Bri f T esday
July
General Superintendent
Max Edwards & Judy
The Mexico Evangelistic Mission Celebrates 100 Years!
Dr. Ezequiel B. Vargas, a graduate of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, returned to Mexico with a vision for local evangelism. In 1926, he formally founded the mission. Known as a man of deep prayer, Dr. Vargas structured the mission to be fiercely evangelistic, moving into regions of northern Mexico that had little to no Protestant presence.
By the late 1940s, the mission’s reach required a structured framework to train local leaders. In 1948, Dr. Vargas founded the Life and Truth Bible Institute (Instituto Bíblico Vida y Verdad). The institute became the educational heart of the movement, migrating over the decades between Chihuahua City, Parral, and Torreón to train pastors, evangelists, and indigenous workers.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Dr. Vargas expanded operations deeply into the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí. By 1960, the mission grew to encompass at least 20 established churches, numerous preaching points, six daily schools, a primary school, and their dedicated worker training institute.
The Tarahumara Mission: A major hallmark of the group was its deliberate outreach to the indigenous Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people in the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental. In 1957, Dr. Vargas secured land on the southwestern periphery of Chihuahua City, using adobe to build homes, schools, and community infrastructure to support and minister to indigenous families migrating from the canyons.
As the ministry expanded, Dr. Vargas sought a global connectional relationship with a church that mirrored the mission's traditional Wesleyan-holiness theology. He became acquainted with Dr. J. H. Hamblen, and began attending General Conferences of the Evangelical Methodist Church (EMC) in the United States. In 1957, the EMC formally adopted the "Mexican Evangelistic Conference," establishing it as the EMC's first official Mission Conference, with Dr. Vargas continuing his leadership as General Superintendent.
Dr. Vargas's work, and the work of those who followed in his footsteps in organizational leadership, has transformed the evangelical landscape of northern Mexico. By anchoring the mission in education (via the Life and Truth Bible Institute) and direct humanitarian/evangelistic engagement with indigenous tribes, the Misión Evangelista Mexicana successfully transitioned from a localized movement into a lasting, structured conference that bridges Mexican indigenous outreach with traditional Wesleyan-Methodist theology.
Rev. Constantino Cardenas served for many, many years as the General Superintendent of the MEM, and the current General Superintendent of the Mexico Evangelistic Mission is Rev. Isaias Flores Cardenas.