ILI: History Makers Leadership Podcast
Explore the transformative journey that is leadership. In each episode, we will dive deep into strategies, stories, insights, and the core values that shape and inspire effective Christian leaders who make an impact - all around the globe. Get ready to unlock your leadership potential.
When leaders are equipped, kingdom impact multiplies. Equipping leaders and spreading the Gospel. Let’s change history together!
This podcast is brought to you by the International Leadership Institute.
ILI: History Makers Leadership Podcast
Ep. 41 | Empowering Latin American Leaders for Global Missions Impact
What if a continent could transform from being a mission field to becoming a leading mission force?
In this inspiring episode, Norival Trindade, Vice President of Training at the International Leadership Institute (ILI), talks with Ramiro Martinez and explores how leaders can be equipped to accelerate the Gospel’s spread and create lasting impact in their communities. Ramiro is currently ILI's Director of Latin America, and his leadership spans several key ministries throughout the Spanish-speaking world, such as Director de Movilización (COMIMEX), Profesor de Perspectivas, and more.
Together, they unpack the remarkable rise of evangelical Christianity in this vibrant region. With evangelical numbers skyrocketing from 4% in the 1960s to 19% today, the potential for Latin America to impact global missions is immense. Yet, alongside this growth comes the pressing need for robust leadership training to strengthen discipleship and doctrinal foundations. Ramiro sheds light on these challenges and offers solutions to equip leaders for an evolving role in the Great Commission.
When you begin ILI training, you will discover how the Eight Core Values will lead to the Seven Outcomes in your life and the lives of those you lead. Join a community of leaders who are ready to change history and make an impact in this world. Discover more at ILITeam.org/connect.
Welcome to the History Makers Leadership Podcast, where we explore the transformative journey that is leadership. Each episode, we will dive deep into strategies, stories, insights and the core values that shape and inspire effective Christian leaders who make an impact all around the globe. This podcast is brought to you by the International Leadership Institute. Now get ready to unlock your leadership potential and let's change history together.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the History Makers Leadership Podcast brought to you by the International Leadership Institute. I am Norival Trindade. I am ILI's Vice President for Training. One of the characteristics of the International Leadership Institute as the name says, international. We are actually a family of leaders in over 120 countries of the world who are committed to spreading the gospel, to sharing the message of Christ and to equipping others to do the same, and so we have leaders from every continent of the world who have experience with training, who faces challenges that sometimes are similar to ours, sometimes are very different, sometimes they're similar to ours, sometimes they're very different, but what we want to do is bring the insights from these global leaders to you and to all of us, and it's going to be with my good friend, ramiro Martinez. Ramiro is from Ciudad de Mexico, or Mexico City. He has been a pastor and a church planter and has been, and is now, a mobilizer for missions. So, ramiro, good afternoon. How are you? It's so good to have you on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Hey, norval, good afternoon everybody. It's really a privilege to be here and share a little time of what's going on in Latin America what God is doing here. So a privilege to be here and share a little time of what's going on in Latin America, what God is doing here, so a privilege to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, we are honored to have you and to hear from you. Introduce yourself a little bit to us. I know you, I know your family and everything. But our hearers and our watchers maybe they don't, so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, me and my wife. We have been involved in church planting in Mexico City. We have done this for around more than 40 years. We have planted six churches in the metropolitan area of Mexico City, but the latest 20 years I would say area of Mexico City, but the latest 20 years I would say we become a little bit more involved in mission mobilization. That means we want to help the local church, the churches in Latin America, to connect with God's mission. And we have three kids. All are grown up now so we are MP nesters but we now together we go and travel to help our local teams in Latin America.
Speaker 2:Yes, and, ramiro, you are the international director of ILI for the entire continent of Latin America and let me give you, all of you, a little information about Latin America. And let me give you all of you a little information about Latin America. The continent of Latin America is everything south of Mexico, and we are talking about the Spanish-speaking Latin America, so that does not include my home country of Brazil, but we are talking about 22 countries that go from the northern hemisphere close to the South Pole, a population of 623 million people. And Latin America is an interesting continent. Ramiro, you know that You've been in pretty much every single country in Latin America, country in Latin America, and you know that in the 1960s, the population of Latin America included about 4% evangelical Christians.
Speaker 2:Today, that percentage, according to Pew Institute, has gone up to 19%. That means not only that the number of evangelicals has grown, but the percentage has really grown in the continent. Out of the 623 million, we would be 25 million if we were still 4%, and yet the estimation is that there are almost 113 million evangelical Christians. So the question, ramiro, is why do we even need to be equipping leaders for the spread of the gospel in a continent where the gospel is clearly growing at a very fast pace.
