Around 120 pastors and leaders representing 25 Nazarene churches on the West Mexico District gathered for the Launch conference to collaborate on a growth plan for churches on the district.

The conference was held 18-19 March in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, as part of the growth strategy for leadership on the western district of the country.

Leonardo Peralta, district superintendent of the West Mexico District, said that they have participated in many conferences, receiving training and becoming familiar with tools to facilitate the advance of the work of evangelism in their communities. The Launch conference was designed to help the pastors put that knowledge into action. 

“The idea is to help each local church come up with a working plan, defined by the vision that God has given its pastor and that together they can realize it during this year,” Peralta said. “It’s about trying to help the leaders to ‘launch’ their projects. Through the direction of evangelism ministry, we project that this conference, with God’s blessing, will produce a new dynamic of work and participation in local churches.”

The workshops were led by elders Isamel Martines, pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene in Monterrey; Josue Barrera, pastor of the Etla church; and Mario Mejia, pastor of the Alpha church and district director of evangelism.

Tools were presented to facilitate the work of outreach and growth such as NextGen, a tool for youth to get involved in church planting, ReadySetGO, a sports ministry, and Alpha.

Alpha is a tool that involves people who do not know Jesus in an environment outside the church with conversations about life, in order to progressively lead them to know Jesus. 

During the workshops, participants worked on crafting their vision and developing a working plan. Later, each church publicly read its vision and committed to working toward finishing it.

--Church of the Nazarene Mesoamerica Region