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. 57 | Latin America’s Moment in Global Missions
Join hosts Daniel Drewski and Norival Trindade as they explore a profound shift in the global missions landscape—one where Latin America is no longer just a mission field, but a mission force. In this inspiring episode, discover how leaders from the Global South are rising to the challenge of reaching the least-reached with renewed passion, strategic focus, and cultural insight. Through conversations on leadership, collaboration, and the changing face of missions, this episode calls listeners to embrace a new era of partnership in the Great Commission.
A profound shift is reshaping the landscape of global missions, and Latin America stands at the forefront of this transformation. Once predominantly a mission field, this vibrant region has become a powerful mission force, sending thousands of passionate Christ-followers to the least-reached corners of our world.
The numbers tell a remarkable story. A century ago, evangelical Christians represented a mere 2% of Latin America's population. Today, that figure has soared to 25%, with some Central American nations approaching an equal balance between Catholic and Protestant believers. Brazil alone—representing half of South America geographically and demographically—sends approximately 40,000 cross-cultural missionaries globally, making it the third-largest missionary-sending nation behind only the United States and South Korea.
For mission organizations and church leaders, this new reality requires what might be called "radical, uncommon kingdom collaboration"—a willingness to sit at the table as equals with those who were once the recipients of mission efforts. It means recognizing that powerful theological insights and missiological innovations are emerging from the Global South. Most importantly, it reminds us that fulfilling the Great Commission demands character-driven leadership that mobilizes believers across cultural boundaries.
Resources:
Comibam - https://comibam.org/es
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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:Hello and welcome to the History Makers Leadership Podcast. My name is Daniel and I'm excited again to be joined by Norval Norval, you know we love serving Christian leaders because, well, the call of the Great Commission remains so clear, so bold in front of us Three billion people who have never even heard the name of Jesus, so many who are hopeless, lost like sheep without a shepherd. And we remember Christ's call to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more workers out into the harvest field. You and I just returned not long ago from an event called Commie Bomb and you'll help us maybe understand a little bit of this, but I feel like I witnessed history in the making.
Speaker 2:I feel like I witnessed a kind of transitional, transformational moment in the history of the big C church right, the global bride of Christ, because I witnessed a group of men and women who are deeply passionate, full of zeal to see the name of Christ known among every nation, language, tribe and people, and it was coming from a part of the body of Christ that, at the turn of well, I guess not the last century but the one before that there just wasn't as much evangelical presence. In the 1900s, latin America had some estimate maybe 50,000 evangelical Protestant believers, and yet in the year 2000, that was over 60 million man. There's been a transformation happening in that mission field. Tell us a little bit about this event. Tell us a little bit about what you witnessed and maybe some of the history you know behind it Well.
Speaker 3:I am from Latin America or Ibro-America. First of all, comibam. What is Comibam? Comibam is in Comibam. Comibam is, in Spanish and Portuguese, a cooperation between of of for missions, cooperation for missions in Ibero-America, and Ibero-America refers to the part of American continent that was colonized by Spain and Portugal.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So, and it includes those two countries. So, basically, comibam is all of the missionaries, missionary agencies, a lot of denominations, and men and women who, as you said, want to make the Christ known all over the world and fulfill the Great Commission and serve in the name of Christ, who hail and serve in Portugal, spain, and then everything, as we say, south of the border, from Mexico all the way down to Patagonia and Argentina, speaking Spanish and Portuguese. Okay, so it doesn't include the Caribbean nations that speak English or French or that. Sure, sure. And it all started. It's very interesting because when it started in Brazil, I was a young man in my formational years, and my father and another friend were part of the first conversations. That started in the early 1980s.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, we witnessed history in the making in 2025, but that is part of a process that started in 1985. There you go so many, many years ago, and it came from a group of visionaries that saw something that we have begun to realize in the early 2000s, two things that were happening. First of all, as you said, latin America has become this massive continent of evangelical and Protestants where, they say, the center of gravity of the Christian faith is moving from United States and Europe to what we call the global south. Yes, that is the Latin American continent, the sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. So the growth of Christianity in Africa is explosive Unreal. The growth of Christianity in many parts of Asia is also explosive, yes, and in Latin America, which is the region we're talking about today, as you said, it's just exploded in growth.
