GENERAL PURPOSE
This task force was formed in 1988 as an ad hoc "working
group" whose primary purpose has been to facilitate the
process of establishing a "permanent national research
function and resource center" (PNRF/Center) in as many
countries as possible, within the Latin America and Caribbean
regions during the 1990s.
One of our major goals is to assist in the production of an updated functional equivalent of the now famous study, Latin American Church Growth (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1969) by Read, Monterroso and Johnson. This study was done under the guidance of Drs. Donald McGavran and Alan Tippett of the School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary, from 1965-1968. This book has had a profound influence on the way North American missionaries have been trained and "mission work" has been carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1970. By contrast, few Latin American pastors are familiar with this study, although it was also published in Spanish (El Paso, TX: Casa Bautista de Publicaciones, 1970).
However, more than twenty years have passed since this innovative study was done, and its cutting edge is now dull. We believe that a new study needs to be done during the 1990s, with greater missiological depth and breadth as a joint venture between missionaries and national church leaders, both in terms of fieldwork and in the production of materials. As a first priority, documents should be created in the language of each country by and for the National Church, and secondly produced in English for the Church-at-large.
Our primary focus is on empowering a new generation of Latin American and Caribbean missiologists as agents for the renewal, revitalization, and integral growth of the Christian Church in the Americas, and for the training and mobilization of Christian workers as cross-cultural missionaries for service in all the world in obedience to the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We envision the implementation of this project on a country-by-country basis during the 1990s, depending on available human and financial resources. One way to facilitate the process of implementation would be to assign each member of our Task Force to one or more countries where he already has credibility with the national church leadership. His task would be to network with key leaders and help them think through the concept of a PNRF/Center, its implementation and support structure, including how to organize, fund and staff a "National Center for Research and Information on the Church and Society" (the actual name would be chosen by the national coordinating committee).
The immediate goal of this activity would be to help establish a PNRF/Center in each country with local ownership (board of directors or coordinating committee), minimum annual funding ($25,000-50,000), adequate staff (full-time or part-time personnel, permanent or on-loan), reasonable office space (rented or shared facilities), with a well-defined Action Plan for at least the first year of operation. Each of these PNRF/Centers would be linked with our LACGTF and with each other via e-mail on MAFxc (former known as CrossConnect), utilizing two conferences sponsored by the LACGTF: Brigada-research-LATAM (for the general public) and brigada-research-LACGTF (private for members and affiliates only). These two Brigada conferences are now operational (as of April 12, 1996).
Bob Waymire of Light International has produced the first "National Research Mobilization Handbook" (May 1993) that incorporates the concept of a PNRF (Permanent National Research Function) and gives guidelines for creating a "National Information Resource Center." Waymire is the international coordinator for the National Research Mobilization Network" for the AD2000 & Beyond Movement. Barbara Brian de Rojas translated this draft edition into Spanish for an international consultation, held in Costa Rica in October of 1992, that was sponsored by FEDEMEC (The Costa Rica Evangelical Missions Federation); this was the first Adopt-A-People Consultation held in Latin America, to our knowledge. Now, in conjunction with FEDEMEC, we have produced a second edition of Waymire's Manual in Spanish (April 1996), based on his revised English edition of January 1994. Previously, we had prepared a sample document, a Generic PNRF Project Proposal, based on "A NATIONAL STUDY OF THE PROTESTANT MOVEMENT: PUERTO RICO TODAY AND TOMORROW" (1992) to help us communicate the concept of the task that we have described above. Adaptations of this project proposal have been done for PNRF committees in the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and Costa Rica. 989.
CHAIRMAN: Clifton L. Holland Executive Director of IDEA-PROLADES, San Jose, Costa Rica
VICE-CHAIR: Dr. Daryl Platt, Member of International Team, O.C. Ministries/SEPAL, Colorado Springs, Colorado
MEMBERS:
ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBERS:
NOTE: THE LACGTF IS CURRENTLY INACTIVE AS OF SEPTEMBER 1997. PROLADES CONTINUES TO COORDINATE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AS TIME AND FUNDS PERMIT. FOR MORE RECENT INFORMATION, SEE THE LATIN AMERICAN RELIGION DIRECTORY PROJECT.
Clifton L. Holland, Executive Director
IDEA-PROLADES
Apartado 1524, San Pedro, Costa Rica, Central America
E-Mail: prolades@racsa.co.cr
The catalyst for the creation of the LACGTF was Clifton L. Holland, President of IDEA Ministries, who has resided in San Jose, Costa Rica since April of 1972. He was a missionary with the Latin America Mission from 1971-1989 and served on-loan to the International Institute for In-Depth Evangelization (INDEPTH) and the Missiological Institute of the Americas (IMDELA). As a staff member of INDEPTH, Holland founded and directed the publications dept. (Publicaciones INDEF), the research dept. (PROCADES = Central American Socio-Religious Studies Program), and IMDELA (the Missiological Institute of the Americas/School of World Mission). PROCADES has evolved into PROLADES (denoting the shift in emphasis from Central America to Latin America), and both PROLADES and IMDELA are now separate organizations with their own governing boards and self-supporting. IDEA Ministries, founded in 1981 as a non-profit organization in California, is the support arm for IMDELA and PROLADES: Dr. Paul J. Bergsma is the Director of IMDELA and Holland heads PROLADES. Under the auspices of PROLADES, Holland and his team have participated in research efforts in fifteen countries and have produced dozens of books and research documents. Although Holland resigned from the LAM in December of 1989, he continues to serve as President of IDEA Ministries and Director of PROLADES. In October of 1988, Holland convened the first meeting of the LACGTF on the campus of the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA; the meeting was hosted by Dr. Paul Pierson, then Dean of the SWM. (Revised April 12, 1996)