The Impact of Preaching in South America
This story is Part Three of our year-end campaign: Equipping the Nations to Reach the Nations. As you read what God is accomplishing around the world, we invite you to partner in this ministry by supporting student scholarships with a year-end gift. Our goal is to raise $2.5 million by December 31 to continue equipping pastors across our 19 member schools.
From the remote peoples of South Africa, to the nomadic tribes of Mongolia, to the far reaches of the South American jungles, God’s Word is being proclaimed faithfully by the students and graduates of TMAI.
Yet the value of the reach comes from the potential for depth. And depth comes only from faithful preaching of sound doctrine.
All efforts of study, practice, preaching, shepherding, and personal maturing by the students of TMAI are for a purpose: transforming the lives of those they serve through the preaching of the Word. This is the transformation that brings dead to life, healing to the broken, wisdom to the futile, and joy to the weary world (Ephesians 2:1–10).
This is the work of the students and graduates of TMAI. They train so that they may be used as tools by God to rescue even one precious person.
Someone like one young woman in Colombia.
Thirsty for the Truth
In Colombia, there are churches in almost every neighborhood. Many, though full of good intentions, are tragically far from the faithful teaching of Scripture.
Abigail* once attended one of these churches. She shares with us,
“Before knowing the love of Christ, I was a woman with many fears, insecurities, and emptiness. I could not find happiness in anything, because I was quite influenced by the currents of this world.
Particularly, I used to say that I did not want to get married, that marriage was just a contract and that I did not need to get married to live with someone.”
Taken in by the lies of the world, the goodness of God’s design was lost on Abigail. But God, being rich in mercy, did not leave Abigail in the darkness (Ephesians 2:4). Instead, He would bring her to Himself by showing her first what she was missing.
“As time went by, I was invited to a charismatic church…In this church, young women went through a process called ‘leadership school.’ At the end of this process, they told us that we should open what they called ‘peace groups’ in our homes to preach the gospel, according to some topics the church would give us to teach.
Eventually, I began to notice that all the topics were focused on the same things: financial prosperity, how to be a brave and courageous woman. The message was essentially a very motivational one. By the grace of God, I began to look for different topics that focused on the word of the Lord and that would edify my life, but it was difficult for me because I did not know the Lord Jesus Christ and neither did I know His Word.”
“Hearing expository preaching for the first time, Abigail was stunned by the difference between worldly wisdom and Gospel truth.”
Abigail was hindered in her spiritual growth.
Like thousands around the world, she thought she was at a place that would teach her truth. But without sound doctrine and expository preaching, there are only empty words and ear-tickling (2 Timothy 4:3–4).
Like drinking saltwater, she was thirsty for the truth but left unsatisfied by a counterfeit. In a church devoid of true teaching, she would have lived her entire life falsely believing she was a true believer, had God not intervened. Hearing expository preaching for the first time, Abigail was stunned by the difference between worldly wisdom and Gospel truth.
“I was in this church for about three and a half years, until two people very special to me told me about a church of sound doctrine, Iglesia Biblica Cristiana de Cali (IBCC). By the mercy and kindness of the Lord, I arrived one Sunday at IBCC, and I was impressed to see how the Bible was read and explained verse by verse.
This made me think that it was the church where I really should be because I could hear an edifying preaching.”
This was the first time Abigail was truly edified by the truth of Scripture. This was the moment she realized what she had been missing.
And this was the local church where TMAI’s training school in Colombia, Seminario de Expositores (SEMDEX), professors and graduates lead and preach.
God Revealed in His Word
The Lord used the preaching of these men to grant Abigail true saving faith, “Every Sunday, I have been exhorted by the preaching, I have been convicted of my sins, and this has led me to repentance.”
Her testimony highlights a foundational truth: nothing will bring salvation or sanctification other than the Word of God.
Men trained to faithfully preach, teach, and shepherd unleash the Word of God on ready hearts, transforming lives and futures in the process.
Abigail adds, “In 2022, by the grace and mercy of the Lord, my husband—with whom I was starting a relationship at that time—and I had the opportunity to attend the conference ‘The Family According to the Heart of God.’ At that moment my perspective of my role as a woman changed.”
Once antagonistic to biblical roles, she now embraces God’s design for her—her future radically changed.
“In this wonderful church, the IBCC, I continue learning through the preaching…In this church I know the true love, the love of the Lord, His attributes that are infinite; He is the only wise, just, who knows all things, knows my thoughts and still loves me, who gave His life for me, who knows the number of my hairs, my tears, my needs.”
The God who knows all her needs was revealed to her through the faithful preaching of His Word.
The Impact of Faithfulness
Thousands of Colombians sit in pews every Sunday and do not hear what alone will give eternal life.
In Abigail’s testimony, the vital need for faithful preachers is seen. As the apostle Paul wrote, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14–15).
And TMAI is sending throughout the whole of the region.
With four member schools and thirteen countries with developing ministries in the Ibero-America region, the gospel of Jesus Christ is reaching the far corners of Central and South America.
“And at IBCC, the model for how faithful preaching nurtures maturity in a church is demonstrated, as congregants are being equipped to disciple and counsel on another.”
SEMDEX alone currently has 150 active students and 241 graduates, expanding from Colombia to Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Many of these students and graduates are preaching and teaching in urban areas, in Catholic-dominated cities, and to planning to extend ministry to underserved and unreached people groups.
In September, nearly 50 TMAI leaders of the Ibero-America seminaries gathered in Cali to share best practices, hear reports of what God is doing throughout the region, fill one another with deep joy, deepen the desire to invest efforts in training local church leaders, and open new ministry opportunities between seminaries.
At the two SEMDEX campuses, one in Bogotá and one in Cali, students from around the nation and beyond are obeying the call to be men faithful to preach the Word.
And at IBCC, the model for how faithful preaching nurtures maturity in a church is demonstrated, as congregants are being equipped to disciple and counsel on another.
“In addition to training counselors, we want to create a culture of counseling in our churches,” Santiago Armel, a professor at SEMDEX and one of the pastors/elders of IBCC tells us. “This begins by integrating preaching as the focal point for counseling all of God's people and then leading the entire congregation to the understanding that we are all counselors.”
Every believer is called to be a biblical counselor, to first counsel one’s self, then their brothers and sisters in Christ, with the truths of Scripture. This is how a mature body is built up in Christlikeness. And it all begins with the faithful preaching of sound doctrine.
A Work of Eternal Impact
By the graciousness of God, a life in a pew of a TMAI-led church was changed. Abigail finishes her testimony with the clarity of true, theological understanding, “It is He who sustains me, so today I can say that I love him and pray that He finishes the sanctifying work that He is doing in me.”
It is for futures like hers, both earthly and eternal, that TMAI exists. Through student scholarships, men in Colombia and across the world are being equipped with biblically sound training so they may lead their churches in obedience to Scripture and bring the gospel to those who have not yet heard.
Your year-end gift will allow these men in Colombia and beyond to receive biblically sound training and lead their churches in obedience to Scripture.
As we come to the close of this year, TMAI’s goal is to raise $2.5 million for student scholarships across our 19 member schools. Your year-end gift directly supports pastors who are eager to be trained but lack the financial means to pursue this calling.
We invite you to prayerfully consider making a year-end gift by December 31 at 11:59 PM PDT. Your generosity helps ensure that faithful pastors are trained, churches are strengthened, and lives like Abigail’s continue to be transformed by the Word of God.
*Name changed for security purposes