Speaker 3:I have another statistic, in percentages, that 100 years ago, the American continent south of the border was, at best, 2% of Protestants and Evangelical Christians. Okay, 2%, 2% 100 years ago. Today we're about 25%. Wow, praise God, with some countries in Central America quickly approaching half and half Catholics and Protestants. Again, remembering that Latin America is historically a Roman Catholic continent, is historically a Roman Catholic continent. Brazil is around that 25%, 26%, with the expectation that, maintaining the current trends, it'll be half and half in 2050. Wow, so half of Brazil will be evangelical Protestants, about half of it will be Catholic. There's always the nuns and other religions and all of that, but if you think about Christianity, it'll be half and half. So with that comes the second trend, the second move, which is a beautiful move. The global South has began to look at itself, or the church in the global South has, just because I happen to see the river at this point and you know, the river at the real source in the stream.
Speaker 2:in some of those early moments this feels like a real coming of its own maturing again, a transformational moment for the global church, where what I witnessed was men and women standing up and saying I'm not just going to co-labor in the Great Commission, I'm willing to stand up and lead this Great Commission effort and help to mobilize the church here to not be purely recipients but to be participants in this great calling.
Speaker 2:And I think that's really the story of individual believers, right People who have you know, who attend church, and they do. They come in as a consumer, just coming to hear or to learn or to discover who Christ is. But upon that discovery and upon the transformational work of the Spirit of God in them, they suddenly begin to realize this great calling, this great purpose to which we have been given, not only to glorify God but to proclaim the death, burial and resurrection of Christ to all peoples and the value that that message has to give, even of our own lives. And so I was just so taken aback by I guess I just didn't realize how strong the missional movement and the missional mindset of our brothers and sisters there in the global South, and man, it was so encouraging. It was so encouraging to see.
Speaker 3:It's beautiful to see. Of course, still, the largest missionary force in the world is still the American church. That's true, the largest missionary force in the world is still the American church. That's true, uh, but right next to it, believe it or not, are the Koreans, the South Koreans, um, and then number three is Brazil. Um, um. Some estimations are as large as 40,000 missionaries out of Brazil into the rest of the world.
Speaker 2:And this is cross-cultural missionaries, cross-cultural missionaries.
Speaker 3:And then the rest of Latin America and you've got to understand Brazil, population-wise and land-wise, is half of South America.
Speaker 3:So, it's a much larger country than all the others, so the rest of Latin America also has a significant number of missionaries in the thousands that they are sent over around the world. And Daniel, one of the interesting things, and Daniel, one of the interesting things Ibero-America if we want to use the expression they use, senses a vocation to the least reached regions of the world. First of all, we are brown, okay, and so we blend in better. Sure, in many places, okay, yeah, latins are economically closer to the parts of the world that are in greatest need, and we're talking about the so-called 10-40 window, between latitudes 10 and 40.
Speaker 3:It's a big rectangle where most of the people that haven't been reached with the gospel are, where the major religions of the world reside Hinduism, buddhism and Islam and where also there where some of the greatest economical challenges are poverty and all of that, and so that proximity helps Latins greatly and they have a sense of calling to this part of the world. When you talk to people who do missions, strategize missions or pray for missions in Latin America, you will see a passion for these least reached parts of the world, which is beautiful because that's where the need is, you know, even though Europe has become again a mission field. That is also a lot. There's a lot of missionaries there, but it's this passion for the areas of the world that still haven't had. Even 2,000 years after the resurrection of Christ, haven't had the opportunity to even hear about Christ.
Speaker 2:Well, seeing their zeal for that, and I think you're right. I mean there are, of course, some physical similarities. I think there's some. You know, in the West we have a highly individualistic culture and that's not always the case in those 1040 windows and some of those unreached places a little more collectivist, and certainly some of those cultural things there's less power, differential because of the economic differential, and so an ability to, to connect or relate, uh, but man, I did. I saw uh, that heart for really the Muslim world, uh, and for uh uh believers to to from Latin America, from the Ibero-American context, to step in, to go and to mobilize and to be a part of the mission, of what God's doing there and in their midst. You know, from a larger global perspective, this really had me asking questions and kind of thinking as a global missions organization, as a global missions movement at ILI I was reflecting on what a great blessing it is that from our founding you, wes, the founding team, really helped to set us on a trajectory of local leadership that would allow for these kinds of movements to take place.
Speaker 2:I think you know one of the common themes we're seeing Norval in this moment in, like church missiological history. We talked about polycentric missions after Lausanne and then we're seeing it here, right, everywhere to everywhere, this idea of the whole body of Christ seeking to work in communion to accomplish the whole work that has been put in front of us. You know, if I'm leading some kind of a cross-cultural missions initiative or effort from the West, what would be some of your thoughts about what that looks like, about the connection into my Latin American teams? How should the seeing this coming-of age moment, as if to call it that and I don't mean to demean what's happening in Latin America by calling it a coming of age, but how should that impact the way? As a Western missions leader, I should look at what's happening there.