Speaker 3:Well, that's a very good question. The answer is very interesting. Well, first, we need to say that this good growing we have had is wonderful. I'm a part of that. I became Christian when I was 15 years old. At that time I was living in San Salvador, el Salvador. So, first, we have a lot of growing, but we haven't had good, solid leadership training 90% of our leaders here in Latin America. We need solid, good training and ILI is a good answer for that. We have, because of this, growing which is, is is something really good, but at the same time, we are kind of weak in several areas, like discipleship, like good, solid doctrine and the an opportunity we have now becoming part of the mission force God want to use to accomplish the Great Commission.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is one thing that you and I have had many conversations about is this shift in what they call the axis or the center of gravity of the expansion of Christianity, where up until now, most missionaries that took the gospel into the ends of the world have come from Europe or North America, and this is changing. So give us a little bit about your perspective of how Latin America plays into this shift in the center of gravity of the mission's expansion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, little by little, this is something the Holy Spirit is doing. It comes from God. But there's a good question here why Latin America has grown a lot. Well, one of the key answers for that is God wants to see Latin America taking their part and finishing the Great Commission. Right now, latin America is about 20% of all believers of the world 20%. We're 20%, but we have sent only 2% of missionaries, or all of missionaries who are already on the field. So picture this we are 20%aries who are already on the field. So picture this we are 20% of the evangelical population of the world, but we have only sent 2% of the missionaries who are already on the field.
Speaker 3:So what I see? There is a gap. For me, it's an opportunity. So we are now transforming this country. God is doing this from being a mission field to a mission force, and that's our dream that Latin America could take their part. And we have several advantages Our skin color, our culture, our proximity with unreached people groups are closer than the traditional missionaries, and I think this is not something happened for a good luck only thing. It's because God is here and he wants to use Latin America as a mission force, force.
Speaker 2:Yes, that is indeed even a new trend and, ramiro, you're a big advocate for that, but a lot of others are also saying the same thing that Latin America has the opportunity. If that gap is filled, latin America can really help finish the task I love it how you put it finish the task that Jesus has given us. 2,000 years ago Now, ili teaches passion for the harvest. It's one of our eight core values and that's the reason why I believe and correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that's one of the reasons, maybe the main reason why you connected well. Your vision of mobilizing Latinos for the mission field connected so well with ILI's vision because of the core value. So tell us a little bit how you and others in Latin America are helping the church to mobilize that untapped potential missionary force.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're right, maribel. Let me share a little bit, one short story here. Imagine this we have a pastor that has a lot of things to do in Latin America, maybe in Colombia, maybe in Peru, in Latin America, maybe in Colombia, maybe in Peru, maybe in Guatemala, and in their spiritual formation, in their training, nobody told them about being part of the Great Commission. For some reason, they think this is not for us, this is for something else. Maybe the people from the United States or missionaries from Europe they have to do that, not us. That when I found we need to mobilize I would say 95% of all leaders and pastors in Latin America, I was looking for a tool.
Speaker 3:Our number one helps me to connect with the pastor. Number two, that we really have this mission vision in their values. And number three give me an opportunity to make a friendship with the pastor. And this is why, when I found ILI, I felt God told me this is the tool we need. When I found ILI, I felt God told me this is the tool we need, and we have shared this tool with several other people that are using this ILI training, not only to help the local pastor to be a better pastor, be more fruitful in evangelism and discipleship, but also being part of this movement that God is doing now, awaking the Latin American church to be part of this mission force to finish the Great Commission. That's why I love ILI, especially core value number two passion for the harvest. And yes, you're right, this is my experience.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly that synergy that exists between those two, and one of the things that you're so good at, romero, is that you ILI is maybe one of the main tools, but it's not the only tool, and I have seen you invest in the lives of leaders all over this continent with other resources, so give us a little bit about how that connection happens.
Speaker 3:Well, in Latin America that's something that probably is true in other cultures as well, but in Latin America, especially, if you't have the a good relationship with the pastor and the leaders, nothing is going to happen.
Speaker 3:So ili gave the opportunity number one to serve the church and make a relationship and from there, uh, ili is not only focusing in in doing training I mean, it's something needed and and we focus a lot of energy doing that but we're thinking in the seven outcomes. In one of the seven outcomes we want to accomplish is to send good workers to the field, not only in Latin America but in the mission field. So we connect with the leaders, with ILI, and then we have, like a toolbox, a lot of resources, different resources from different ministries we partnered with with the idea to serve the church and we have seen this several times. And this tool is, there are tools that help the pastor. For instance, how can I explain the Great Commission, how can we participate that to my church? So we have a tool for that and there's a toolbox right there. So our teams help the pastors with different resources so the church can participate in the global vision of God with these tools.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Now, of course, ili is a leadership development organization. History Makers equips leaders, and we've talked a lot about Passion for the harvest, one of the core values, but there are many others there are seven others actually and there are other areas of leadership that you invest in people and you have a tremendous experience. Like I said, you've been to every country in the continent multiple times. You know persons, leaders, pastors all over the continent. In your experience, what has been the greatest challenge for Christian leaders to contribute with the mission of God and to serve the church in the context of Latin America? What are the greatest challenges and issues that leaders face?
