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Latin America Mission

5465 NVl 36th St. (33166)
P.O. Box 52-7900
Miami, FL 33152 - 7900

Background Briefing Paper

Number 17

(305) 884 - 8400

August 13, .1990

I This

paper

is

not

an

official

document

of

the

Latin 1

Mission-USA, in the sense that it. has not been

!.America
approved by any legislative body of the LAM-USA.
It has
been prepared by the Administration primarily for
! internal use. It may not be quoted or reproduced without
permission.
time.

It is dated, and subject to revision at any

CHRIST FOR THE CITY

A Brief History and Current Status

Background
The Latin America Mission, since its early days as the Latin
American Evangelization Campaign, has focused on the cities of
Latin America. Its early campaigns were generally city- wide united
campaigns at a time when such interdenominational efforts were an
innovative approach!
Because of LAM's interest in radio, literapublication and distribution and 1.:heolog ical education, i t:s
personnel nave usually located in Latin American cities .
After divesting itself of its ministries in 1971, turning them
over to nationally- operated boards and then cooperating with these
ministries by loaning them missionary personnel through the Latin
American Community of Evangelical Ministries (CLAME), the increasing strength of these national institutions required less support
from the Mission.
A growing sense developed that, in addition to
loaning personnel to these autonomous national bodies, God had a
new dimension for the Mission to adopt as a direct ministry.
Providentially, Clayton L."Mike" Berg, Jr., then President of
the LAM, attended the International Consultation on World Evangelization in Pataya, Thailand. He was assigned a room with Ray Bakke,
a leading promoter of ministry to world-class cities.
This, along
with other factors, reinforced a growing conviction that a major
effort should be made to reach the people of Latin America's
largest cities.
Early Developments
In May 1983 the LAM Board of Trustees approved a recommendation by the president that the Mission become directly
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.involved in reaching unreached Latin peoples in urban areas. There

was early concern that adequate research be done and that the
ministry maintain a strong relationship with existing churches as
new churches were planted.
Paul Pretiz was named the first director of the Christ for the
City (CFC) program. Four cities were initially chosen:
Mexico City (estimated population metropolitan area,
1986: 19,305,000)
Being the world's largest city and
located in Latin America, this urban colossus could
scarcely be overlooked.
Spiritually it is one of the
neediest on the continent.
There were already some LAM
ministries there with which the program could collaborate.
MeqellJ_n_.._ Colombia
(est. pop. metro. area: 3 million )
The LAM-related Association of Evangelica l Churches of
the Caribbean had appealed for missionary personnel to
plant churches here and in other cities. At the time we
were not fully aware of the significance of developing a
program in what soon would be the universally recognized
drug capital of the world.
Caracas, Venezuela
(est. pop. metro. area: 4.5 million)
Samuel Olson, member of the LAM Board of Trustees and
pastor of this
largest church, issued the appeal
for Caracas.
Miami, Florida
(est. pop. metro. area: 1.9 million)
There was a growing consciousness that a mission's
responsibility should include the community at its
doorstep.
The Miami outreach, because of its different
nature and the city's varied cultures, organizationally
has related directly to the LAM administration and not
the CFC director.
The Mission leadership had the expectation that existing
personnel would feel called to move to these cities and become
- The misBionaries with LAM at the time r because of their
average age and their active and fulfilling involvement in their
current ministries, were not as readily available as expected.
Emphas is was then placed on recruiting new personnel for CFC.
Meanwhile, to keep interest from flagging in Caracas, funds
were released for a "coalition" of churches to employ two Venezuelan missionaries to begin helping coalition churches plant
daughter congregations in unreached neighborhoods.
Colombians were recruited to begin the Medellin project. This
was opportune in view of the departure of the first North American
CFC missionaries due to family and health problems.
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Each

project began with research and the compilation of a

of evangelical work in that city.
This provided a basis
upon which to compare the growth of the churches as a result of the
program.
It also included a listing of unchurched neighborhoods
where LAM teams or others could go and initiate church-plant ing
efforts . The Mexico City research became part of a larger investigation, which was already starting at the time and coordinated
locally by VELA, a Mexican ministry.
Similar research is a major component of the Miami program as
data is gathered section by section from the city.
By making use
of this information, churches can become aware of their respective
communities' spiritual and social needs.
Locally, this is called
the Community Awareness Program (CAP).
The statistics revealed that these Latin American cities
contained some of the greatest concentrations of 11 unreached
peoples." Evangelical Christians have been present in some of them
for over a century.
Still, the extremely low percentages of
evangelical believers in those we surveyed--one third of one
percent in Medellin--confirmed for us the need for major evangelistic efforts to help national brethren in each place.
This earlier period was dedicated to defining CFC's approach
and the preparation of the CFC Principles, a document available
upon request.
These principles include: a commitment to mo bili ze
every believer in witness, "networking" with churches ar.d agencic=s,
working toward the unity of the Body of
in a given city , and
a "compassionate care" dimension that integrates concern for
physical and social needs with our evangelistic thrust.
The CFC international office was first located in Mexico City,
where new personnel arrived for orientation and l anguage study.
Language programs there were disappointing, and eventually the
office was moved to San Jose, Costa Rica, the traditional field
headquarters of the LAM.
Recent Developments
Since the move of the office to San Jose in 1989 and the
appointment of John Huffman as director, various new elements have
been added to Christ for the city:
1.

