Local Christians started Hope OM Seville to spread the gospel in southwestern Spain. This united mobilisation also spans doctrinal differences.
On a Saturday morning in mid-February, 180 Jesus followers gather in Alcalá de Guadaíra, a town in southwest Spain. Thanks to their joint efforts, within five hours, the gospel will reach an entire population of 80,000 people.
Like many other volunteers, coordinators Antonio Gordillo (Gordi) and Adrián Fonseca will not see each other in church the next day — in fact, Adrián serves in a charismatic church and Gordi pastors a traditional congregation, opposite ends of the denominational spectrum.
However, the monthly literature distribution programme, Hope OM Seville, mobilises local evangelical churches with the united vision of seeing their neighbours reached for Christ.
Although almost 50 per cent of Spaniards identify with Catholic traditions, less than one per cent claim to have a personal relationship with Christ.
"The gospel is the same for Pentecostals, Presbyterians or Baptists," Gordi affirmed.
The movement included all denominations from the beginning, when OM’s ship, Logos Hope, visited Seville in June 2022. Local churches collaborated for six months to prepare for the ship’s arrival. According to Gordi, the goal was that no planning meetings would be held before inviting all pastors.
When Logos Hope left, a core group of volunteers from the ship created Hope OM Seville to continue this communal mobilisation by distributing copies of the Gospel of John and information about local churches throughout their province. Since January 2023, 130,000 booklets have been distributed in 20 municipalities, with the Alcalá distribution being one of the largest to that point.
One way that volunteers work to keep a shared vision is by refraining from starting doctrinal discussions among themselves or with distribution recipients.
"Our vision is not to sow so that we harvest for ourselves, but to sow in order to support the church that is already working in the area," said Eleazar Duarte, another founding member of the group.
Hope OM Seville also creates new connections with local churches. When a congregation requests a literature distribution, the ministry’s leadership invites all other churches from that area to join in the evangelistic programme.
While congregations do not want to participate in some instances, all five churches of Alcalá de Guadaíra participated and held a joint prayer meeting for the distribution, despite having almost no previous relationship with each other or other churches in the province.
The ministry now includes more than 50 pastors and over 30 congregations. Many workers share a similar story with Jonatan Sola, who volunteered in February because the previous distribution was conducted in his town of Gines.
The Hope OM Seville team is working to share this Kingdom vision with churches in the nearby provinces of Cádiz and Málaga, so that they can see God can spread this mobilisation through all of Spain.
"If it wasn't possible, we wouldn't try it," Adrián commented. "But it is possible.”
Each Gospel of John costs at least one euro. By donating, you support this evangelistic ministry and the work that God is doing to unify the Church in Seville.