Agorais the Greek word for market place, forum, where people gathered for dialogue, discussions, sharing information or just for being together (Acts 17:17).
Agorais an open forum for the MC Associates, MC Task Forces and Networks as a complement to the magazine Connections.
Brief texts and news for publication in Agoracan be sent to our office in Brazil: Bertil Ekström
As a Mission Commission Associate you will, in the beginning of May, receive the first issue for 2007 of Connections, the journal of the WEA – Mission Commission. The topic of this first issue will be about COMIBAM, the Ibero-american Regional Mission Movement that held its third conference in Granada, Spain in November last year.
The next issue of Connections, which is planned for July, will deal with the topic of ‘Codes of Good Practice’ (or even by some called ‘Best Practice’). If you are aware of any such a Code, please inform –and if possible send the Code to – the Managing Editor for Connections, Kees van der Wilden. The more information is received, the more complete this subject can be covered, so, please, assist in this matter! Thank you for your help!
In case you would like to receive extra copies of the COMIBAM and/or Code issue, please inform Kees as well.
For anyone interested in taking an online course to prepare as a tentmaker or to prepare tentmakers:
Working Your Way to the Nations (WYWTTN) is a 12 lesson distance learning course. Instruction is individualized and personal interaction and guidance is provided by an experienced cross-cultural worker. The end product of the course is a custom-made pathway that should lead to serving God cross culturally in a tentmaking capacity. Meet Dr Jon Lewis, the course editor, as he describes this course and why you should consider taking it.
The course costs $80 US, and includes digital copies of all materials, technical help in online learning, and personal coaching from an experienced cross-cultural worker.
Course Dates:
September 4, 2007
January 7, 2008
April 7, 2008
You will have up to 4 months to finish the 12 lessons. If you require more time you will be asked to pay $20 US per additional month.
Questions? Don’t hesitate to write the Registrar Jim Klaas
Please fill out this Registration Application and we will confirm your eligibility for this course and advise you of payment methods.
A feedback on the WYWTTN Course:
"I am in Mexico at the moment doing a teaching English as a foreign language. I have to say it would have been much harder if I had not done Working Your Way to the Nations Course where we looked at culture shock and a need to know the language." Suzie Williams UK
UPDATE!!! As from Mid May 2007 the French version of WYWTTN, called ‘Prepare ton Chemin vers les Nations’, will be available. If you are interested ordering one or more books, please contact Kees van der Wilden.
At a conference held from March 6-8 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, fifteen organizations including the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) met and formed 'The Religious Liberty Partnership' to find new ways of working together for the persecuted church.
Chaired by Merwyn Thomas from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), based in the U.K., the network will meet annually, while a working group of five members will lead various works during the year. The members of the steering committee are the World Evangelical Alliance, Open Doors, Voice of the Martyrs, Christian Solidarity worldwide, and Christian Solidarity International.
Johan Candelin, the Executive Director of the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission, who joined the meeting said, "This is a historical day. Never ever before has there been this kind of partnership between the main organizations in the world working for the persecuted church. This will make everyone work more effectively, hinder overlapping of work, and strengthen research and information. It also sends a very strong signal of unity to the Christian church. The real winners are of course, our suffering brothers and sisters."
According to Candelin, the creation of this network is a "major victory not only for the organizations, but for the persecuted churches and the free churches that want to work together."
"We could also see the future challenges together and bring our pieces and put them together. Then we will come to see a piece that no one could see alone," he said, emphasizing on the "spirit of unity and deep commitment" among the organizations to work together.
Furthermore, a Charter of Best Practice was formed, which is an agreement of good will among the networking organizations. It has been formed to set up an open standard of communication within the network, in the hope of preventing the harmful spread of rumors, which historically have been a common experience for the persecuted churches.
The partnership is open to hear from other organizations working for the persecuted church that may be interested in joining the network, with the hope to provide the suffering church with a greater level of relevant help than ever before.
“Results and Challenges among the Unreached” was the theme of the Third Iberoamerican Missionary Congress that took place in the historic Andalucian city of Granada, Spain on November 13-17, 2006. The congress was summoned and organized by Comibam International.
An attendance of approximately 2000 participants from 37 countries represented in national delegations, alongside almost 300 Latin missionaries brought from their fields of service interacted for four days to analyze and evaluate the last two decades of work that the Iberoamerican church has been carrying out among the people groups of the world that have not had a clear opportunity to hear the gospel message.
During the inaugural meeting, the mayor of the city, José Torres Hurtado, gave a warm welcome to all those present, as well as representatives of the evangelical church in Spain and Granada. The executive secretary of the Federation of Evangelical Entities in Spain (Ferede), Mariano Blázquez, expressed his greetings as a representative of the evangelical people of Spain, and Pastor Miguel Fernández did the same in representation of the pastors of the churches of the hosting city.
In his inaugural speech, the outgoing president, David D. Ruiz M., expressed, “because of the serious nature of the missionary endeavor, it is time to examine how our missionaries have done their work. It is imperative that the movement write a missiology that, while firmly based on Scripture, will allow us to reflect the best way to work on the field.”
It is estimated that there are close to 10 thousand Iberoamerican missionaries in the world, sent by a great variety of agencies and local churches. Many have suffered due to the lack of preparation and adequate support and the inherent difficulties that are part of the work, as was clearly shown through the field research results that were presented during the congress by the person in who led the research, Dr. Levi DeCarvalho: “In spite of the fact that the majority of those interviewed expressed the lack of the minimum resources to accomplish their ministries, all of them remain firm in their calling. If there is something praise worthy in our Iberoamerican missionaries is it their sacrificial spirit to do the work that the Lord has entrusted in their hands”.
