2004 Missionary Educators Summit
By Rod Boyd

Nearly ninety missionaries, representing 22 countries of the Latin America/ Caribbean region, gathered for the 2004 Missionary Educators' Summit in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. I was privileged to be part of the steering committee that planned the event. The purpose of the Summit was to rally missionaries to become more involved in Christian education. Missionary leaders recognize that training and Christian education are key to retaining and sustaining the revival growth that God sent to the region in the last 40 to 60 years.

As national churches have developed and assumed leadership in all areas of ministry, missionaries have become less involved in education. However, Christian education should be the last area to abandon. Missionaries must continue to be actively involved in training, discipleship and leadership education.

Everett Wilson, former president of Bethany Bible College in California, shared three sessions on Pentecostalism in Latin American education. We were reminded once again of the importance of relying upon the Holy Spirit. In addition, the steering committee felt that the Summit should primarily be an open forum involving both missionaries currently involved or those interested in any level of education, from the local church level through the masters' level. With our experience using the dialogue method in the Resource and Advisory Center for Bible Schools, we were able to utilize this format that included:

• brief written and verbal reports from countries and ministries

• identifying the top eight issues and concerns

• eight small groups that studied these issues and reported back with recommendations

The interaction and direct involvement not only helped to identify potential solutions to current problems, but also created a high level of ownership. We truly expect that these missionaries will embrace and carry forward important Christian education initiatives.

In fact, one evidence of the interest of missionaries to become more involved in Christian education was the formation of the Association of Caribbean and Latin American Missionary Educators or ACLAME for short. The steering committee for the Summit, with the addition of two other key leaders, was asked to organize this new association. If you are interested in understanding more about the education issues of the Assemblies of God in the Latin America/ Caribbean region, we invite you to visit the ACLAME website at http://www.ACLAME.net.