About Us
ACTS Beyond is a nonprofit organization seeking to Advance Christianity in the Caribbean and Latin America.
What Does ACTS Beyond Mean?
The book of Acts in the Bible records the expansion of the gospel in the early days of the church. The purpose of the book is to narrate the history of the early church through the ministry of the Apostles.
We chose the name ACTS inspired by the book of the Bible, and the acronym means Advancing Christianity through Theological Education and Service. We want to advance the gospel in both Word (i.e., teaching Bible and theology) and deed (i.e., providing relief work as necessary). Theological education in Latin America is the biggest vehicle to accomplish the Great Commission.
The book of Acts has 28 chapters. We chose the word Beyond to remind us that the church continues with the glorious commitment to expand the gospel to the end of the earth and beyond the 28th chapter of the book of Acts. The word Beyond in our case symbolizes the Caribbean and Latin America.
Therefore, ACTS Beyond implies our calling and responsibility to expand the gospel through theological education and service in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Why We Started
In March 2011, the Lord put in Aris Sanchez’s heart, during a spiritual retreat, to advance God’s kingdom through sound theological education in Latin America. This burden and calling redirected Aris’ life, leaving his career as a Chemical Engineer and going back to school to obtain a Master of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary to train as a pastor and professor.
Five years later, in March 2016, Aris met with the late Dr. Manny Ortiz who shared a similar passion for Latin America. Dr. Ortiz introduced Aris to a few pastors and leaders in Santiago, the Dominican Republic (DR). Later that year, Aris traveled with Debra Ortiz-Vasquez to Santiago to meet the pastors and scope out their needs. During this visit the ministry and mission started to take shape.
Also in 2016, Dr. Bruce and Anne McDowell visited Santiago after being strongly encouraged to go by a few friends working there. Both Bruce and Anne left there feeling like it was a great fit with our experience (careers in missions and teaching), background (Bruce raised in Paraguay), and vision for future ministry. The warm reception we received made us feel at home. Upon visiting again with Rev. Aris Sanchez in early 2018, Bruce was asked by the organizing committee of pastors to become President of the new seminary and Aris the General Director.
The need for the gospel in the DR was and still is staggering with over 11 million citizens. Only about 1.6 million are considered evangelical Christians.
Dominicans are very relational, friendly, passionate people who are receptive to the gospel. This provides a fertile ground for evangelism and an opportunity to expand the gospel.
However, roughly 85% of evangelical pastors in the DR have no formal theological education or training.
Most of the existing pastors are bi-vocational, first generation pastors who are self-taught. There are no opportunities in areas around Santiago for aspiring pastors and leaders to be trained and equipped for ministry.
There is an immediate need for preparing a second generation of qualified, trained and equipped pastors and leaders.
The DR needs godly leaders to build the church and transform the world for Christ, and these leaders need to be trained with sound doctrine so that they can teach others.
We started and were founded in response to the need for sound, biblical theological education throughout Latin America (starting in the DR) and in response to the Apostle Paul’s exhortation in 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.”
Our Mission
Our mission is to be a center of holistic ministerial formation that provides sound and excellent biblical theological education, contextualized to Latin America, to bring transformation through Christ.