Speaker 3:How should I be interacting? You know what's interesting is, you use the expression coming of age. Well, um, what's coming of age is actually the global missionary movement. There you go, and so, um, we have been, we have I. I have been personally participating in a number of of events since last year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that gather believers, comiban was just the last one Just one of them yeah, just the last one that we went and polycentrism, polycentric missions, the idea that there is a new paradigm of the mission of the church and I heard this expression that I, interestingly enough, I hadn't heard enough it's from the West to the rest was kind of the old paradigm of missions, the West being Europe and the United States From the West to the rest. That's the traditional model. Today we talk about a model of from everywhere to everywhere, and that requires. The other thing that we've been talking about and we've heard a lot about is collaboration.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I love the way you put it, Daniel. You say radical.
Speaker 2:Uncommon kingdom collaboration. There you go. That's what I sense God is calling us to at ILI, for sure, yeah, uncommon, because it's different than what's been done before.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's kingdom because it's upside down. Yeah, because it's radically different than what the world views as even collaboration, and it's collaboration because everybody sits at the table with equal voice. One of the organizations that we have interacted with at Comiban is this global table.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:They call it Mesa Global. That's right In Spanish, and it's an organization that seeks to facilitate putting people at the table and having a conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Now one of the things for the Western church. For us in the West and I consider myself I've been living in the United States for 22 years, so for us in the West it's going to be we may have to learn how to sit at the table with people that used to be the target of our mission. So it's like having your you have to use that expression because it's like having your child come of age, yeah, and all of a sudden now you're at the table on equal grounds and maybe they're better than you in some things. Right, Personal experience Okay, my father was a great man that raised me as a Christian kid, taught me some things, disciplined me. He was stern and harsh.
Speaker 3:In the 1990s, when I served as a missionary in Paraguay, I served under him. Now he was my boss, but I had missiological training. I had just finished a master's in missions and cross-cultural communication. So now we're sitting and I became sort of his missiologist. He he would, you know, brainstorm ideas and I would bring cultural perspective and cross-cultural experience to it. So I had this interesting experience of sitting at the table with my father right as a peer. Now, professionally and speaking in terms of the mission field, that's kind of the new world needs to be a table where you know former missionaries that birthed the Christian movement in these countries have now to listen to them and listen to their insights, and there's a lot of good theology coming out of Africa.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of good theology and missiology coming out of Latin America and if we sit together at the table, I think it'll be much better for the global kingdom movement, for the kingdom forward Good scholarship, good thinking coming out of Latin America, coming out of Africa more broadly, a couple of new academic journals, even in missiology and theology more broadly, just for the kind of markers that those are in the development of the church in those parts of the world. But I was, I was taken aback by just how strong that movement was there in Latin America and it was humbling. It was humbling to see, it was really educational for me personally, my own spiritual growth and development as well, as you know, as a leader in an international organization and movement. I'd be curious what some of your kind of key thoughts or takeaways from that time together would be. Some that stood out to me.
Speaker 2:One I saw how some ministries were having to make some shifts. A Spanish language institute that is used to taking missionaries from the West, teaching them Spanish and then sending them into the field, now suddenly bringing in Spanish speakers, teaching them English so that they can, you know, be sent back into some of these Western contexts, or teaching Arabic so that they could be sent back into, you know, the Arab world. You know shifting and saying, hey, we used to receive to send out, but now we're taking the sent ones from here and sending them out and man that takes a perspective shift right. It's a little bit of, you know, a dynamic shift in that regard, and so that was something I took away was okay, that's going to. You know, the future of mission is going to require some organizations to be open to those kinds of shifts and to ask the Lord, okay, what does it look like when you know we're receiving missions partners and missions teams and those kinds of things cross-culturally from other parts of the world?
Speaker 2:And then I was also taken aback at the importance and the value of just the ILI global family and community. You know, it was really humbling to see how, you know, among the leaders of this movement there were so many that pointed to ILI as formational for their own leadership and their own development right, how that has helped to solidify a passion for the harvest and provide for them a means of equipping other local leaders, not only for their local bodies but also, ultimately, those who would be sent and the connections that that provides as they're sending right. You know, we talked to one brother who's looking at a nation in Central Asia that he knows some missionaries are going to be sent to and we're able to sit in kind of this connecting point to help bring that bridge and say, hey, we know some other people in that country, let's be this common communion, if you will, will. And so to see that, to be reminded that there's one church, the Bride of Christ, and to see that church coming together in communion around this great commission, was just so inspiring.
