1800s, the fruit of these missionaries’ work took root and began to grow. National leaders were equipped and appointed, and in the early 1900s new churches were planted at a rapid pace. They, in turn, began to consider their role in God’s mission. A mission movement was emerging.
Brazilian mission leader Bertil Ekström, who has written and taught theology and mission extensively, summarized the development of the Ibero-American mission movement in five periods:
- Early post-colonial period (1840–1900): Mission movement focuses in-country – “Jerusalem and Samaria.” Mission work is done entirely by denominations.
- Initial international mission efforts (1900–1950): The movement becomes international, but mostly to neighboring or culturally related countries. The first non-denominational mission agencies are founded.
- First response to the challenge and opportunities (1950–1980): Significant mobilization, recruiting, and training takes place. Ibero-American missionaries are sent to the most needy and unreached people groups but still in very small numbers. National networks of mission agencies are formed.
- Growth and expansion (1980–2000): Ibero-American missionaries begin entering so-called “creative access” countries. They are better equipped due to the establishment of mission-focused training programs. The number of sending structures and missionaries quickly increases. An international Ibero-American cooperation is formed.
- Partnership to the ends of the earth (2000 and onward): A maturing mission movement focuses on the field and the missionary. Alliances form with other international networks.
While the impetus to evangelize was planted by early missionaries, overseas mission was not a priority in Latin American churches, with few exceptions, until the 1960s and ’70s. Student movements, the participation of Ibero-American church leaders in international conferences, and the teaching of young foreign missionaries on mission all catalyzed further reflection on global participation in mission. Considering the Ibero-American church’s potential for global mission engagement, a mission leader in the early 1980s referred to it as the “sleeping giant.”
In 1987, Christian and mission leaders from Ibero-America planned an event to bring together those who were passionate or interested in this emerging mission movement. Over 3,200 participants gathered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the First Ibero-American Mission Congress. A statement adopted at the congress’ conclusion said, “Ibero-America is no longer just a mission field, but also a mission force.”
During the next ten years, the movement expanded. COMIBAM (Cooperación Misionera Iberoamericana or the Ibero-American Mission Co-operation) was established to encourage and support the national mission networks in each country and to help them connect and collaborate. Also during that period, a second congress was organized to study what had resulted from those first efforts. Focused consultations, conferences, and gatherings were organized to dig deeper into mission issues such as mobilization, training, and member care. Relationships with other national, regional, and global mission networks strengthened, providing opportunities to partner in various ways to increase capacity and effectiveness.
A Simple Mission Strategy
We have defined a simple strategy focusing on four areas of mission: mobilization, training, sending, and missionary field work. All initiatives and activities are related to these four areas. Rather than seeking to “do” the work from the COMIBAM sphere, our goal is to encourage, facilitate, equip, and promote the work of national mission networks and the hundreds of mission agencies and organizations as they focus on the specific tasks of those four areas.
In mobilization, there is still a huge amount of work to be done. So far, only a small percentage of churches in the region are actively involved in mission. National mission networks, churches, and mission agencies are actively involved in mobilizing. But hundreds of new mission candidates are looking for ways to be trained and prepared for mission each year. After researching training schools and their content, COMIBAM has published a best practices guide for missionary training in Ibero-America. Our next effort in this area is to help expand training programs in the region.
Most mission agencies are still small, young, and need help. We estimate that over 20,000 missionaries from our region serve around the world today. This requires significant practical support, resources, and prayer. Strong and effective mission networks and organizations all over the region help organize those efforts.
All of these, as we know, need to be covered in constant prayer. This mission is a supernatural, spiritual task. Korean Christians hugely influenced our desire to develop mission prayer initiatives in Ibero-America. A COMIBAM prayer facilitator provides national mission networks and intercessors around the region with information and invites them to pray every week.
Research and Collaboration
COMIBAM dedicates people and resources to each of the four strategic areas, plus two other key elements that serve and enhance all four: research and global collaboration. Our research area has completed a statistical report of missionaries from the region, and three more qualitative studies. These have provided mission leaders with essential information so they can make needed corrections in order to see increased fruit. The studies have also provided many organizations in other regions with valuable information about the Ibero-American mission movement.
In 2006 COMIBAM’s statistical research on the state of the mission movement in the region revealed significant growth in the number of mission agencies and missionaries. Between 1996 and 2006 mission agencies had grown from 286 to 462. Missionaries increased from about 3,900 to more than 9,000.
COMIBAM conducted another study in 2016, in collaboration with many mission leaders and local Christian leaders, seeking to hear from them how they perceive missionaries from our region who serve alongside or among them. This was our second qualitative study and was designed to identify strengths and weakness of the missionaries being sent by our churches and mission organizations.
In this study we found strengths in Ibero-American missionaries’ church connections and theological training. Sending structures – whether directly linked to a church, denomination or interdenominational mission agency – are based on close collaboration with local churches. They are the primary agents of mission. In the area of training, but not in the area of career education, seventy-six percent of Ibero-American missionaries have theological training and seventy-nine percent have attended mission courses lasting six months or more.
We also discovered some weaknesses that we want to remedy. For example, Ibero-American workers are known for their ease in establishing personal relationships wherever they to go; however, devoting time to language learning is often seen as a waste of time. Senders as well as cross-cultural workers frequently share this misconception. We identified this as a key issue that mission agencies and missionaries need to address.
The global collaboration area has focused on establishing or further developing relationships with other networks, but also with specific ministries and mission agencies, seeking to connect opportunities from around the world with missionaries and mission resources from Ibero-America.
Bringing together such a variety of national entities and their members or constituency has its challenges. Collaboration requires getting to know each other, then figuring out how we communicate and what God is calling us to do together. It is something that, over time, needs to be built together and not just written on organizational documents. We work to build such trust relationships.
Connecting with Us
To connect with COMIBAM, please visit our website, comibam.org. The site contains links to our other media channels as well as resources in Spanish and Portuguese. If you can read one of those two languages, consider signing up to receive our monthly emails that contain news, articles, and information about available materials and events.
___________
Decio de Carvalho was born and raised in Brazil. He joined the OM ship, Doulos, in 1979, and then served as the director of OM Brazil for ten years. Later with his wife, Elba, and their three children, he worked in Central Asia. In 2001 Decio and his family moved to Puerto Rico where he served as director of the Puerto Rico Missions Network. In 2009 he was appointed Executive Director of COMIBAM, the Ibero-American Mission Alliance.
