United In Heart & Soul In Mexico

An update from Carlos Contreras, lead pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and SGC National Leader for Mexico...

I was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude this past May as we met with Pastors, Deacons and main leaders of 19 different churches from various parts of our country to spend 3 days in teaching, encouragement, prayer and fellowship. We do this retreat every year in the city of Guadalajara and it is always one of my year’s highlights.

This year was no exception, except for the fact that our gathering felt different. We met as a fellowship of men with one spirit and one mind. It was a joyful, humbling and intimate time. After doing this for close to 10 years, it was very evident that we are now a true family of churches, united in heart and soul. 19 churches were represented by 55 faithful men.

During the 3 days we heard reports and testimonies. Some were joyful reports of growth and answered prayer. A few others were reports of challenging times and trials of men that are truly heroes in building churches in hard places. But we all felt united in joy and pain, very much aware that we are all one body of churches as a nation.

We also had wonderful times of encouragement and teaching on our call to godliness in life and our marriages by pastor Hellman Avila from El Paso. Manolo Quintal from our church in Silao did a wonderful job as always as he spoke about God’s testing and pruning process in our lives. I also spoke on leading through our example from 2 Timothy 4:12 and encouraged the men to pray with much faith trusting that God is more than willing to hear his called men. Cuauhtemoc Campos our Executive Pastor served us in an extraordinary way on the challenges of men leading alone. We also had a panel session on biblical counseling, and Rich Richardson gave us a powerful message on the reality of spiritual warfare in the church.

We had wonderful times of fellowship as we broke out in groups to share about our Spiritual disciplines and our marriages and as we prayed for one another. And we shared much time just talking as friends and brothers. It was a joy to see men seeking out those that they did not know very well and leaving the retreat with new friends.

God is at work in Mexico building not just churches, but building a family of churches united with one heart and spirit. I am very grateful for all of those that prayed for our time together and look forward to further growth in that intimacy of our brotherhood in Mexico.