COICOM 2026 opens with a call to fix our vision on Christ
The Christian communicators' congress gathers 60 speakers in Fraijanes and warns that technology does not replace discipleship.
COICOM 2026 opens with a call to fix our vision on Christ
On Monday, November 9, 2026, the Las Cumbres Convention Center in Fraijanes, in the Guatemala City metropolitan area, opened COICOM 2026 before hundreds of delegates from across Ibero-America. Diario Cristiano Internacional reported it.
The evening began with the marimba group Ecos Fraijanecos and went on to an unvarnished diagnosis: there is plenty of noise and not enough direction. COICOM is the annual congress of the Confederación Iberoamericana de Comunicadores y Medios Cristianos (the Ibero-American Confederation of Christian Communicators and Media). This edition marks its return to Guatemala after 22 years; it previously met here in 2000 and 2004.
President Arnold Enns opened with the theme A clear vision to transform our generation and a warning: many pastors, leaders and communicators are not clear about what they are working for. The agenda includes 60 international speakers and the backing of 12 sponsoring companies.
«Truth is not up for negotiation for the sake of likes.»
Four fronts the church cannot postpone
Enns organized his diagnosis into four areas. The first is the missions gap: according to COMIBAM, Ibero-America has sent 26,000 missionaries around the world, which is one for every 200,000 people who still have not been reached.
The second is unity. In almost any city on the continent, two to four pastors' associations coexist, and many splits stem from leadership rivalry rather than doctrine. Jesus himself prayed "that they may all be one" (John 17:21, ESV).
The third front is generational handoff. Sixty-six percent of Latin Americans are 35 or younger, while 70% of pastors and leaders are older than that. Enns asked whether there is a deliberate plan to hand leadership over to those coming up behind.
The fourth is the digital ecosystem. One in five new believers receives their first discipleship through mobile apps, and two in three readers open the Bible in digital format. Enns asked who is taking the initiative: the church that teaches how to use the tools, or the tool that ends up shaping the church.
The tower of confusion
David Scarpeta, senior pastor of Grace Church in Houston, Texas, closed the night with a plenary session on Genesis 11. Babel had talent, resources and the appearance of unity; what it lacked was direction from God. "Confusion comes from a lack of communion," he said.
His illustration was the cross: the horizontal beam cannot stand if the vertical one breaks. When communion with God cracks, communication between people collapses.
The pulpit is not exempt. Scarpeta warned that many messages no longer come from what the Spirit wants to say to the church, but from trends; he even mentioned preachers who ask an artificial intelligence for their Sunday sermon.
In the Shema, the Hebrew word for "one" (Echad) does not merely affirm that God is unique: it places him as the starting point. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4, ESV). From there come his three instructions, taken from Jeremiah: stop, ask and return. That means slowing down activism, admitting that we do not know everything and going back to the fundamentals.
From the pulpit to city hall
The local welcome came from Carlos Daniel Rustrián, mayor of Fraijanes. He said he is born again and took office to serve through politics, a field many believers view with suspicion. His administration provided backpacks, school supplies and school shoes to more than 6,600 students, along with free transportation.
He maintained that public property should be the best of a city and not the property of those who govern. Benjamín Cush, vice president of the Alianza Evangélica de Guatemala, prayed for communicators who proclaim the truth boldly, without changing the message to suit the channel (see Mark 16:15).
Before you share the next video or repeat the next sermon, it is worth pausing: what content am I consuming, and for what purpose? Truth is not up for negotiation for the sake of likes. The church does not depend on a platform but on God, who keeps speaking to a generation capable of hearing him with discernment.