Due to its format the event stood out from others. The program was designed in such a way that there was enough time for all the participants to hear and personally dialogue with the invited missionaries, either through the discussion tables set up in the dining room, or in the forums in different rooms, or the panel discussions that took place on stage of the main auditorium. The well known Latin-American missiologist, Samuel Escobar, who led one of these panels expressed, “one of the important components of the program was what we could call “critical reflection of the practice of missions”, which took up a good part of four mornings” and he concluded by saying “the congress has been an enriching experience and it has provided a vision of hope by giving us a glimpse of the great thrust of the missionary movement of the evangelical churches of Latin America. The feeling of celebration, without a sense of overconfidence, was very comforting.”
The executive director, Jesus Londoño, from Colombia, said: “Holding a congress with a perspective from the field combined with a work and evaluative format has been a great contribution to the Iberoamerican missionary movement. We believe that our future work can take place if we are capable of analyzing and evaluating moments of growth and strength like the ones we are currently living”
In his final message during the closing ceremony, Carlos Scott from Argentina, the incoming president of COMIBAM International, highlighted the risks and challenges that the missionary work faces: “We need a real understanding of the unity of the people of God, a greater participation in the global missionary movement by making ourselves participants of the universal church, sharing in the global challenges with a complete integration and a search for cooperative models as well as understanding missions as a process and not a project.”
Carlos Madrigal from Spain, who took the initiative that led to the first legally registered evangelical church in Turkey, expressed at the end of the event: “we express our deep gratitude for having invited us and for the effort made and we are convinced much fruit will be harvested as a more efficient and responsible work in missions is done by the Iberoamerican movement”.
During the International Assembly (triennial) that took place during the congress the new board was elected and it consists of the following: Carlos Scott, President; Jesús Londoño, Executive Director; and regional directors: Jasón Carlisle: Hispanics of North America; Luis Martí: Central America; Víctor Ibagón: Andean countries; Rubén Suárez: Spanish speaking area of the Caribbean; Marcos Agripino: Brazil; Daniel Bianchi: southern region of South America; the regions of Mexico and the Iberian Peninsula remained under the leadership of the interim directors Juan C. Gómez and Enrique Montenegro until the end of their terms at the beginning of 2007.
It is fitting to remember that the first congress took place in Sao Paulo, in 1987, under the presidency of Luis Bush, the second in Acapulco, Mexico ten years later, when Rudy Girón handed the presidency over to Bertil Ekström who is the current executive director of the Mission Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA).
During the next two years Comibam International will continue the process of investigation and analysis already in effect, focusing during this stage on senders and receivers in the mission field.
Federico A. Bertuzzi
Department of Publication
Any organization that may be interested may contact Brian O'Connell (Phone:
+1 425-218-4718), who serves as a facilitator to the network The next annual meeting is slated for March 2008 in Zurich, Switzerland.
Contact Information:
Marion Kim, Press Secretary
Sylvia Soon, Chief of Staff
Check the January/February issue of Momentum Magazine that is now online,
including 60 pages focused on reaching unreached peoples. In the issue you will find, among other material, the following articles:
Bible translation & the cross-cultural DNA of the church by Patrick Johnstone
Meeting Africa's Need with Micah Amukobole (Wycliffe)
On the move with the nomadic Rendille with Nick & Lynne Swanepol (Wycliffe)
Networking the globe to serve a people with "Yolanda" (in a secure country)
It's our turn to tell others with Steven Kambi Thomas (PNG BT Assoc)
Worth all the effort with Ella Penrose & Gerry Davey (OM)
The most significant thing with Robert Lunt (SAMS)
He lived the message a tribute to IMB missionary Bill Koehn
Momentum Magazine is published every other month, and focuses exclusively on unreached peoples. The senior editor is Justin Long. Articles can be downloaded here OR subscribe
An urgent prayer request from Sam George, a Mission Commission Associate:
India Tribune, "a journal of thinking Indians" as it is called, is the second most circulated weekly newspaper among Indian Americans, read by ‘who's who’ in the community. Sam George, working for PARIVAR International, a ministry to the Americanised Asian Indians, writes every month in the column "Family Matters". He says: "It is a secular newspaper and owned by Gujurati Hindus. The challenge of writing every week amidst everything else that is going on here is a daunting task.
Of course, I cannot quote from the Bible or put sermons in there. But I see this as a great opportunity to engage with some 50,000 readers every week on youth & family issues from a Christian worldview. So I would desperately need your prayers. Also please send in regularly your ideas, links and topics you want to cover in the future. I just send this week's article - Inter-generational Issues Comes Alive in Namesake. (This movie based on Jhumpa Lahri's novel about an Indian American family that was released last week)". The full article of Sam can be read online
Tentmakers and Training
In the last two decades, I met many so called "Tentmakers". They are good Christians working in foreign countries. They call themselves tentmaking missionaries but many of them are not well equipped to serve effectively in the mission work they do... Read more OR subscribe to the newsletter.
In this newsletter that can be read online and printed for offline reading, the following issues can be read:
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Now to him who is able to establish
you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made
known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that
all nations might believe and obey him – to the only wise God be glory for ever
through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:
25-27)