{"id":406,"date":"2013-02-08T20:38:15","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T01:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/sander\/?p=406"},"modified":"2013-02-08T20:38:15","modified_gmt":"2013-02-09T01:38:15","slug":"breaking-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/sander\/2013\/02\/08\/breaking-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some old habits are hard to break. In the Church we call those old habits, \u201ctradition\u201d. So, some traditions are hard to break away from. In Colombia, within the Covenant, it is no different.<\/p>\n<p>For the past four years, officially, the Covenant of Colombia has been trying to break away from a tradition of working together through a \u201cgentleman\u2019s agreement.\u201d This \u201cgentleman\u2019s agreement\u201d was first talked about 20 years ago and put into place 17 years ago, after the first Covenant Church organization divided and disintegrated. The gentleman\u2019s agreement basically said that until a new Covenant Church organization was formed and was legally recognized by the Colombian government, all current and future Covenant Churches would seek their own official licenses and agree to work together, support one another, seek the common good together to expand the Kingdom of God and extend the Covenant throughout Colombia. It was a momentous decision, in 1996, and was duly celebrated. But, this gentleman\u2019s agreement faced many challenges\u2014one of which was that it became the modus operandi and the \u201ctradition\u201d which guided the Covenant. The last verse in the book of Judges, Judges 25:21, says, \u201cAt that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.\u201d That verse fulfilled the Covenant theme, \u201cwhere is it written,\u201d and seemed to be the biblical proof text for how the Colombia Covenant began to relate to one another. The gentleman\u2019s agreement was so broad and encompassing and flexible that it was hard to hold together. It depended on the good will of each Church to abide by it and when push came to shove, or when there was a disagreement, each one did what they thought best.<\/p>\n<p>Even though this challenge was present, the Covenant more than tripled in the number of Churches planted, social action ministries started, and extension in the country. God was moving in and through the Colombia Covenant. Still, there was a need to have everyone be legal, as stipulated by the Colombian government. Because of the \u201cgentleman\u2019s agreement tradition\u201d it took a miracle to get enough Churches (four of them) to form the FEDERATION OF COLOMBIA COVENANT CHURCHES \u2013 FIPEC in 2009. <a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2013\/02\/fipeclogo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-407\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2013\/02\/fipeclogo-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/sander\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2013\/02\/fipeclogo-300x180.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/sander\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2013\/02\/fipeclogo.jpg 865w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>And for the past four years Alvaro Escallon has led the official organization of the Churches, helping the majority of them to secure their own operating licenses (currently more than 35). At the current time, all but one Covenant Church has its license\u2014but not all of them are a part of the Federation. That is because a constitution guides the decisions made by the Covenant of Colombia and a constitution looks out for the Covenant. Under the constitution, the gentleman\u2019s agreement is no longer valid as a guide for Covenant and under the constitution, only those Churches which abide by the constitution are accepted into the Covenant &#8211; FIPEC. Every Church has had more than four years to \u201cbreak\u201d from tradition and join the Federation and be more committed to one another. But for some of them, it is hard to leave their independence and become interdependent.<\/p>\n<p>Alvaro Escallon finishes his term as the first president of the official federation \u2013 FIPEC in May of 2013. Javier Gomez was elected as the new president for the next four-year term. Alvaro brought the Covenant very far in the last four years. Javier\u2019s task is to consolidate everything and to keep the focus on church planting, kingdom extension and pastoral\/leader care. Quite a task, especially for Javier, who was a champion at sticking to the \u201cold tradition\u201d and fulfilling Judges 25:21. But, God has done some wonderful things in Javier\u2019s life through the years, and he is now a champion of the FIPEC Covenant of Colombia. We think that the next four years will be another testimony to God\u2019s blessings in Javier\u2019s life.<a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2013\/02\/IMG_5782.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-408\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2013\/02\/IMG_5782-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/sander?moderation_action=report_form&object_type=post&object_id=406&width=250&height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some old habits are hard to break. In the Church we call those old habits, \u201ctradition\u201d. So, some traditions are hard to break away from. In Colombia, within the Covenant, it is no different. For the past four years, officially, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/sander\/2013\/02\/08\/breaking-tradition\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Breaking Tradition - Walking Alongside Gary and Mary Lou Sander<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/sander\/2013\/02\/08\/breaking-tradition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking Tradition - Walking Alongside Gary and Mary Lou Sander\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some old habits are hard to break. In the Church we call those old habits, \u201ctradition\u201d. So, some traditions are hard to break away from. In Colombia, within the Covenant, it is no different. 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