Around 150 Christian leaders Haitians and Dominicans gathered with IRD and RCA leaders to know “The Vision, the Mission & the History” of the Dominican Reformed Church (IRD).
Rev. Andrés Serrano started the conference giving his gratitude’s to God for allowing the RCA to be in the Dominican republic, after many years of preaching over the radio about RCA system, he’s seen his dreams come true for the Dominican Republic..
Rev. Bruce Menning also thanked for the opportunity to be present at the memorable occasion for the RCA and the IRD and for being part of that movement of the Holy Spirit. He expressed that what was happening in the DR was something historically, never seen before in the RCA.
Rev. Jon Norton welcomed all the guests and saw very good relationship between RCA and IRD in the coming future. He also expressed his joy to see so many leaders united hoping to be part of this movement of the Spirit of God.
Rev. Brígido Cabrera expressed with joy in his heart for this big achievement in the Dominican Republic, hoping that the vision and mission presented have touched the hearts of everyone to improve the quality of living for the Dominican pastors and leaders as well as Haitians.
Rev. Victor Castro welcomed everyone ad also wished good relations between the IRD and all the pastors and leaders summoned.
The conference was presented by three of the IRD members:
- Rev. Elizardo Gonzalez: Presenting “The History and beginning of the IRD”. Explaining that the original idea God gave it to Victor Castro, after listening to the preaching’s of Andres Serrano about the RCA system, wished to have a system like that in the Dominican republic; so he shared his idea with Andres Serrano, who smiled and liked it very much, thus becoming the pioneer voice to bring the RCA to the Dominican republic along with Brígido Cabrera; both worked together to convince the RCA leaders with the leading of the Spirit of God to create what we are seeing today “The IRD” in other words, the representation of the RCA denomination in the Dominican republic by the IRD.
- Rev. Yeral Ogando: Presented “IRD’s Vision”. Expressing the need of the Dominican republic to import “the structure, government system and pastoral protection” of the RCA. Explaining that in our country pastors and leaders spend their lives working for God, but at the end of their days, they find themselves alone, without help, without a pension or retirement plan; thus having to go and look for a job to support their families such as construction or sales on the street. He was also explaining the lack of a solid theology for the leaders to follow, so our juveniles could have a guide of faith in the future and not a diversity stream of thoughts like now; where every church has its own beliefs, therefore we need to adopt “The Reformed Theology” and apply it to our context. Showing his expectations for the better ration ship between Dominicans and Haitians churches; hoping that in the next 50 years 50% of the churches in the Dominican Republic will be part of the IRD system.
- Rev. Ignacio Diaz: Presented “IRD’s Mission”. In his expositions he said that one of the main goal of the IRD was to create:
- A Reformed Theology
- A better quality of living for pastors and leaders
- A better structure
- A better government system.
After the presentations there was a moment for the question, where most of the leaders wanted to know when the IRD would be ready to start receiving churches, ministries and leaders. Others profited the occasion to thank God for the presented vision, commenting “WE’VE BEEN PRAYING FOR MANY YEARS FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS” or just giving glory to God.