Colombia Church Planting

Meet Diana She is a native of Bogota, Colombia and a graduate of the National University of Colombia. During her university years, Diana got involved in a local chapter of RUF launched with the help of MTW missionaries Peter and Lauren Dishman. 

As Diana grew in her understanding of the gospel and church, she and many of her classmates sought church homes where they could bring their family and friends to grow in grace with confidence that the authority of Scripture and the centrality of Jesus and his grace would be clearly preached, taught, and lived out. But there was a problem — there were almost no churches like this in her home city.

The deep need for dynamic, gospel-centered churches in Bogota is what moved MTW Bogota missionaries and veteran national pastor and planter John Sandoval to begin to work toward establishing Resurrection Presbyterian Church. The church began worship services at the beginning of 2024, and in October of 2024 welcomed its first 38 members, including Diana and her entire family!

Resurrection Church is only the beginning of a larger vision to plant RUF ministries among the 131 campuses of the capital and Christ-centered churches in the 20 localities of the city.

Bogota’s 10 million inhabitants are typically bombarded with three gospels—the gospel of being “good” linked to the Roman Catholicism that was the official religion of the country until 1991, the secular gospel of finding the “good life” in this world, and the health and wealth gospel which offers an upper middle-class life to those who can muster enough faith to pull heaven down to earth.

Many are hungering for something deeper—Christian community that provides real hope for the challenges and suffering experienced in this life rooted in the Bible, centered on the person and work of Jesus and His grace, and offering the hope of the gospel to the city through deep and wide hospitality and sacrificial service.

Bogota needs more gospel-centered churches! And it needs your help to make this happen. 

The good news is that God has already been at work. RUF has been in Bogota for nine years and is poised to launch new ministries. John Sandoval moved to Bogota two years ago and has a strong vision for planting more Presbyterian churches. There are people currently in or on their way to Bogota who are perceiving a call to become the future planters and leaders of the campus ministries and church plants that the city needs.

Would you consider joining the work God is doing in Bogota, praying and providing needed resources for Resurrection and its work of gathering and equipping the saints and multiplying ministries in Bogota and beyond? We need to fund the church plant, buy and renovate a ministry center for which we already have a sizable grant, expand RUF internships to help folks from the US and Colombia discern and develop their callings, and provide mentored M.Div. level training for cohorts of future RUF campus ministers and church planters.

A few months ago, Diana joined MTW’s church planting team on the outskirts of Colombia’s second largest city to help develop an RUF-like college ministry for the sake of the church. When she returns in a year and rejoins the work in Bogota, wouldn’t it be incredible for her to find the work of the gospel significantly advanced? 

A gift today will go directly toward supporting Resurrection Church and future plants throughout Colombia’s capital.