Speaker 3:Well, you're right about it being a time of a lot of change. We talk to I'm thinking, right off the top of my head at least two or three organizations that had to reinvent themselves, you know, because we have these encounters that have had to totally reinvent themselves in the last, probably since COVID, because what COVID did was a reset for a lot of people and organizations, and then it gave us the opportunity to think. And then, of course, the emergency of artificial intelligence and this connected, yet solitary and isolated world of social media and the internet, and all of that, all of this has created situations that political situations around the world that have forced, in some cases, some organizations have been better at it because they were more proactive, but everybody, everybody, almost everybody, is having to reinvent themselves. And then, all of to all of that, the idea of polycentric missions, of everybody sitting at the table and discussing together. Comiban is an evidence of that, is a great evidence of that. And, just like Luzon before, it was for me to see that, it was really me to see, that, it was really beautiful to see. And the other thing that you said is about that surprised both of us and is how much presence we have in Latin America, and that is thanks in great part to a couple of our leaders. Yeah, amen, ramiro Martinez, our Latin America director, who has done an amazing job at exposing people in different parts of the continent. And because he is part of this missionary movement as well, he's a missions mobilizer, missionary movement as well. He's a missions mobilizer and so that has exposed us to a lot more people.
Speaker 3:And when we come to an event like this, we see a lot of alumni, a lot of people who at least know about us. It was a very common theme at our booth that people would come and say it was a very common theme at our booth that people would come and say, oh, ili, ely, yes, I know Ely, and so all of that was very encouraging. And then another person, another great connector, was Antonio Vasquez, tony Vasquez Tony, as we call him, is a Salvadorian, lives in the Pennsylvania right now who for 15 years at least, has been a great connector. Every time I meet him in one of these events, he's got somebody and he says you got to meet this guy. And he tells them you got to meet this, you got to know about this, ili, and it just helped us have a stronger presence in the continent.
Speaker 3:And throughout this conversation, daniel, I'm thinking whatever we talk about missions, whatever we talk about evangelizing, reaching the world, leadership is at the heart of it. That's right. One of the big conversations that I've been having with leaders from different parts of the world is how the world and the church needs men and women of character. Yes, men and women of character, passion and integrity. That's right. Who will mobilize the church to complete the task? Amen. It's almost embarrassing that 2,000 years after the resurrection of Christ, two-thirds of the world, or one-third of the world, hasn't even heard of him yet. Yeah, to accelerate that rate of reaching people, exposing people to the truth of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Amen, that because he rose from the dead, he is God incarnate and we should surrender to him our lives, and so that's the gospel in its essence and that's the message that a third of the planet still needs to hear, no question.
Speaker 3:And so and we're excited to be part of this as we equip leaders All of this requires men and women who will mobilize the church, equip the church and then lead the way, go ahead of them in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 2:Well, that's why we do what we do. That's why we have committed our lives to serving in this way. I think there is no greater example of the leadership crisis that we face today than the fact that the clear mission that God has given us remains unfulfilled. And it is such a testimony, again, to the work of God through this movement that so many there in Latin America can point to ILI as a part of that story for themselves that they would testify to that. And I just say praise God that he chooses to use us to be a part of that journey.
Speaker 2:And maybe you're a leader out there in the world that's looking for some kind of a resource. You see that the mission or vision that God has given you is bigger than your own equipping. I want you to know that the International Leadership Institute is here. We want to serve, equip, mobilize you. We believe that the gospel accelerates as men and women are equipped with the eight core values of the most effective Christian leaders. More than some level of charisma or some level of credential Christlike character is necessary for the kingdom to advance, for the people of God to be mobilized and for the work of God to be accomplished.
Speaker 2:So I want to encourage you check out iliteamorg, listen to some of these other podcasts that we've recorded. Connect with our teams in your nation so that we can help equip you and your community to advance the gospel Norval, it was such a pleasure to sit and talk and reflect on what God's doing in Latin America. Brother, I'm excited because I believe the future of the church is happening right now and they are helping to lead the way, and it's incredible leaders, like you said, like Tony, like Romero and Claudia, like Hugo Matas, like so many others, that are really being used by God to lead the way, and so I celebrate that with you, brother.
Speaker 3:And we get a privilege of being part of it. Man, how awesome.
Speaker 2:What a ride. Yeah, amen, amen, praise God, amen.