September 22, 2004
By Hugo Livano

LIMA, Peru - The president of the Peruvian National Evangelical Council (CONEP) Pastor Carlos Jara identified the main challenges confronting the Peruvian Evangelical Church in the new millennium.

After pointing to the social and technological changes that have marked recent years, Jara noted that the Evangelical population in Peru has grown from 6.83 percent to 14 percent over the past decade. Peru has a population of 26 million.

On the other hand, he said, the Evangelical Church in the world, in particular in Latin America, in the past 20 years, has made important progress. The mega-Churches, the radio and television ministry, the theology of worship, different types of praise, among other things, create a new panorama that requires a careful analysis.

In Peru, said Jara, who is also national vice superintendent of the Assemblies of God, we not only have denominational Churches but a high percentage of independent Churches as well as diverse para-Church ministries. Parallel to this, modern theological currents have appeared that also require analysis and definition.

A proposal for political participation on the part of Evangelicals is also becoming more solid and there is an Evangelical presence in government sectors that were previously marked by little or no participation.

Of the above, said Jara in CONEP's bulletin, we can deduce that the challenges facing CONEP in this new phase are great and require re-engineering and working in unity and a strategic plan for the next 10 years.

CONEP must be linked to the Churches to be a part of them and avoid a situation where we are seen as an isolated and hierarchical institution. There is a need to update the statutes to make the entry of other Churches more feasible, to convene national consultations to see the progress of the Church and future challenges and to regionalize the Council to make it more representative. We must also continue our struggle for religious equality, both in the political Constitution and with laws that regulate without discrimination, said Jara.

The bulletin reports that as part of the process to modernize CONEP the most recent national assembly named a commission to elaborate a proposal to reform the statutes, which includes lawyers Jose Regalado and Elias Medina and Pastors Rafael Goto and Nelson Ayllon.

ALC News Service