Churches Transforming Communities
Daniel and Helen Bravo firmly believe that local churches are God’s answer for a suffering world. Fundación Doulos supports local churches and grassroots faith-based initiatives. They write, “Our passion is to see local churches committed to their calling and mission to follow Jesus, serving where the need is greatest. We believe that if churches receive the necessary training and mentoring and are helped to establish key partnerships for sustainability in their missional efforts, they will be healthy, growing churches. They will proclaim, witness, and live the gospel in a way that brings integral transformation to the communities they serve.”
About The Doulos Foundation – Fundación Doulos
In Colombia, the Lord is establishing a nationwide movement of churches mobilized into mission using holistic strategies. These meet the physical and spiritual needs of their poor communities, including refugees. Plataforma Iglesias que Transforman Comunidades (Churches Transforming Communities) seeks to encourage partnerships and facilitate the flow of integral resources to mobilize, train, equip, coach, resource, and send pastors, leaders, and their teams into their local communities.
These strategies include church planting, integral mission with urban refugees, sports and arts, business development, engaging the church with local government and civil society, humanitarian aid, and support. This is a movement that seeks to put Jesus at the center of all we do: making disciples that incarnate the gospel, and encouraging churches to engage their communities to seek justice and transformation, and to value the diversity of the contexts in which they serve.
The Platform wants to "close the gap” and fill specific needs of churches and leaders through:
*Church-Community Mobilization (CCM) process: This provides churches with the necessary orientation to reflect on their missional calling from a scriptural perspective. It also guides them in the process of connecting with their communities through oriented activities that can be sustainable over time.
*Strategies of Church-Community Mobilization: As churches gain an understanding of the process of how they can be mobilized to serve and connect with communities, they will have strategies to ease that connection, depending on their context and the communities' most pressing needs. Six strategies include 1) Business as Mission; 2) Sports, Recreation and Arts 3) Water, Hygiene and Sanitation 4) Advocacy 5) Stewardship of Creation and 6) Ministry towards Migrant Groups.
Fundación Doulos has had the privilege of starting this movement and is currently seeking to form partnerships with like-minded organizations and individuals - churches, Christian based NGOs, mission agencies, and others to join this movement and contribute with resources that enhance the capacity of local churches and leaders all over Colombia with the future potential to expand to other countries in the region. Daniel and Helen are currently praying for the resources to organize an upcoming meeting/conference in May 2023 with pastors and leaders from churches and organizations in Colombia.
You can learn more on this link: http://www.fundaciondoulos.org/
