In February, a three-day transformative leadership gathering was held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Pastor Mauricio Diaz Burdett, our leadership team, and I hosted the gathering, titled “The Relational God and His Mission.” Pastor Marco Mejia, of the San Pedro Sula Honduras congregation, attended with 11 ministry leaders. One of our leaders from the fellowship group in El Salvador also joined us. We all came together in an atmosphere of deep reflection and spiritual growth, guided by the inspiring presentations of President Greg Williams and Pastor Heber Ticas, Superintendent for Latin America.
During the sessions, Greg Williams introduced the concept of the 5 D’s (Disruption, Discovery, Death, Design, Deploy) as experienced by the early church in the book of Acts, highlighting the transformative process within the first Christian community. He encouraged attendees to join the harmonious flow of the triune God. He reflected on Jesus’ movement towards us and through us by Jesus’ ministry of faith, hope, and love.
Additionally, he presented GCI’s vision and the path forward, reminding everyone of the building blocks toward Healthy Church and that the church’s fundamental mission is to be the healthiest expression of the Church of Jesus Christ that we can be.
Pastor Heber Ticas provided a valuable perspective on building a church MAP around the concept of the 5 D’s and how it relates to our local church’s movement toward Healthy Church. He also delivered profound teachings on faith, hope, and love, and their biblical and theological foundation that informs the practice of our ministry Avenues. He focused on building bridges between our current environments into a missional participation environment by identifying our focus group and developing a missional heart.
His presentation challenged all of us to activate our missional movements in a strategic manner. The Avenue champions from the Tegucigalpa congregation and their teams had the opportunity to reflect and map out a better path forward for each Avenue based on the teachings we received and the customized consulting that was provided by Greg and Heber.
The gathering culminated in an inspiring Sunday worship service attended by 98 participants, where Greg reaffirmed GCI’s commitment to being a healthy, Christ-centered church. The fellowship among attendees and the shared passion for the gospel left a lasting impact, reinforcing the importance of continuing to grow in faith and in our missional calling.
This gathering not only strengthened GCI’s vision in Honduras and El Salvador but also renewed each congregation’s commitment to moving forward in God’s calling and purpose for our church.
Joel Aleman, Associate Pastor
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
