Declaration of the Americas Denominational Summit
LATINOAMERICA 2000
Panama City, Panama, December 28-29, 1996
We, the participants of this historic meeting of leaders of different
denominations, representing diverse parts of the Body of Christ and being
conscious of the command of the Great Commission, declare:
- We understand God is "on mission" to redeem the lost world (Habakkuk 2:14; II
Peter 3:9), and He uses us, His Church, as His instruments for this purpose,
called to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Ephesians
3:10-11; I Peter 2:9);
- We came to Panama with the profound conviction that the Holy Spirit is
directing His Church in this juncture of history to unite our energies to
accelerate the fulfillment of the proclamation of the gospel to all peoples,
tribes, languages, and nations of the world. And here, having prayed together,
shared in fellowship, listened to testimonies and project reports and heard the
denominational initiatives from our western hemisphere looking toward the year
2000 and beyond; and having heard about the efforts to network, the desire for
unity, God's movement in the Americas focusing on evangelization and world
missions, and the enormous and marvelous prayer and coordination efforts to go
to the worlds unreached,
- We believe the Holy Spirit is guiding us, according to His mission, to act as
one body, expressed in many forms through the denominations and other Christian
organizations.
Now, having one mind and heart in our commitment to work together for world
evangelism towards the year 2000 and beyond, we, as members of different
organizations, declare our commitment to establish "A church for every people
and the gospel for every person by the year 2000." To fulfill this objective,
we call on every component of the Body of Christ to freely give our hands,
hearts, minds, and souls in the great cause of Jesus Christ and to pray for and
cooperate with others to present the gospel to the unreached, while respecting
each other's doctrinal convictions.
Also, we declare that, when we return to our own countries and organizations in
North, Central, and South America, we will encourage our denominations and
fellowships to consider the following actions:
- To prioritize focus on the peoples which do not have access to the gospel,
most of which are located in the area known as the 10/40 Window.
- To call our people to pray, acknowledging prayer as the central strategy,
crucial to reaching the objective mentioned before; to encourage our churches to
participate in prayer initiatives such as Praying Through the Window III in
October 1997, and March For Jesus, which will be held every year through AD
2000.
- To encourage our churches to take part in national initiatives, to cooperate
with the AD2000 Movement networks where they exist, and to encourage the
development of national Initiatives where they do not exist.
- To establish intercontinental fellowship links in order to share resources,
ministries, strategies, objectives and goals in order to avoid the duplication
of efforts and to facilitate the acceleration of the remaining task of
evangelization and world missions.
- To search for ways to accelerate missionary efforts from our denominations in
our work around the world, and the recruitment of a new missionary force
directed toward the unreached.
- To establish bridges of constant communication in order to support each other
as one body in our common goal to fulfill the Great Commission.
- To recommend to the national alliances of the Americas that they take this
torch, lighted at the Americas Denominational Summit of LatinoAmerica 2000, and
call for similar summits in their own lands, which will help to accelerate
commitment to the joint work of all vital forces within each nation for the
fulfillment of the Great Commission.
We make this commitment for the greater glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and
for the extension of His Kingdom among the millions who have not yet heard the
gospel.
Back to theAD2000 home page
Webmaster
1/6/97