Raising up a Generation of Leaders
New Mission Partner: Jim and Annie Culp, Iglesias del Oeste
Recognizing that investing in leaders means the spread of the gospel in our community and beyond, Lakeside has remained committed to raising up leaders throughout its thirty-five-year history.
Twenty years ago, Pastor Brad invited several other Sacramento-area church leaders to join him in hosting a series of lunches for church planters and up-and-coming leaders. Jim and Annie Culp, who had recently founded a church in Chico, California, attended many of those lunches. Twenty years later, the Culps are now raising up a new generation of leaders in Latin America through their ministry Igelsias del Oeste, a new Lakeside mission partner.
“Training leaders is one of the most significant aspects of any kind of mission work,” Pastor Brad said. “When new leaders are developed and trained, they multiply the reach of the original missionaries. That’s exactly what our new mission partners Jim and Annie Culp are doing in Mexico and beyond. I’m so grateful to have them as Lakeside partners.”
After participating in some short-term mission trips to Mexico, Jim and Annie Culp felt God calling them to train leaders in the local churches of Mexico and of Latin America as a whole. Leaving their home and the church they planted in Chico, they moved to Mexico with their three teenage children in 2016 to invest full-time into their calling through Iglesias del Oeste.
Nearly six years later, the ministry has trained over 750 leaders in its seminary program from over 100 churches in 7 Spanish-speaking nations. Currently an additional 400 students are enrolled in the Iglesias del Oeste seminary. The organization also partners with a network of churches to mobilize leaders, supporting them as they make an impact through planting churches and reaching primarily unreached regions where the church isn’t present.
“As a young leader, I was blessed to sit with Brad and learn from him,” Jim said. “The heart of our ministry at Iglesias del Oeste is preparing leaders, so it has been a natural fit for us to partner together with Lakeside with a shared vision and commitment to training up and sending leaders for Jesus.”