A modified Evangelism-in-Depth (EID) program was introduced into the Mexico City and Medellin endeavors, and
later incorporated in the plans for coastal Colombia
(Cartagena and Barranquilla).
EID was the LAM strategy
in the 60's which sought to mobilize churches to coordinate their evangelistic efforts during a given period
of time, usually one year, with special emphasis on
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motivating and training the rank and file in personal

evangelism.
MILAMEX (Spanish acronym for Latin America
Mission of Mexico) had been promoting EID principles for
years and was enlisted to carry out this component as
part of the Mexico City effort.
The EID approach in
Mexico City has been limited at first to Iztapalapa, an
area of the Federal District chosen for our initi al
thrust.
Later, other areas will be targeted for similar
outreach.
To the usual elements of the program have been added
workshops to help pastors and leaders disciple new
converts, adopt more effective worship styles, among
other things.
2.

The Participatory Missionary Prayer Program draws upon

in
through prayer, as well
as systematized prayer for specific homes and people to
be reached by visitation.

3.

National missionaries have become increasingly involved.

While Venezuelans and Colombians were already involved in
CFC, Costa Rica was also tapped for missionary personnel.
Many of these volunteer for short-term service (up to a
month) for visitation.
Others are pastors who conduct
evangelistic crusades. Some (with financial support from
Costa Rican churches) offer longer p e riods of service.

4.

New cateqories of service for missionary personnel have

been made available.
In addition to career contracts,
short-term teams are being used and a category for shortterm volunteers (three to five years) has created broader
opportunities for ministry within CFC.
The Mission is
now exploring another avenue for volunteers called to
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incarnational ministry" among the poor.

5.

The development of Costa Rica as a base has been taking

place.
While San Jose is not a major urban area, models
o ministry have - bequn the re which make a ccntribution in
their own right.
These models also provide training and
experience for new candidates while they are still in
language school regardless of their final destination on
the field.

Curre nt Status of the Program (June, 1990)

Mexico Citv. Church-planting is being carried out in the
Gustavo A. Madero area, with a wholistic approach to a
squatter settlement as \vell as an outreach in a middle
class neighborhood. The EID program in Iztapalapa e njoys
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the support of some 50 (out of perhaps 110) established

churches.
A ministry involving small medical clinics
closely identified with the local churches is being
studied.
Medellin.
This city also has a bvo-pronged approach: .
church-planting with a medical clinic in a specific
barrio and the city-wide EID training coordinated by the
local ministerial association.
A 40% increase in church
attendance was the result of the first ten months of EID.
Interest on Colombia's Caribbean coast has led to a
similar program currently under way in Cartagena and
Barranquilla.
The research in Cartagena demonstrated
that only 1.5% of the population is evangelical.
Caracas.
Church planting with the Venezuelan missionaries under the Caracas "coalition" continues.
Noncoalition churches are
encouragea- - to catch -the
vision through "Vision 15000".
Given the lack of
leadership for the new churches to be planted, many of
the LAM personnel are involved in the Caracas Evangelical
Seminary.
Miami.
The above-mentioned Community Awareness Program
will have finished its information-gathering phase by the
end of 1990. The team will have personally contacted 800
pastors, 250 school principc.ls, several hundred social
and parachurch agencies, plus h ospitals, police and local
governments, etc .
This will result in a series of
publications and gatherings to enable churches to more
effectively minister to their communities.
Unity at all
leve ls of Christian leadership is being encouraged in a
city traditionally fragmented along racial, ethnic and
linguistic lines.
Special programs to reach Mid-Eastern
peoples and international students are under way.
San Jose.
A wholistic church-planting endeavor in a
squatter settlement, San Pedro de Pavas, is creating a
model for similar works elsewhere.
The resources of
Costa Rica's large evangelical population are being
mobilized for short- and long-term service by Costa
Ricans in other countries.
To date, short-term !trips
sponsored by CFC to Mexico and Colombia have involved 140
Costa Ricans.
Seven others have long-term service
contracts of six months or more. Contacts are being made
for the extension of Christ for the City to other Latin
American metropolises.
Paul Pretiz, June 1990

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