With Ibero-American world mission leaders gathered in Panama City, for comibam 2025, one veteran voice provided a long view of the movement’s development, challenges and future. David Ruiz, former executive director of both Comibam and the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission, sat down with Christian Daily International on April 22-25, looking back at the growth and path ahead of the mission in Latin America over 40 years.
With deep roots in local church ministry and continental mobilization, Lewis has built lifetime structures and relationships to help Latin America establish its position on its global mission. In the interview, he shared his personal journey into the mission, insights from Comibum’s formative years, and his vision of how Latin American churches can continue to respond to great committees in an increasingly complex global context.
Grassroots call
Lewis’ missionary journey began unexpectedly in the early 1980s when a local church in Guatemala led by theologian and strategist Dr. William Taylor began to grasp the biblical command of global outreach. “In 1983, our church had a change in understanding,” Lewis said. “In Latin America at the time, there was little infrastructure or imagination to send missionaries, but we began to seriously consider reaching people who weren’t.”
This awakening came before the establishment of formal training or institutions in the area. “We were pioneers in a context where there was no roadmap,” he added.
Eventually, members of his church helped to begin the planning process for what would become the comibam Cooperación Miseeraiberoamericana. This is a joint mission platform for Latin America, Spain and the Latin Diaspora. Lewis later became a pastor of that same church during what he called the “golden age” of mission involvement. “It wasn’t about me,” he emphasized. “The church was already capturing its vision. We became a model for how Latin American churches can engage globally.”
The growing role of the church in local mission movements has increased Lewis’ opportunities to demonstrate leadership. He was invited to serve as Executive Director of Comibum, where he led both strategic council and internal reassessment processes to help shape the movement’s long-term identity and mission.
In 2000, Lewis became executive president. He then played the role of top leadership. “The Lord has given us the privilege of helping us plant 23 national mission moves across Latin America,” he said. “It was an era of incredible growth and integration.”
He clarified the three pillars that are central to Comibum’s identity. The centrality of the local church on the mission. The unsupportive but non-dominant role of mission agencies. and the need for training centres to equip churches for effective intercultural involvement. “These three components helped the movement gain maturity and traction across the region,” he said.
Share lessons outside of Latin America
After completing his term at Comibam in 2006, Ruiz took on a new mission as Associate Director and later Executive Director of the World’s Evangelical Alliance Mission Committee. There he sought to contextualize the lessons he learned in Latin America for other parts of the world.
“I had the opportunity to visit countries in East Africa and Eastern Europe and share the models we developed,” he said. “In some places, they tried to adapt those insights to their own reality.”
Lewis then returned to oversee the mission agency (Avante Espanyol) and was accompanied by a new mission. Not only that, they will send missionaries from Latin America. “We have begun the process of recruiting, training and sending Latinas at the end of the planet,” he said.
However, when he tried to expand the job, he encountered a serious obstacle. “We realized that many churches are not ready to send,” he said. “They lacked the vision, structure and theology of their mission.” That discovery led him to launch the Missionary Church Network, an interdenominational platform aimed at helping the church understand their role in God’s global mission. “We work directly with the pastor to help us see the vision of the Bible and take practical steps to send the church,” he said.
Movement during transition
Returning to Panama for the 2025 Comibum Conference, Lewis provided a historically informed perspective as one of the elders of the movement. He pointed out that today’s Comibum looks quite different from what he helped shape it 20 years ago.
“There’s more variety now,” he said. “In our time, the main players were churches, mission institutions, and training centres. Today you are looking at drawing translations, ministry among the poor, indigenous people, and wider initiatives among people with disabilities. It’s exciting to see that expansion.”
He also believes that intergenerational transitions are ongoing. “Many of the leaders today were participants or junior staff in my time,” he said. “They are leading now, and that’s very encouraging. It shows the long-term investment outcome.”
At the same time, Lewis acknowledged that Comibum’s leadership faces new pressure today. “There is strong expectations from global and local organisations that want Comibam to support its agenda,” he said. “We’ve gone through it, but I think it’s getting more intense. I don’t want people to lead right now. It’s not easy to navigate those dynamics while trying to maintain the Indigenous vision.”
Lewis also suggested that the 2025 gathering represents a new stage in the movement’s lifecycle. “For many participants, this is their first Comibum meeting,” he said. “They don’t have the same history. For them, this event is not a continuation, but a starting point. It brings new energy, but that means reconstructing their identity from scratch.”
The struggle for north-south dynamics and mutuality
One of the broader challenges Lewis has addressed is the evolving relationship between the global North and South in the mission. As Latin America and other southern regions emerged as mission support forces, issues of power, expression, and mutual respect have come to the forefront.
“The good news is that the global church is beginning to realize what God is doing here,” Lewis said. “Leaders from Africa, Asia and others came to this parliament and observed and learned. It’s a sign of growing respect.”
He also noted the increase in Latin American leadership within global organizations. “Ratinos are now leading international organizations. That’s important. It shows that the region is not only sending missionaries, but also creating leaders of global heights.”
Still, he warned that certain colonial patterns would persist. “Some organizations see us as heirs to the movement that began in the North,” he said. “But that’s a wrong framework. The Lord is giving us a baton. Rather than handing it over, we are putting it anew for this generation. It’s not just their legacy, it’s our call.”
Lewis also expressed concern that Latin American voices are often removed from strategic planning conversations. “We’re invited to participate in the program, but not to shape our vision,” he said. “It’s a challenge. We need to move from token inclusion to meaningful partnerships.”
Plateau signs and post-mission drift
What stands out as Lewis’ main concern is what appears to be the stagnation of local church involvement. “The number of missionaries being sent is increasing, but we can see the plateau in the number of churches actively involved in the mission,” he said. “And in some cases, the church that once leaders of the movement are no longer sending it. It’s as if they’ve entered a post-mission stage.”
Lewis called this trend a profound and troublesome thing. “Between 1987 and the first Comibum today, the Latin American church grew very much,” he said. “But if that growth doesn’t lead to missionary involvement, we missed something important.”
He urged leaders to address the issue directly. “We need to ask why the church is retreating. Is it fatigue? Disillusionment? Lack of theological ground? Whatever the cause, we must awaken the church to a global calling.”
I’m looking for the future
As Comibam 2025 concluded, Ruiz outlined three hopes for the upcoming movement.
“First of all, I hope that this assembly will be seen as the beginning of the process, not just an event,” he said. “We hope that they will return to their churches and institutions with a new and challenging vision for the nations, especially for first-time participants.”
Second, he hopes Comibum will gain great respect and inclusion in the global mission conversation. “We should not be merely implementers, we should be at the table where strategies are shaped,” he said.
Finally, Lewis called for a new commitment to the centrality of the Church. “In recent years, there has been drift towards agency-led models,” he said. “But the church must be at the heart of the mission. That’s how God designed it. That’s what ensures the future of the movement.”