Speaker 3:Of course there are several challenges. I would say the main thing is about vision. If the leader has the right vision, he will lead the church in the right direction. But many leaders and pastors, they don't have a complete vision. Many of them are locally focused, I would say, which is not bad and needed. But when ILI comes, really put a spark on them and start thinking, yes, we can be part of what God is doing in the world. And when they capture God's heart for all nations, which is right there in our core value you know, norival, all of our core values end with a sentence saying in order to reach all missions. So when the leader captures the vision, it comes a transformation. I would say they say, yes, we can be part of this. And then we come with different tools and encouragement and connections and we have seen this several times and we have seen this several times no-transcript.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Now you kind of took us into that direction because I wanted to ask you a question about, in all of your travels, not related even to our training what are the most exciting things that you see God doing in the Latin American continent, and maybe how could we join what God's doing in Latin America?
Speaker 3:Well, there are a lot of things to do. For sure, I think we need to help the local ILI leaders who are already doing this I ally leaders who are already doing this. We have teams as not about setting in almost every, every one of the 21 countries, plus some countries in the Caribbean like Cuba and others, but yeah, if we can help these leaders, these teams, to do a better job, doing the training and providing them good tools so they can help the local pastors and leaders. But one of the results we have seen is missionaries coming out of the churches mission people coming out from Peru being a missionary, maybe in India, maybe in the north of Africa, maybe in the Middle East, and this is very exciting when we see these missionaries coming out of these churches. It's not easy because the economy is one of our challenges, but we see these missionaries going out from our churches and what I see is that ILI is this spark, this initial spark that will help the pastor to get connected through a process to send missionaries to the mission field.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, you know. Actually it's exciting. I'm always excited, I'm always encouraged when I go to Latin America to see the level of commitment that these leaders have, sometimes sacrificially. So, ramiro, if you were to give a word to Latinos, or to Anglos or Hispanics in the US, or anybody in other parts of the world, I'll leave the mic open for you to just give a word of encouragement to our leaders, to those who are watching our podcast around the world.
Speaker 3:For me, what I can see is God is moving His church, his body, to really finish the Great Commission. We're not far from there. Okay, somebody said this we have reached the easy part, the easy unreached people group. The one we need to reach now is the difficult. The most difficult unreached people groups are not already reached. So what we can do, we can be part of this.
Speaker 3:There are several ways we can connect. One of the key things, of course, is training leaders that we help to develop the vision, but you can pray for this. You can connect us with leaders in Latin America, or leaders in Latin American leaders, hispanic leaders in the United States. Right there, we have a potential. We have started this. But also you can help us with your finances, or you can join us being part of our training teams as well. There are several ways you can connect with us, and I'm excited. I think God is doing a great thing. I can feel this big giant is awakening and you can be part of this and God will finish his task according to Revelation 5, because all nations will be present worshiping God. And I'm excited because I want to be part of that. I hope you can be and find a place, find your place, how you can be part of this, what God is doing.
Speaker 2:Thank you, ramiro. There's so much there that if we unpacked we could do a whole other episode just with that challenge, that tremendous opportunity. God is going to finish the task. The privilege we have is that we get to be a part of it. But we do have to do that, we do have to get involved, and yes, One more thing here.
Speaker 3:Something that's happening is these nations that are unreached are coming to our countries now. They are now in Latin America, they are now in the United States. So that's another thing we can do. Right there we have all nations maybe my neighbor so we can be part of that as well, connecting with them and finding a way to evangelize and disciple them too.
Speaker 2:Excellent, and maybe one big takeaway of our conversation is this know, I've heard a lot of people say that the low-hanging fruit has been picked. That is, those people. The harder people, the more distant, the more isolated people are, just as loved by the Father, and Christ died for them as well, and so we have that responsibility. And, romero, I think what the truth is, it's going to take all of us US, europe, the West, the Global South, us Europe, the West, the Global South and I appreciate and thank you for being part of this amazing team of leaders that is mobilizing Latin America to fulfill the Great Commission. Thank you for your insights. I love this conversation and I'm sure everybody else is loving that too. Now, if you're interested in knowing more about ILI, visit our website iliteamorg. You can sign up to receive our communications. You can know more about how to equip leaders to accelerate the spread of the gospel. Now, if this content and if this conversation has been useful for you, please do a few things for us.
Speaker 2:Number one go and evaluate our podcast. Rate it so that the algorithm will send it to others. Subscribe. That's another way that our podcast and videos can get to more people. Share it If you know of somebody who would benefit from this, please do that, share it. That's how these conversations can bless more people. Thank you for being a part of what we're doing. Thank you for participating with us, ramiro. Thank you for being a part of what we're doing. Thank you for participating with us, ramiro. Thank you for your time. May God bless you. Thank you for watching. Thank you, everybody. May God bless you too.
Speaker 3:See you soon.