Keywords
Evangelism, integral growth, National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, church growth, leaders, missiology, Johannes Verkuyl, Orlando Costas, theological education, Fuller Theological Seminary, Reformed Church in America, Mayan churches.
Abstract
I have lived a life invested in the growth of the church and forming leaders who would mobilize the church toward growth. I have sought to pay forward what others did for me. Born of missionary parents, I was raised in the state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. From 1973 to 1985, my wife, Jean, and I served the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico in Chiapas, Mexico, in leadership formation, training evangelists, pastors, and teachers of rapidly growing churches. In 1981, I received a Ph.D. in missiology under Johannes Verkuyl at the Free University of Amsterdam. I taught Mission Theology in Michigan for three years and for twenty-seven years at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. From 2000 to 2025, Jean and I founded and led a ministry that provided PhD-level theological formation for Latin American leaders throughout Latin America.
Recommended Citation
Van Engen, C. (2026). My Pilgrimage in the Growth of the Church. Great Commission Research Journal, 18(2), 101-144. Retrieved from https://place.asburyseminary.edu/gcrj/vol18/iss2/7
Included in
Christianity Commons, Practical Theology Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons
