Kerygma is a “Youth With a Mission” ministry with a special focus on the Catholic world.
VISION
Kerygma is part of the international interfaith missions movement Youth With A Mission.
Youth With A Mission (YWAM) is a global movement of Christians from many cultures, ages and Christian traditions, dedicated to serve Jesus around the world. We unite in a common purpose to know God and make Him known.
When we began in 1960, our primary focus was to involve young people in missions. Today, we still focus on youth, and we also involve people from 8 to 80 years old. We are currently working in over 1100 locations in more than 180 countries, with a staff of more than 28,000 people.
Kerygma Spain as ministries has a YWAM base in Navas del Marques (Ávila).
Our vision is:
“Kerygma – YWAM Avila is a Christian community passionate about knowing God and making Him known. Our mission is to serve and proclaim the gospel of Jesus, making disciples, promoting reconciliation among Christians. We believe in unity and working together to bring the gospel to all people, helping them discover their purpose and live a full life in relationship with God and others.”
MISION
We have 4 ‘focuses’ that define our mission as a YWAM ministry:
1. Discipling young Catholics
“1200 people discipled each year.”
Encourage lay Catholics to become involved, in Pope Francis’ expression as “Missionary Disciples”, in reaching out to those who have never heard the Gospel. All of our activities are intended to lead directly or indirectly to equip the believer to reach the nations. For this, Kerygma has 6 month Discipleship Training Schools (DTS) and “Follow Me” a discipleship program in the format of 8 weekend retreats over a year; to train young people as “Missionary Disciples”.
2. Evangelizing the not reached.
“10000 people reached each year”.
Kerygma strongly embraces what Pope John Paul II called the “New Evangelization”, which includes evangelizing baptized Catholics who have fallen away. In addition, we believe in the importance of reaching out to people who, for one reason or another, have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel message.
3. Unity and collaboration
“50 churches and 250 leaders involved”.
We believe that true Christian unity involves not only mutual respect and appreciation, but also working together to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Part of Kerygma’s bridge-building call is to help facilitate this partnership. We welcome and want to develop the Vatican Council’s call for Christian unity involving the whole Holy People of God (cf. UR 5) through common prayer, mutual knowledge and enrichment of different traditions, living fraternity and communion in mission. We do this through initiatives such as “Eye to eye”, in order to grow in the knowledge of each other’s worldviews and thus be able to serve better together (see news of the Weekly in Alfa y Omega here).
4. Arts
“1200 people reached”.
In kerygma we believe in putting artistic gifts at the service of evangelization. The way of beauty is a privileged way for people to know God. To this end, we professionally train young people in their artistic gifts such as music, theater, dance, plastic arts or multimedia so that the proclamation of the Gospel reflects the beauty of God and faith.
KERYGMA CORE VALUES
‘Youth With A Mission’ has eighteen Core Values that express the unique characteristics of the YWAM family, our “DNA”. You can read more about them here
In addition to these, Kerygma has 4 other values:
Catholic World: ‘Kerygma’ has a particular calling to serve in the Catholic context.
Reconciliation: Kerygma has a passion for unity among Christians and among churches. Furthering the cause of reconciliation is one of the reasons we exist.
Catalyst: We are a ‘catalyst’ ministry. Many of our major projects and programs are aimed at equipping other groups to do ministry themselves, with or without us.
Partnership: We have a great respect for working together with other Christian ministries, movements and groups. As a result, much of our training and outreach opportunities are collaborative efforts, or so-called ‘partnership programs’.
For more information
You can download our dossier with more detailed information about what we do
Our outreaches
OUR OUTREACHES
We are committed to “Knowing God and Making Him Known”. Our schools and teams collaborate with Dioceses, parishes, churches and Christian schools to proclaim and demonstrate the truth of the Gospel to young people in a practical and dynamic way.
AVILA BASE
CALLE CEDRO 275
LAS NAVAS DEL MARQUES, AVILA, SPAIN