Evangelism, Discipleship, and Culture

I arrived in Bolivia one week before starting language school in order to attend a 3-day conference hosted by Word Made Flesh here in Bolivia. Two members of the Mission Society, one of which was the seminary professor of our ministry director here, travelled to Bolivia to teach during these three days. So many people signed up for the conference that we were way beyond the capacity of the small retreat center where the conference was hosted. People came from all over Bolivia, including over 50 pastors, as well as missionaries from around the world that work in Bolivia. 

The major themes of the conference were (1) sharing the gospel across cultural barriers and (2) the importance of discipleship in the church and how to do it well. The teaching was awesome! And it was so fun to watch the reactions and reception of all the different people at the conference. In Bolivia alone, there are so many different people groups! And historically, the church has been quite divided across denominations, people groups, and generations. So it was really cool to see so many different regions and denominations represented at the conference. And it was clear that the teaching really shook many pastors out of their comfort zones, in a good way. It was really cool and challenging to reflect on the core truths of the gospel and discern what we might be tempted to add to the gospel from our own cultural framework.