by Laurie Lind, Entrust staff writer
Less than one percent evangelical? Not on our watch!
Young Spanish-speaking Christians are praying for and seeing beginnings of revival. Passionate for Jesus, they’re doing their part to help believers grow spiritually across the Spanish-speaking world.
Take, for example, Juan Marcos Ludi, Albert Ardila and Gabriela Jurado.
They know the importance of discipleship along with evangelism. They share their faith with university students and athletes. They serve in their churches with youth and media ministries. They lead small groups and disciple individual young people.
That’s why they took Entrust’s intensive Facilitating Relational Learning training – an Iberia Project core module – in Málaga, Spain. They spent hours in personal pre-study and then invested several full days in session with other learners like them.
Juan Marcos longed for deeper and more engaging conversations with kids in his church youth group, and to learn how to better prepare for small group meetings.
Gabriela wanted help in creating an environment where the children and teenagers she works with at church would feel safe expressing doubts or questions.
Albert desired to gain more understanding across the board about how to lead a small group.
Were their hopes met?
“It helped me a lot in knowing how to prepare a Bible lesson,” says Gabriela. “And how to have a comfortable atmosphere with the people in a study.”
Juan Marcos discovered the value of using well-crafted open questions in any situation, and of keeping the members of his group in mind as he prepares a study.
Albert, too, learned “how to look better at the personal needs of each one in my group and not be so ambiguous.” He also gained understanding about time management in small groups and how to plan and ask questions that lead to deep discussion.
Learning to listen to God in planning was a key lesson for Juan Marcos. He went from relying on his own understanding (and frequent last-minute worries that “everything in his plan was wrong and should be changed”) to taking a humbler attitude, trusting God.
Prior to this training, Albert had had discipleship training for leaders. Gabriela and Juan Marcos had only received “little talks about leadership” and tips from friends.
Now, they’ve gained practical tools to use in their community outreach and small group ministries. They’re equipped to pass those tools on. Tools to help Christians grow as disciples and disciple-makers. Which, they pray, will further revival throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
The Iberia Project
The Spanish-speaking church desperately needs discipleship for new – and even for mature – believers.
One answer to that need is Entrust’s Iberia Project.
It began as a dream shared by Dámaris Zafra and three friends who took our Facilitating Relational Learning module in 2016. They loved its relevance to their needs and envisioned offering it and other Entrust modules to men and women in Spain and beyond.
The dream is now reality. Dámaris and her local team organize and facilitate training events. Participants learn to study God’s word, shepherd small groups and pass along what they’re learning to others.
They currently focus on Barcelona, Madrid and Málaga. The goal is for the impact of these trainings to spread to churches across Iberia and the entire Spanish-speaking world.
The Iberia Project.
Equipping Spanish speakers for greater impact in the Spanish church.
Listen to the first in our series of podcasts about the Iberia Project.
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