History of Vida Nueva

Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva (New Life Baptist Church), composed of fourteen people, first met on January 20, 1991, in Julio Contreras’ living room. Five months later, they rented property about a mile away with a capacity for 60 people. The church was formally founded on June 9, 1991, with a pastoral team of 3: Julio Contreras, Steve Kern and Enrique Martinez, and thirty-three founding members. Their dream was to have a church body as committed to winning people to Christ as they were to discipling and seeing those new believers grow in the Lord. From the beginning, the church was very proactive in evangelism and one-on-one discipleship.

The expository preaching of God’s Word was another pillar of the church from the very beginning. A Vida Nueva Bible Institute that was founded early on gave every believer the opportunity to know the Bible. The discipleship program soon expanded to phases I and II. Every person who completed Discipleship I was encouraged to receive the second course and disciple others, as well as to take classes in the Bible Institute.

Teamwork, as modelled in Acts, was the third pillar upon which the church was developed. This philosophy started at the top and has permeated the whole church and even expanded from the church to help other churches throughout El Salvador and Latin America.

Good News in Action has always played a big role in Vida Nueva’s growth, especially in the area of evangelism by mission teams from the states. In the early years, most of the church’s growth came from people reached during outdoor evangelistic events in parks, neighborhoods and door to door visitation. By 1994, the church had grown to over 80 people and needed a new location. A property was purchased in the Miralvalle neighborhood and in that same year, November of 1994, Vida Nueva moved from its rented location to the new property with 110 members.

During the first years in the new location, the church continued to grow although they met in a very rustic and provisional structure. In 1998, an auditorium with a capacity of 350 was built and in 1999 a Sunday School and administration building were built, both still in full use to this day.

Since the beginning, Vida Nueva has experienced an average growth of about 20% per year. By 2001, the church numbered 215, by 2007, it grew to 550. New Life Christian School was established in 2007 and now numbers over 220 students and will celebrate its first graduating class in June of 2020. The Metro America Missions Program was born in 2004; planting its first national Vida Nueva church in Lourdes, Colon, El Salvador. Then in 2006, they sent their first missionaries to Managua, Nicaragua to raise up a Vida Nueva church in that city. Currently, ten pastor-missionaries have been sent to five Latin American cities (Managua, Nicaragua b. 1/2006; Guatemala City, Guatemala b. 9/2007; San Jose, Costa Rica b. 1/2010; Bogota, Colombia 9/2014; and San Pedro Sula; Honduras b. 2/2018) where Vida Nueva churches are reaching more souls for God’s Kingdom. Lord willing, two more missionary pastors will be sent out and Vida Nueva Mexico City will be launched in July 2020.

Over the years, as Vida Nueva has continued to grow, additional church services were added followed by additional campuses, and accordingly, campus pastors, associate campus pastors, and other staff. Also, a formal Seminary was founded for the training of all those would like to be future pastors and missionaries. Today (November 2019), Vida Nueva has 5 San Salvador campuses (Miralvalle, Hotel Crowne Plaza, Hacienda, Lourdes, and Apopa) and collectively, 15 weekly services, and numbers at about 2,000.