Dear Ricardo and Beth,

Have you ever developed a plan only to have the plan changed? Well, that happened to us with the Strategic Planning Retreat, and it was nothing short of BEAUTIFUL! 

When we began planning the retreat nearly a year ago, our plan was to evaluate what we had accomplished for God within the Latin American Area in the past two years and make plans for the next two years. We were going to provide teaching about cross-culture ministry, conduct a SWOT analysis of our main teams, develop strategic plans the next two years, of course worship together, and more. None of the plan was bad BUT as time passed God lead us in a different direction and so we scrapped the old plan and allowed Him to shape a new plan.

During our sabbatical last year, Ricardo began reading “Pursuing God’s Will Together,” by Ruth Haley Barton. Through that book God invited us to create that culture in Latin America. We know this cannot happen unless every member of the team is committed to spiritual practices that allows them to listen to the Holy Spirit through prayer and reading the Scriptures. Those disciplines make us more sensitive to the voice of God and it is then we can become people of discernment. When the whole group learns to discern God’s will, we can do it together as a team and move from being simply a Christian organization to become a spiritual community.

And so, when 28 key leaders of the Free Methodist Church in Latin America and Impact Latin America met in Manizales, Colombia from February 5 – 12 we began that process. Together we learned about and put-into-practice spiritual disciplines. The Holy Spirit was present every step of the way, guiding and leading us to become a spiritual community! On the last evening, we signed a covenant which states in the preamble:

This covenant, established with God and with each other, is intended to express our mutual commitment to be a community made up of people who depend upon the Holy Spirit, with lives marked by the abundant use of spiritual practices and healthy relational practices, which allows us to intentionally discern and listen to God to effectively unite us with His purposes.

We know that we cannot create a culture in one retreat. Our desire to help establish the foundation upon which we can grow. The seven points of the covenant will put us in the right direction so that within a year or more of seeking God’s direction, through daily individual and spiritual practices, we will become a spiritual community together. We are very thankful to Tricia Mason, our spiritual formation coach, who coached us as we prepared for the retreat and redesigned the plan. She will also coach us throughout the year to continue to cultivate this culture.

We invite you to pray for the whole team as we share these practices with the rest of our colleagues in Latin American to create a true culture of discerning God’s will together. This will better position us to continue participating more effectively with God in the restoration of Latin America.