Ed Silvoso


Ed Silvoso is an Argentinian Christian author and documentarian, He is the founder of Harvest Evangelism and the International Transformation Network, the objective of which is to end worldwide systemic poverty. He is a leader of the Argentine Revival and of the modern transformation movement.

Early life and education

Ed Silvoso was born June 15, 1945, at San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Argentina. He is the son of Omar Edmundo Silvoso and Maria Teresa Troia and has a younger sister, Maria Rosa. They formed an evangelistic team at the age of seventeen when the country was intensely anti-evangelical. He graduated from Colegio Nacional Justo Jose de Urquiza in 1962; seven years later he became a pastor in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Silvoso married Ruth Noemi Palau, sister of Christian evangelist Luis Palau, on April 20, 1968, and they had four daughters.
Silvoso studied at Multnomah Bible College while organizing large religious events in major South American locations; he then moved to Pasadena, California, to attend Fuller Seminary. Silvoso began working full-time with Luis Palau's evangelistic team in 1970 and became the coordinator for International Mass Media Evangelism. He served as pastor for various congregations, as a missionary with Overseas Crusades, and as a team member with Palau. He launched his own ministry in 1980 and since then has written five books.

Career

Silvoso began as a lay evangelist and national youth leader in Argentina. He founded Harvest Evangelism in San Jose, California, and today it has over eighty associates. Silvoso hosts international conferences that promote city, regional, and national change through ecumenical ministry.
In 2002, Silvoso established the International Transformation Network, a voluntary association that creates alliances between clergy and local marketplaces, and he travels encouraging cooperation between various religious groups.
Harvest Evangelism was founded in August 1980 and pioneered city transformation beginning with Resistencia. The Silvosos converted their weekend home at San Nicolás de los Arroyos into a prayer chapel and retreat center; the purpose was to launch a prayer-based evangelical ministry. The site was dedicated on March 24, 1983, and within three years congregations and home groups were established in eighty-two towns. The same approach was applied to more than three hundred cities, and expanded to six continents.
Silvoso is acknowledged as a leader of the Argentine Revival. Thousands have visited over the past twenty years to observe his methodology. As a result, many have adopted his concept of transformation, and this culminated in his book, Transformation: Change the Marketplace and You Change the World.
Silvoso is best known for his role in transformationalism and is identified as the architect of the modern movement. It blends various religious and social elements to change local communities and the marketplace. The term "marketplace" includes business, education, and government and applies to marriage, politics, culture, and workplace. The movement developed into the International Transformation Network, established to create strategic alliances between pulpits and marketplace leaders. Members are challenged to invest fifty-one percent of resources to eradicate worldwide poverty. Five paradigms are at the core of ITN, and they involve changes in spiritual climate, public policies, and ecclesiastical institutions. The network urges Christian leaders to participate in eliminating systemic poverty in all its forms.
Silvoso's 2014 book, Ekklesia, discusses the intent of the early church. The first three chapters of this book were distributed in limited number, and the full version is projected in late 2016.
Transform Our World.org is a website that amalgamates various services under the auspices of Harvest Evangelism, Inc. and the Transform Our World Network, both under the direction of Silvoso. It provides a wide range of training and mentoring for marketplace ministers through institutions such as the School of Transformation, Transformation University, and the Transformation Entrepreneurs Institute.

Books

Silvoso has written extensively on spiritual transformation in volumes that contain the principles and paradigms generally adopted in the movement. These books provide significant biographical information that helps to trace its origins as well as the personal journey he took that resulted in becoming one of its principal figures.