The Influencers Congress welcomed 56 educators from Guatemala and El Salvador at the end of March. Nazarene Youth International (NYI), Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM) and Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries (SDMI), teamed up to sponsor the event. In El Salvador the participants met March 21-23, and in Guatemala they met March 28-31.

Influencers was designed to provide effective tools for teachers and educators of children, teens and youth in local Churches of the Nazarene to make Christ-like disciplines, primarily through the influence they have on their students.

Several regional leaders shared with the two groups as well as Tim and Annette Gulick, who are youth leaders from the United States of America.  They creatively taught on a variety of themes, including: Forming significant relationships and effective teaching; Why do we need influencers?; Jesus as a model of influence; and Best practices for effective teaching.

The event worked with a foundation in the fundamentals of the teaching of Jesus.  They also taught using 4 C’s: Connect, Content, Concrete and Changes. The workshops were dynamic and relational.  All of the theory was put into practice.

The same training will be offered to teachers in the Mexico Central and South Districts in May.  Influencers will come to other fields of the Mesoamerica Region in the coming months.

Source: Odily Díaz, Mesoamerica NYI