In November, 1994, Doug Lucas was asked to serve as President of “Envision ’96”, a global missions conference which was to occur in Lexington, KY, Nov. 4-6, 1996. In the run-up to this event, Doug and his sidekick, Eric Derry, conducted focus groups throughout the country to discern how the convention might best serve the global missions enterprise. As a result of all the dreaming that went on in those brainstorming sessions, Doug launched Brigada in January, 1995.

In Doug’s keynote address on the opening night of Envision ’96, he called for networks of churches and agencies to “adopt” unreached people groups. Behind him were 1739 large placards, each containing the name of one of the least reached people groups being highlighted by the AD2000 & Beyond Movement. He asked audience members to approach a giant “Adoption Center” to the right of the stage, where Eric was standing by with a staff of volunteers, ready to record the “adoptions. Hundreds responded… networks launched… and unreached people around the world heard, many for the first time, the saving message of Jesus Christ.

From those beginnings sprang the Brigada vision of linking together a “brigade” of people (“Brigada” is Spanish for “brigade”), all banded together for the sake or reaching the world’s lost. Since 1995, Doug has compiled a simple, text-oriented email called “Brigada Today.” What began with a network of 2 people has now expanded to a readership of over 10,000, not including visitors to the newly-refreshed Brigada website.

Doug has always said, “The measure of Envision ’96… and the measure of Brigada… will not be seen by crowds in convention centers or pages on websites. The real measure will be changed lives, new churches planted, long-term networks launched.

That’s the magic of Brigada. Join the momentum. Pray for energy for the Cause. Participate in reaching the unreached today… and you’ll be carrying forth the tradition of Brigada.
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