Report of the Second Leadership Training Conference of the Project, Global Mission 2015

The leaders of Global Mission 2015 in the areas of Vision and Strategy, Prayer and Research—Paulo Pascoal, Vitor Biscaia and Liane Serfas respectively—communicated the vision of 2015 which can be summarized in two phrases: we want to see a church accessible to all of the people in the entire country in this generation, and we want Portugal to be a crosscultural missionary force among the unreached peoples.

In order for the vision to come about, God, as He always has done, will use people. For this reason we took time to explain the leader profile of John Knox which we would like to see in each district of this country, people serving as facilitators for this entire church planting movement, beginning in the 46 municipalities without any witness, and mobilizing the Church in Portugal to move beyond its borders with a new contingent of missionaries to reach all of the unreached peoples.

Tomas Moreno, the leader of Dawn Ministries in Latin América, Oswaldo Prado, the leader of Brasil 2010 and Amaury Braga, International Prayer Coordinator for Dawn Ministries were responsible for the specialized seminars in the areas of Research, Vision and Strategy and Prayer respectively. The main group was divided into these three work areas, and the result was the creation of ministry teams, considerably committed to this vision of transforming a nation by planting new churches, churches that are healthy and centered on the person of Christ and His word.

Since all of these things depend exclusively on God’s blessing and grace, we had the holy opportunity to have a concert of prayer for the nation and the unreached municipalities, asking God to reach them with an evangelical community of vibrant and active disciples of Jesus. Whenever God’s people pray, God acts and transforms those who pray. This is what happened once again, and there was brokenness, renewal and a commitment to look ahead and see—beyond our own church and denomination—the Kingdom of God in Portugal and moving out from Portugal.

The majority of participants left Carcavelos committed to a vision of reaching the world beginning in his own district, believing that Jesus’ Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 is to be taken seriously. We were extremely edified by that which God already is doing, the fruit of a vision sowed in the heart of many people, as is the case in Vizela, Ilha Graciosa, etc.

Testimonies

Nuno Soares, 31 years old, married to Sara and father of Joana, is planting a new church in Vendas Novas, in the District of Évora. When asked about this training conference, he said, “It was a special time of revelation of the will of God, of union among God’s people in adoration, and of an expansion of spiritual vision so that together we will be able to plan with a view to completely reaching with the gospel.”

Salomão Neto is 28 and is starting a security systems business in Arraiolos. He leads the worship in his local church and serves as a Sunday School teacher. He was at the training conference of Global mission 2015 and testifies, “It went beyond offering technical preparation and an awareness of the project and its purposes in advancing the work of God, to being a moment of communion and spiritual sharing with so many of God’s men and women whose objective is to take the message of salvation to our Portugal, setting aside denominational barriers in the image of the spirit of the Evangelical Alliance, a spirit that ought to be, I believe, that of all evangelical Christians.”

Márcio Lima is 32 and is married with two girls. He came from and now works as a missionary in three congregations in three distinct parishes in the municipality of Ponte de Sor in the district of Portalegre. For him the training conference “was truly an instrument of God to bring to our hearts the vision and path that we should take to reach this nation with the preaching of the Word and with the planting of healthy churches. For me the conference was just what I needed. It was like joining hunger with a desire to eat. It brought more content to my ministry. I came particularly to this nation with this purpose defined in my heart: to work with the brethren for the evangelization of this nation.””

To God be all the glory!

Paulo Pascoal
Coordinator of the Missions Department of AEP