Strengthening the social fabric of Colombia through the presence and outreach of the local church in local communities.
City Church is a new faith community in Lima, Peru, planted by lead pastor Julio Chiang with the support of South America Mission, Redeemer City to City and partner churches.
The Ammi training center exists to prepare leaders for the indigenous Brazilian church.
The SCCLC develops students grounded academically and spiritually with a vision for impacting the world. ACSI-accredited, graduates receive both international and local diplomas in preparation for global engagement.
We long to see dynamic churches multiplied across South America that transform local communities and the world by embodying the Kingdom of God.
As we collaborate with the local church in South America, we focus on 5 strategies:
- being an abiding community of believers
- discipling those around us
- supporting the church and her partners
- training up the next generation of leaders
- and providing opportunities for community transformation
I believe God has created us to not just appreciate beauty, but long for it. I understand the “good” appraisal of creation to go beyond function and to speak of beauty. Beauty is a rich and potent theological concept as well. The psalmist’s “one thing” is to dwell in the house of the Lord and “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4). That stirs my soul! It also points us to what God is doing in his people.
Beautiful offers a richer, more robust vision for the church. We are not discarding words like “vibrant” and “dynamic.” They tell us a lot about what we hope for and work towards. But beautiful moves us to consider more than size, quantity or activity. Beautiful beckons us to consider what Jesus desires and is himself creating in his bride, the church.
To be sure, as with all images, we need to be careful with application. Isaiah tells us that Jesus himself had “no beauty or majesty to attract us to him” (Isaiah 53:2). Scripture repeatedly warns that “beauty is fleeting” and pride from beauty destroys. But this is not the beauty that we aspire to in the church.
We aspire to an eternal beauty – with very real temporal manifestations – that can only be achieved by the sanctifying power of the cross of Jesus applied by the Spirit who indwells us.
A cardinal rule of communication is that we must consider not only what we say, but what is heard. We may know what beautiful means, but fail to communicate with our hearers. I’m willing to take this risk to seize an opportunity. Catch-phrases become hollow if they stand alone. We can be intentional in the space created by beautiful churches to paint a compelling, biblical picture of how we desire to be used by God. I hope you will join me in helping others understand the marvelous hope to which beautiful churches calls us.
Executive Director, South America Mission
As a missionary family, we aspire to be an abiding, loving, redemptive, suffering and growing community to whom people say: “Let us go with you, for we have heard God is with you.”
Zechariah 8:23